Working at Play

Designing a city play space may sound like fun and games, but for a group of landscape architecture students, it was a lesson in listening, collaboration, and the value of community. The journey to redesign the Collington Square Play Space led them to the Broadway East Community in downtown Baltimore, where they familiarized themselves with the location and met local residents to learn about their design preferences and community needs. 

The area has suffered from years of disinvestment and the students focused on a community amenity that has long been neglected. Nestled between Collington Square (CS) Recreation, CS Park and CS Elementary/Middle School, the space currently houses a broken swing set and a rundown play structure, which is primed for an upgrade, but residents also wanted it to serve multiple generations with places to gather, relax and play.

Students were asked to dream big, creating their “stretch” project regardless of budget, with the caveat that it had to meet code and fit in the space, which is less than half an acre in size. But they also had to come up with a scaled-down, budget-friendly version that was more realistic.

“It was exciting that we got to go to the site and meet with community members and talk with the councilmen, people that live in the neighborhood,” said Junior Juan Bajana who is majoring in landscape architecture and landscape management. “Bringing what they wanted to our designs for things like managing stormwater and the other guidelines required for the project was a really good opportunity for real-world experience.”

Bajana and his classmates were taking Professor Byoung-Suk Kweon’s Site Planning and Design Studio class (LARC 340) with their Teaching Assistant, Stephanie Cavanaugh, who,  teamed up with the Broadway East Community & CDC through the University of Maryland’s Partnership for Action Learning in Sustainability (PALS).

After developing their initial plans, the students met with important stakeholders including City Councilman Antonio Glover and community leaders who provided them critical feedback. The challenge, even with the sky’s the limit budget, included constraints such as lot size and safety concerns for climbing equipment.

“We’re learning a lot more technical stuff such as regulations, permits, and setbacks,” said Tiara Rachman, a senior landscape architecture major. “One of the considerations for playground restrictions was how far apart each playground structure has to be, and that made it pretty challenging.”

Rachman’s design incorporated a small amphitheater and gathering space so that all visitors could enjoy the space in addition to neighborhood children.  

With feedback in hand, students revised their designs for a final time. The designs included intricate ideas such as junior Grazelle Giray’s bird-themed nature play space that incorporated Baltimore Orioles, ravens and an eagle which is the nearby school’s mascot, along with a soil mound for digging, logs for climbing and educational signage. Another design from junior Bianca Durango who focused on accessibility, including friendship swings that could be used by people in wheelchairs.

The final presentation of the student’s ideas took place on site during a well-attended event that included the community center staff, maintenance staff, and young people from the area.

“It was a wonderfully diverse group,” said PALS Program Director Kimberly Fisher, “The student ideas were met with a lot of enthusiasm.”

Community members were asked to vote on designs they like the best. The ultimate winner of the final design was junior Caleb Austin who designed a fairytale village centered around a Jack-in-the-beanstalk slide and swing set.“I had a lot of fun pulling ideas together from different theme parks and video games,” Austin said. “And then getting community feedback on what they thought was exciting.”

The project has a modest budget for equipment, but with designs in hand, Kweon and Fisher hope to secure additional funding to make at least some of the new dream a reality.