Photo credit: Frank Oudeman 2010
There are close to 1,000 playgrounds throughout the city! If you're in the mood to go beyond your neighborhood swing set, here's a list of 13 out-of-the-box playscapes worth traveling to throughout the five boroughs.
BRONX
Located near Yankee Stadium, this fun spot lets mini musicians delight in sound exploration by slapping hollow, open-ended metal pipes, talking through telephone tubes and playing a xylophone with their feet.
Boasting four separate play areas totaling 1.6 acres (Water Lab, Sandbox Village, Slide Mountain and Swing Valley), spectacular views of lower Manhattan and the New York Harbor, three sand volleyball courts and an outdoor food section dishing out Bark Hot Dogs and Blue Marble Ice Cream—this playground is a destination in and of itself.
Paying homage to children's literature, this storytelling playspace sports an enormous bronze dragon which doubles as a water feature. Nearby, another set of statues depicts beloved characters of children's author Ezra Jack Keats. During the summer, families flock here for storytime.
Pack up the bathing suits and towels because there's water, water everywhere at this Danish-designed wonderland. Kids will have a ball splashing in the wading area, getting drenched by the wall of faucets and running through the funky, blue fountains while parents and caregivers can sit in cool comfort beneath the shade umbrellas.
MAKES YOU WANT TO BE A K
ID AGAIN
Imagination Playground | Burling Slip | South Street Seaport (pictured left)
David Rockwell's brainchild invites children in for unstructured play using assorted, loose parts like burlap bags, buckets, shovels, brooms, carts and fabrics. Kids can reenact elaborate pirate fantasies by scrambling up ropes, swinging in hammocks and swabbing the decks of their imaginary ship using miniature push brooms.
Although there's plenty to draw the older kids, this playground caters to its littlest patrons with a section devoted solely to toddlers. Lined with wooden benches for parents and caregivers—and carpeted with checkerboard rubber tiles to cushion falls—this tot lot features age-appropriate climbing equipment, a sandbox and water fountain.
There are slides and then there are SLIDES! The 45-foot-long granite beauty at this playground—constructed primarily from natural materials—is known to true slide aficionados as the fastest one in the entire city. Some kids even bring their own cardboard to increase speed on the way down.
A favorite among Upper West Side families—this good, old-fashioned hub is a shady haven even on the hottest days. The playground's stars are its namesake hippo statues, which can be sat on, climbed in and scrambled over and even spray water in the warmer months. A canopy of mature, honey locust trees provides ample shade for the entire space.
Tucked away between the tall residential buildings of Downtown, this urban oasis offers children both a place for excitement and exploration, as well as quiet contemplation. Its main event is a truly awesome, two-story, joy ride of a slide. There are also plenty of boulders for rock-hopping, a water play area and shady benches for midday reading.
This playground mixes standard issue equipment with climbing pyramids, an obelisk and a sundial mirroring the real ones right next door in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Egyptian art collection. It's a mecca for older children once school lets out for the day.
QUEENS
MOST EDUCATIONAL
Science Playground | New York Hall of Science | Flushing Meadows-Corona Park (pictured left)
It's more than just letting loose at this 60,000-square-foot fun zone. Through more than two dozen hands-on elements like slides, seesaws, speaking tubes, a giant spider web and sand pits—kids soak up the scientific principles of motion, balance, sound and sight, as well as the elements of sun, wind and water.
The first of its kind in the country, this playground was created expressly for children with physical disabilities but, like its name implies, will appeal to all children. Special features include a boat-glider swing for the wheelchair-bound, a jungle gym accessible by ramp, stair-free paths, and swings and slides set at lower levels.
Inspired by Francis Hodgson Burnett's 1911 children's classic The Secret Garden, this charming space features a turreted castle and a hedge maze leading to its very own secret, brick-walled garden of dogwoods, roses, and other blooming greens. Though not your typical playground, it's an imaginative hotspot for the curious nonetheless.
My family’s recent trip to Baltimore was an abbreviated one. One of those get-up-and-drive-on-Saturday-morning-and-comeback-on-Sunday-afternoon kinds of adventures—so we had a lot to pack into just 36 hours.
