Memories of Winter Play

On this blog, facebook and twitter we've been asking people for their memories of winter play. We've learned from other people that a great way to get people started on play discussions is to use an ice-breaker of "what are your memories of play?". Our goal with the social media we are using is to try to create a dialogue... so, here's some of the dialogue (and please share your own memories via comments):

• As a kid growing up in the suburbs of New York, we had one of the biggest and flattest yards in the neighborhood, so whenever it finally got cold enough, we turned on the hose and our yard became the neighborhood skating rink. Everyone would bring their skates, and there would be neighbors and even people we didn’t know skating at all hours of the day. Despite my parent’s fears, we never had a hockey puck go through a window, but there was a prominent ding from one in the cedar siding below my sister’s room. It certainly was a great way to meet your neighbors and make new friends. In hindsight, maybe I should have been charging admission! - Gary Max, Sitelines
• Ice skating in Guelph with a bunch of friends. On hockey skates for the first time. Then back to Trash for Jager warm ups. Or, the first time I saw it snow in Van. 1am. Went outside with my girlfriends and impromtu snow ball fight with neighbours down the street.- Tawny Darbyshire
• Tobogganing!! - Mike Leznoff
• Making an 8 foot tall ramp at the bottom of a big hill (& 4 foot landing ramp) then launching off it with those old school 3-ski sleds.- David Kitaq Nicolai
• Moved to anchorage when i was 12... soon learning to downhill ski at russian jack and arctic valley. wasted a couple pairs of good gloves on that rope tow. arctic valley had speakers on the roof of the lodge blasting music to most of the ...mountain. when i got a little better, started going to alyeska. just two chairs then. rode there on a school bus, did as many runs as possible with a short lunch break in the crappy old plywood day lodge... bowl of soup and one of those big cinnamon rolls [it cost 80 cents then]... fell asleep on the bus coming back, after singing 30 or 40 courses of '99 bottles of beer on the wall'. - Clark Yerrington
• Tobogganing with my sisters and cousins while uncle John used his sled to drive us back up the hill... Always squished between Meghan and Andrea! - Colleen Dear
• Digging tunnels through snowbanks, sliding down giant parking lot mountains of snow, using cafeteria trays for sleds on observatory hill until we get yelled at, cross-country skiing and inevitably falling over to avoid hitting a tree, and going back inside for hot cocoa.- Meredith Session
• Feeding the birds - Jo Lorichon
• In Anchorage, we'd have snow football games at Russian Jack, when there was a deep layer of snow with lots of of fresh stuff on top (virgin snow) to run and fall into. Tiring, but fun! I also like to put sleep pads on the ground and look at stars, since we don't get to do it in the summer. - Nancy Casey
• Tobogganing down a large slide onto the river ar Lockport, as teenager. Buiding snowforts and having snowball fights with the neighbour kids. - BJ Briggs 
• As a young child, I lived in a suburb of Montreal. I was in grade 2. I won a competition and received a rocket as the prize. At recess, which was total snow and ice,I fell in the play area - major blow to my forehead. The school sent me home. My poor mom opened the door to find me looking like an alien and also proud as punch that I won the rocket!  - Paulette Vinette
• Building a snowcave from the pile made by dads snowblower and sitting inside where you can't hear the world around you - Mark Kosmos
• Sledding. snowmachining. building tunnels. skating. snowball fights. - Teresa Markham
• As a kid...ice fishing with my uncle on Mille Lacs Lake, MN, digging out huge snow tunnels in snowpiles, tobogganing down the "suicide hill" at Worth Park in Minneapolis. As an adult...learning to nordic ski at the Michigan Tech trails in Houghton, alpine skiing,and catching big walleyes ice fishing. Can't decide if my premier winter funtime was when my wife and I staying at the IceHotel in Jukkasjarvi, Sweden or when we were in the hot pond at Chena Hot Springs when it was -20. - Patrick Coleman
• When I lived in the Northwest Territories and Saskatchewan, I spent hours building snow forts on my own or with friends (always with a small chamber to be the "fridge" for some reason), and once sculpting a penguin out of the snow at the entrance to their driveway. A penguin? Why not... - Peter Briggs
• Akin to Peter's thoughts; in the interior the wind would form compacted snowdrifts that reached the roofs. As children we would dig a network of tunnels and chambers that would wind their way in a seemingly endless fashion. I always dreamed of the day I would lose pursuing enemies by vanishing into the snowdrift catacombs. Fortunately, such eventual disappointments failed to temper my imagination. - Mike Rutledge
• Nice, Mike. The snowdrifts extended through the midwest as well and digging tunnels was my #1 wintertime activity (just ahead of toboganning and pretending to be a figure skater). My favorite digging tool: an old tennis racket. - Laura Minski
• A few years back, the Freeze project was an engaging temporary installation that celebrated the winter urban environment which I enjoyed participating in. Previously - I had been consumed with finding large icicles to climb which took me to some interesting locales in and out of AK. As a young boy - I used to tromp around the woods at my grandmothers and build fires to melt snow - I don't really know why - I guess fires were somehow cooler in the snow. - Chad Taylor
• Snow Ice Cream. Two scoops snow, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1 Tbsp sugar, 2 Tbsp milk. Mix. Sprinkle with cinnamon and/or chocolate sprinkles. - Blain Anderson
• In Southeast Alaska our snow tends to be wet but packs down nicely to make a very fast sledding run. The wet snow unfortunately minimizes your sledding time until you become soaking wet and cold. To overcome this, some people will wear their rain gear over their winter clothes to keep dry. The downside is that when you have to hop off the toboggan because of a tree your rubberized rain gear will keep you going down the hill just as fast. Our wet snow also allows us to make the best snow forts and snow creatures. They typically have a short life span in Southeast. - Chris Mertl
• I grew up in Iowa and one of my best childhood play experiences, isn’t the safest, but we had deep grater ditches for the snow plow to dump into so we would dig a snow tunnel and play inside. As a mother of 3 active boys in the state of Washington we went out and built a huge dinosaur out of packed snow. The tail was made as steps and then the kids used his neck and head as the slide. Every child that saw him thought it was awesome! We also made a standing snow bunny 6’ high and used frosting coloring to color his jacket and ears. Our neighbor built a snow woman. This isn’t new by today’s standards in Alaska but this was 35 years ago and not seen that much in Western Washington. We lived in a hilly area  and the kids built snow jumps to Go airborne on the sleds! Needles to say this was not CPSC or IPEMA certified play!- Kendal Dionne, Northwest Playgrounds

