Dream Playground Design Day: The Process Begins
The Buffalo Bill Center of the West launched its dream playground design day with Jane Lewis Holman, a designer from Leathers and Associates, when she visited Cody on October 30th and 31st. Her first step in this process was to perform a site review. She looked at our proposed location in the Center’s garden, taking measurements and looking at the layout possibilities. We even had a representative from GDA Engineering recording our survey needs for the site.
The next step for design was Jane’s review of the submitted children’s design forms. We received over 30 kid’s playground design submissions, everyone had excellent ideas! I continue to be amazed how creative and smart kids are. Jane also brainstormed with a group of children to gather more ideas. This was a lively discussion with lots of laughter. The kids suggested a wildlife scavenger hunt, a rock climbing wall, a covered wagon, and even an old west jail! It was a great dream playground design day.
Jane took all of this information she gathered during our one dream playground design day and was able to draw a quick sketch of what our playground would look like. She shared the initial design sketch at our Hootin’ Howlin’ Halloween Family Fun Day. The preliminary design was greeted with enthusiasm from kids and adults alike. The drawing included a wildlife scavenger hunt, climbing wall, watch tower, slides, monkey bars, swinging bridges, and much more!
Dream Playground Design Day: Next Steps
Jane is now adding some detail to our design and it should be ready to share on the blog and our website soon, stay tuned!
We are planning to build the playground in the summer of 2015. There will be opportunities for volunteers to help add artistic elements to the playground. You do not need to be an artist to participate—I am currently developing a list of those who are interested. Please feel free to contact me at [email protected] if you would like to be added to the list! The dream playground continues to move towards reality!
