Forget swings and seesaws. “There’s a new breed of playground creation,” says New York City Parks and Recreation Commissioner Adrian Benepe, noting that in recent years playgrounds in the city had been made so safe and predictable, they became boring.
Not anymore. The latest crop of kiddie parks includes Tarzan-style rope swings, 20-foot tubular slides, rock-climbing walls and the city’s biggest-ever sandbox — at 6,000 square feet. Now that school’s out and the mercury’s topping 80, these are the five most adventurous new playgrounds kids can flee to this summer.
PHOTOS: NYC’S HOTTEST NEW PLAYGROUNDS
MOST MODERN
EVELYN’S PLAYGROUND
Opened: December 2009, at the north end of Union Square Park
Cost: $3.8 million
* The highlights: This futuristic 15,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art playground looks more like a museum exhibit than a place for kids to play. “I like the metal dome,” says Ben, 12, who is visiting from Milan, Italy, with his brother James, 5. “It’s so massive that you think you’ll never get yourself up there . . . and then you do.” Built atop soft, scrape-proof blue, orange and green rubber tiles, the playground is separated into three age-appropriate sections and boasts sprinklers that spray up from the ground, a spinning dish and four tall stainless-steel pogo-like sticks on which kids can climb and bounce. Also fun and intriguing are the multicolored Dr. Seuss-like horns that kids talk into to hear the echo of their voice. As for the sandbox, in the “tot lot,” Oliver, 3, of Harlem, pumps water into a large marble sculpture then pours sand over it to create mud. “It’s messy,” he says, “but I love it.”
* The best: A huge stainless-steel dome climbing structure, which is now kept relatively cool by a shaded canopy. Plus, you can’t beat the location. Pick up fresh food from the nearby farmers market, listen to live music and take in the creative vibe of Union Square.
* The worst: Besides no bathrooms (some parents use the ones at nearby Barnes & Noble), the biggest complaint is the lack of shade. “We always touch the slides before the kids go on them. On a hot summer day those things are scorching,” says nanny Renee Ishmael.
Adventure rating (out of four smiles)
BUILT FOR CHINATOWN
HESTER STREET PLAYGROUND
Opened: June 17 on Hester Street (between Chrystie and Forsyth streets, in Sara D. Roosevelt Park)
Cost: $5 million
* The highlights: “This might have been the worst playground in New York City,” CommissionerAdrian Benepe said before the ribbon-cutting ceremony of the renovation in Chinatown last week. Now the Asian-inspired playground caters to kids of all ages. A gated toddler area includes a climbing village with a musical hopscotch-like installation where kids jump on squares to create a melody. Bigger kids gravitate to a climbing web made of bungee cords and seesaw-style tire swings (which look like a Chinese character). “It’s a great place to make new friends,” says Regina, 6, who swings on a tire with three other girls from the neighborhood. Juliette, 11, and her brother Diego, 7, who live across the street, prefer the stainless-steel circular spray shower. “We’ve been running through this for hours,” says Juliette. Kids can also climb a wall taking them to a massive climbing structure complete with a suspension bridge. Three spinning swivel stools are the perfect spot for 360 degrees of people-watching.
* The best: The stainless-steel circular spray shower: It’s like a human car wash.
* The worst: With two schools nearby (University Settlement and MS 131) and no other playground options in the area, this is the loudest and most crowded of the bunch. Bathrooms are still under construction.
Adventure rating:
MOST HISTORIC
ANCIENT PLAYGROUND
Opened: The 34-year-old playground reopened August 2009 at 85th Street and Fifth Avenue (north of the Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Cost: $3 million restoration
* The highlights: Paying homage to the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Egyptian art collection, this outdoor adventure playground features a climbing pyramid, discovery tunnels, chain walls, tire swings and button-triggered water features that create “the Nile,” a long bridge with running water. A separate toddler area offers smaller sprinklers, infant swings and a unique sandbox with an ancient stone obelisk structure in the center. “This is a great spot,” says mom Angie Black from the Upper West Side. “My kids are 5, 3 and 1, and there’s enough here to keep them all busy.”
* The best: The Nile water bridge.
* The worst: Not enough shade.
Adventure rating:
ABSTRACT FUN
IMAGINATION PLAYGROUND
Opening: July 27 at Burling Slip at South Street Seaport
Cost: $4.5 million
* The highlights: David Rockwell’s highly anticipated 18,000-square-foot playground is designed to encourage child-directed, unstructured free play. The state-of-the-art park will include a multilevel, interactive sand-and-water station where kids can create mud sculptures. It also will have a large amphitheater with oversize balls and lots of loose parts that kids can use to make their own creations. Can’t wait till July to try out this place? Kids can start building now — a traveling version of Imagination Playground will be at Pelham Bay Park in The Bronx, this weekend.
* The best: 250 loose parts made out of foam feel like one giant game of Lego.
* The worst: It doesn’t open for another month!
Adventure rating:
MOST FANTASTICAL
BROOKLYN BRIDGE PARK’S PIER SIX
Opened: This month at Atlantic Avenue and Columbia Street
Cost: $55 million
* The highlights: With its hills and valleys, this 1.6-acre waterfront wonderland, designed by landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh, looks more like a romantic landscape park than a playground. The park includes Water Lab (a wading pool, moat, dome-like fountain and running water surrounded by rocks), a 13-foot tube slide carved into rock formations and 10 different swing sets, ranging from infant swings to Tarzan-style ropes (below). “This is absolutely incredible,” says Lyss Stern, who traveled from Midtown Manhattan with her two boys, Oliver, 3, and Jackson, 6. “You have to see it to believe something like this exists.” Her kids’ favorite part? The water park. That and “rock climbing to get to the big slide,” says Oliver. Later this summer, a free water taxi will make the five-minute trip back and forth to Governors Island.
* The best: The 6,000-square-foot Sandbox Village, the largest playground sandbox in New York City, with wooden village houses where kids can walk in and out, turtle stone sculptures and water features to cool off and make mud.
* The worst: The landscaping is incomplete — trees have yet to grow — so the equipment can get so hot it hurts on brutally sunny days.
Adventure rating: