A playground for the ages: playground design is becoming more targeted to appeal to specific age groups.

Long after we've outgrown them, playgrounds resonate with us. They're where we met our first buddies, bullies and rivals. And they're where, scrambling between the cold metal swings, the peeling wooden slides, the unyielding "monkey bars" and the late, lamented seesaw, we learned how to climb, test our balance, cooperate and stand up for ourselves. Colorless, limited and, by today's standards, dangerous, these small, concrete areas offered a world of life lessons ... and endless hours of fun.

Some things never change, even though they may morph and become almost unrecognizable. Safety concerns, a more litigious society and a greater understanding of how children benefit from play have all conspired to create playgrounds that bear almost no physical resemblance to those of our youth. But modern playgrounds pay homage to the lure and demands of swings, slides, bars and seesaws, taking them as a literal jumping off point into a world populated with "structures," "play events," "transitions," "water elements," "components" and "surfacing."

Today's ideal, well-designed modern playground is not only more accessible, it takes into account different age groups. It may incorporate, for example, an elevated sand area for toddlers; loop ladders, crawl tunnels, S-curve bridges and ring pulls for the pre school set; and firepoles, 8-foot climbers and tire swings for older kids.

How Kids Play

This keener perception of age-appropriateness has become the key factor driving today's playground design, now that safety and accessibility are must-haves. The 1981 release of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC)'s "Handbook for Public Play ground Safety" introduced specific guidelines to meet the sizes, weights and relative strengths of children in two age groups: age 2 to 5 years old and those age 5 to 12.

"Most children ages two to five are smaller, weaker, less coordinated and have a higher center of gravity than 5-to 12-year-olds," sums up the National Program for Playground Safety on its Web site www.playgroundsafety.org. "Thus, they need smaller steps and crawl spaces ... [and] playground equipment for [them] should be designed lower to the ground. Older children should be encouraged to use overhead and horizontal bars because they have greater arm development and strength."

But that's just the beginning, say planners. "Age-appropriate equipment is a safety requisite, but even if it wasn't, it would still be important to take into consideration the different developmental needs of those age groups," says Sam LaPera, a capital program officer for Philadelphia, Penn.'s Parks and Recreation Department.

"Playground planners really need to look at the psychology behind the child," agrees Todd Holmes, a landscape architect for the city of Pasadena, Calif. "Research shows that younger children have shorter attention spans and are very interested in imaginative play," he continues. "Older ones are much more about physicality, competition and risk." Equipment that encourages solo play through interactive elements is important for toddlers and pre schoolers, while older kids prefer equipment that fosters cooperation and group play, a precedent to the team sports that they will eventually move on to.

Safety Vs. Innovation

Many playgrounds don't have the space to devote to truly distinct play areas, so those delineations can blur. "We generally like to take a conservative approach so we can protect the two-to-fives, while trying to keep everything challenging and entertaining for the older ones," says Jonna Hauser of the Everett, Wash., park system. If the youngest kids can't find anything to play on, planners have to assume that they'll be drawn to the bigger structures, which must be planned in accordance. "Typically a small kid can get up but then not get down," says Hauser. "So we have to add, say, smaller steps for them alongside the rope ladder we've provided for the bigger kids."

With more than 200,000 playground injuries each year, safety remains at war with groovy innovations. "Small kids gravitate to anything that moves, and so we have tried some of the new spinners and the like," says LaPera of Philadelphia. "But the more something moves, the more of chance that a kid is going to get hurt. Unfortunately, we're not including them in our newest playgrounds."

Also a problem: the aspirational nature of kids--and their parents. Small children are drawn to larger pieces of equipment, not only because they're impressed by size, but because they want to emulate their brethren. It doesn't help, say planners, that no matter how much signage warns to the contrary, parents are always going to be confident that their little one is special enough to handle the big stuff. "When I take my own 3-year-old to the park, I can't tell you how often I see a parent hoisting a toddler onto an 8-foot climber," sighs Holmes.

Weighing all of these factors can lead to a frustratingly safe sameness in design, according to park planners. "It's really tough," says Hauser of Everett. We went through a period, I think, where, because of all the guidelines, all of the fun was being sucked out and everything was looking very, very similar."

That's gradually changing, though. "I think the major manufacturers have learned how to design to meet the regulations and now they can start revisiting their creativity. They've each found a niche and can boast a few fantastic pieces," says Mike Pauly, a landscape architect and project manager for the Rockford, Ill. Park District. "The field is getting to be exciting again. No longer is play restricted to climbing and sliding," he adds.

What's New?

Even the very youngest kids, a new segment of 9 months to 2 years, can get into the act. "For them, we have play events that stimulate the imagination through the use of floor graphics, spirals, things that squeak when you push and pull them," says Pauly. "We put a tot tree that looks like the Keebler elf house in one of our regional parks for them, as well as a slide that starts just eight inches off the ground." The sandbox has been elevated, not only literally but figuratively, with the addition of discovery elements like buried "fossils" and water trickling in for a still-messier experience.

In the meantime, designers are upping the ante for the very oldest kids. "There's a trend toward more freestanding equipment, like climbing rocks, which are something less familiar and more challenging for this group," says Pat Slaven, a park planner and landscape architect with the Omaha, Neb., Parks and Recreation Department.

"This is a tough group to design for--what's a 12-year-old really have in common with a 5-year-old?" says Pasadena's Holmes. "There's a lot of stuff that a pre-teen is not going to be caught dead on." Playground equipment makers are introducing more daring components, using urban, industrial materials like galvanized metal, sporting space-age designs reminiscent of atomic structures and geodesic domes, and striving for a more adventurous use of movement.

It's all part of an attempt to appeal to an easily-bored generation steeped in technology and addicted to action. "These pieces just look so contemporary and right for older kids, as opposed to the McDonald's playground look of primary colors and tubular construction," says Hauser. "We're thinking they can even expand beyond the 12-year-olds and appeal right on up to age 14 or 15."

As for the often-neglected 2- to 5-year olds, manufacturers are emphasizing all manner of water play and "theme play," structures built around a specific motif of, say, a ship or castle or dinosaur. "I like themed components because it fosters imaginative play," says Holmes. "Some might say that it's too limiting and static, but little kids need things a little more worked out, they need some guidance to get inspired."

The downside is that the ship's never going to set sail and the dinosaur's never going to evolve. To alleviate the gradual boredom that can set in as kids tire of their play settings, planners are much more amenable toward working with several equipment makers. "It increases maintenance and parts headaches," Holmes says, "but within reason, I think it's a good idea to make every playground look different from the other, especially here where people can drive from one to the next to the next. We've even used different manufacturers for the 2-to-5s and the 5-to-12s in the same playground."

It's a dynamic time for playground design, planners say with enthusiasm, and it can't come too soon. "The 'new' systems we put in just two decades ago to meet regulations already seem generic and soulless," says Holmes. "Meanwhile, the very oldest pieces from the '50s, like a sheet metal castle we have in one park, remain well-loved and well-used. There's nothing to them, but they show the power of an evocative image. I'd like to see that aspect return to playground design."

LaPera of Philadelphia seconds that notion. "When the time came to redesign a neighborhood playground last year, we held lots of contentious community meetings. The one thing everyone agreed: the bronze turtle had to stay." And so there he sits, oxidized to a nice patina, forever basking in the warm sun. He may seem slightly out of place beside the red, yellow and purple "structures," but he's never alone.