What the kids have to say...

We've been meeting with schools to get their thoughts about play. If you want to see the "raw data", you can look at the links below (by raw data I mean brainstorming and some great sketches). Anytime we meet with a school class, we always leave with great things... it's nice to have the opportunity to connect with some unhindered thinking.

Begich Middle School
Wonder Park Elementary
Highland Technical High School
Clark Middle School

Since we're trying to get some speed on the "winter" dialogue, here's the summary of their winter thoughts:

What are wintertime activities and amenities that would add interest to a park?

• Shelter
• Warm-up-shelter
• Heated sidewalks
• Sledding
• Gigantic sledding hill with ski lift
• Sled shop – make your own sled
• Skating
• Fireplace
• Pizazz
• Lighting
• Sculptures
• Snow Piles
• Snow Forts
• Ice fort that never melts
• Tree House
• Video Games
• Hot Food
• Snowman
• Giant snowball
• Ice maze
• Ice slide
• Ice carving
• Snowball arena – obstacle course
• Giant igloo
• Snow sculpture station
• Winter park

...it's all about imagination...

What do you your kids find to be the most fun about winter?

Is winter just better designed in the first place?

In Anchorage, winter starts for real in October, and lasts through April usually (with some last hurrahs of snow into June once in a while). It's not too much different here than in other climates I've lived in (notably Northwest Territories & Saskatchewan), perhaps even being milder in temperature here. The big difference is the amount of sunlight. How does sunrise at 10:00am and sunset at 3:00pm sound to you? So while we have a fantastic winter climate, we need to figure out ways to enjoy it with less light (we have loads of lit ski trails), and especially to celebrate it during the daytime (light-time?) hours.

The pictures I'm sharing here are probably the most obvious winter experiences that I found in my photos (I'm curious why I don't have pictures of snowball fights or similar, perhaps to protect my camera?!). PLEASE provide your own memories of winter play in the comments for this post. Discussions of meaningful winter recreation/play design (let alone winter city design in general) seem to be few and far between. And specifically for play, I'm sure typical playground equipment is 99% designed for summer. It just goes to show the ingenuity of kids to see how they can re-purpose anything to use in any season. What would play equipment look like if it was designed for all-seasons?? Or is winter the season where play equipment isn't needed because snow and ice provide the perfect construction medium? If that's the case, why aren't we providing media for construction in the summer? Maybe the point is winter is nature's way of providing ample opportunities for play... and we need to learn from nature for the rest of the year.

We have outstanding access to wilderness, in and outside of our cities.

Ceremonial Iditarod Start in Anchorage

Every hill deserves to be ridden.

Ridden with a good friend.

Accompanied by man's best friend.

Walking our dogs. I love how winter is their favorite season.

One of the best things in Anchorage... skating on a lake downtown.

The hockey rinks around town... and a fake hockey player.

Leave a comment for us... what are your best winter-time play memories... as a kid, youth, adult or senior!!

The Mythical "Rocket"...

How many times have you heard people talk about the "rocket" they played in as a kid? In Anchorage, we have Mountainview Lions' Park where we have a few of these 'play museum' pieces. When we meet with kids and adults, more often than not this park comes up in conversation... usually associated with an ensuing discussion of perceived risk versus hazard.

THE rocket...

We had a meeting yesterday with a middle school class, and the most mentioned wishlist item was the idea of tunneling and small connected spaces. The same playground has the very simple addition of concrete piping... the same thing we use for our utilities. I'm unsure why we don't see these in new playgrounds? Do we?

Play can be soooo simple...

 A combination of galvanized pipe, pressure treated timber, and some kegs welded end to end? Many of us remember playing on these... and probably being hurt on them. But, I also trip and hurt myself without being on equipment.

Early generation composite equipment.

 As a tangent, this park is a successful park that is used by people to gather and celebrate. Unfortunately, we wind up taking photos during the day when we don't have the luck of catching people there (murphy's law).

Trust us... this park is used!

Two things come to mind from this:

• We preserve buildings and landscapes for their historical significance. In each of our communities we have these play areas that are perhaps more ingrained into our souls than our buildings or other landscapes. EVERYONE reminisces about such things. While we need to respond to the fact that these structures may have a higher level of risk, and they should not be hazardous, how do we maintain them in our communities? Risk and hazard are a difficult discussion... and saying that "I played on this and I'm fine" can be a very hollow argument sometimes...
• The danger of reminiscing is that we romanticize the past. If these are a fragment of OUR history, it might be fine that they are indeed history. There are home medicine kits out there that involve hooking electrodes up to your head to deliver "healthful and invigorating" voltages. We don't do that anymore. For designers, the question is whether there are new and better ways to achieve the same level of play interaction so that we're creating similar soulful connections for our youth and kids. Perhaps what was great about these items was that they were minimally programmed... providing a high level of potential for imagination. I think we're getting back to that... I have hope.

For another interesting take on these older parks, check out this link to another blog: A Walk Down Memory Lane - To The Dangerous Playground

As winter is upon us... how do YOU celebrate snow and ice??!!

Last week we had what I'll call an ice storm in Anchorage. The street in front of my house had enough ice on it that we could have skated... and I wanted to, but before we could get the motivation to get out there in the dark to try it, the snow started to fall (obscuring the ruts and ridges). A missed opportunity!

Search online for "Winter Play" or "Winter Playground" and you'll get some images of snow covered play equipment, or perhaps a ski area someplace in Vermont. While there's nothing really stopping us from playing on slides and play equipment in the winter (schoolgrounds definitely get used during recess), it seems like our public parks transition from activity on the playgrounds, to activity around them: skiing, snowball fights, building snowmen and snow forts, and kids snowboarding on the smallest slope (spending a lot of time walking back up to the top).

In cold climates, we embrace winter to varying extents, and success seems to lie in either providing facilities for the most common individual or small group activities (i.e. skiing), or programming to encourage people to get out and about. In a previous post, we highlighted the Fairbanks World Ice Art Championships. This is a successful example of truly embracing our winter climate, but it's also labor intensive and requires money to get in the gates.

We know how we like to design to encourage people to get out and enjoy winter, but we're more interested in how you get out to play... or the things you've seen that really celebrate the possibilities of winter. Please comment below and share with us!!!

...poor lonely play equipment...

Swings are always fun.

Fun on hills without grass stains.

En-Tyre-Ly Fun Playgrounds

En -tyre-ly Fun Playgrounds - James A. Jolley

PDF book that illustrates the construction of play structures and amenities out of tyres (or tires for us). Tyres/tires aside... this is a good resource to spur thinking about planning and design for play areas with universal appeal.

Pier 6 Playground, Brooklyn Bridge Park, NYC 2010

This past summer, a new destination playground which is part of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Project in NYC opened to the public and has been generating a buzz of public opinion.


Landscape Architecture & Play Design: Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates

New York Magazine "The harborside green is sectioned into four equally stupendous play areas: There’s Swing Valley, which includes Tarzan-style ropes and double-seaters; Slide Mountain and its thirteen-foot winding tube slide; a 6,000-square-foot Sandbox Village; and the Water Lab, with a moat, a domelike fountain, and a wading pool"

Brooklyn Bridge Park Master Plan

 Pier 6 Destination Playground is at the bottom of the plan

(click here) to visit the Brooklyn Bridge Park website