After two years of planning and much community anticipation, the new Culver City Park Playground – for children ages 2 to 5 and 5 to12 – was completed and opened to the public last Monday.
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Culver City Park is at the corner of Jefferson Boulevard and Duquesne Avenue.
Funded by the County Prop. A Discretionary funds, this playground project is the fourth Americans with Disability Act fully compliant playground the Parks Division has completed in the last four years.
The project achieved two goals of the Parks, Recreation and Community Services Dept.
• Construction of a completely accessible playground, from the loose fill Engineered Wood Fibar surfacing to the equipment itself, offering play opportunities to children of all physical abilities; and
• Installation of equipment offering a completely kinetic, interactive and challenging play experience.
The department’s philosophy of creating a totally challenging play experience, both physically and mentally stimulating, has been accomplished with this project.
Watch the children on this playground and you will see. Children and adults are drawn to the unique, innovative equipment. Each piece spins, moves or swivels. Each component tests a child’s agility, balance, climbing, hanging and jumping ability.
The play experience provides a certain element of “risk” (only implied) that is so important to a child’s development. While physically challenging in upper and lower body strength, the activities enable a child to learn spatial awareness and problem-solving skills. While the children are busy playing, they are gaining valuable motor skills without realizing it.
Along with the traditional swings, the new playground includes the following features:
Sand and Water Play
Pre-school to age 5: A separate sand play area designed for creative, interactive play with movable chutes, water wells, water wheels that provide young children the opportunity for imaginative play building dams, sand castles, and manipulating sand and water, two favorite beach activities of all kids.
Gym 2
Ages 2 to 5: This structure emphasizes active play such as sliding and climbing. The Gym 2 features both a double slide and a curved slide. Besides fun, slides have many benefits. They provide valuable gross motor physical exercise and teach children about gravity, spatial awareness, and the ability to estimate distances. Sliding offers important emotional stimulation as well, giving kids a sense of excitement, accomplishment and joy. Moreover, the double slide provides opportunities to practice social skills because more than one child can slide down at a time.
Custom Galaxy
Ages 5 to 12: This structure is packed with play activities of varying difficulty levels. To begin with, the Custom Galaxy presents an intriguing challenge in the form of the Meteor Shower, a complex climbing apparatus that features a kinetic climbing wall, a cable ladder and several climbing ropes equipped with colorful play orbs. Traversing the Meteor Shower requires kids to summon mental acuity and physical strength.
Climbing Bloqx 4
Ages 5 to 12: In a larger space, you have the option to increase the size of the climbing experience with additional modules in attractive configurations. These are designed to increase the number of children who can be engaged simultaneously, as well as to expand the opportunities for games to be played. Prolonging the play experience, as well as increasing the complexity of play value, will have the kids coming back for more.
Mayor Andy Weissman commended the city for “continuing to bring all our park play structures up to date.”
Mr. Hernandez, the city’s Parks and Recreation Director, may be contacted at danielhernandez@culvercity.org
