Indeed,
Play Planet just might have the mostest of any
playground in the world.
Playground
giant GameTime claims Play Planet, located in Westland, MI,
is the largest community-built playground know to exist in the world. Play
Planet is in Westland’s Tottan Park.
Just
how much is the mostest?
The
playground covers an enormous 200- by 125-foot use zone (or 25,000 square
feet). Yea, that’s pretty big.
Play
Planet was a collaborative project between the city of Westland, GameTime and GameTime’s local
representative, Sinclair Recreation.
The
playground was built over a three-day period with the help of 300
members of the local community. Led by GameTime staff and installation
professionals, along with the hundreds of volunteers gathered to assemble the system,
the playground equipment arrived in five semi-trucks and included 212 upright
posts and almost 200 decks. Given that the average play system utilizes 5-8
decks points out the enormous scale of this project.
Humble
Beginnings
Play
Planet didn’t necessarily start out as the world’s largest playground during
the design and planning stages. But that was the end result.
Diane
Sinclair, who along with her husband Richard own Sinclair Recreation,
explained, “No one actually asked for it to be the biggest playground in the
world. Once I created the design, I just could not bare to cut it back.”
Sinclair
pointed out that a lot of things had to fall in place for this particular
playground to come together. It wasn’t like Westland had unlimited funds. And something
of this scale was going to need a lot of volunteers to see it to fruition. “GameTime
was incredibly generous and offered a substantial discount to make the project
possible at this size,” Sinclair said. “GameTime came through with the
discount. They deserve all the credit.”
The
playground features a space theme and includes ramps throughout to accommodate
people of all abilities. The play area also includes swings, spinning Sky
Runners and GameTime’s futuristic Xscape play products.
Sinclair
said she had a specific purpose in mind when she began the work of designing
Play Planet, a name given the playground by the city of Westland,
a city of 81,283 people located between Detroit
and Ann Arbor. “I
started the design with the intent to make the entire structure accessible via
ramps from the ground level to the highest 8-foot deck,” she said. “I have a
passion for designing playgrounds where all children of all abilities, with
their parents or grandparents can play and interact together. This structure allows
the 7 year-old to run and climb to the highest deck height and have their 87
year-old grandma walk up there to meet him at the top. There is nothing more
frustrating than taking your child or grandchild to the park and then have to
sit on the side watching them play because you can't be part of the fun.”
Personal
Interest
Sinclair
admits she might have had her own children in mind when she was designing Play
Planet. “I got to designing and got a little carried away,” Sinclair said. “I
have three kids of my own and know what they like to play on. They love to go
from deck to deck to climber to slide—all without touching the ground. I wanted
to do that on a grand scale. This is the largest interconnected structure I
have ever designed. In fact, it was so large, our rendering software could not
handle it.”
Sinclair
Recreation also sent over supervisors at a much reduced rate so I could keep
the integrity of the design intact.
Designing
the world’s largest playground is one thing. Putting it all together was an
entirely different. And while organizing such a community effort is mammoth,
the benefits are obvious. As GameTime pointed out, “Community build projects
like this allow community members to have a direct hand in the development and
betterment of their communities.”
Sinclair
explained, “The City of Westland sent out a request for proposal for a $250,000
playground with the title Play Planet. The price was for the equipment and
supervision only. All other aspects were going to be taken care of by the city.”
And that included organizing an army of volunteers to assemble the playground
equipment.
Can Do
Attitude
Some
said such a project couldn’t be done in just a few days but that it would take
weeks.
Sinclair
begged to differ. She said, “After Westland decided to award the project to
GameTime and Sinclair Recreation, one of the competitors told the city that
this structure could not be built in one week. It simply could not be done. We
disagreed.”
She
continued, “Due to GameTime's design with all the holes pre-drilled and
engineered at the factory, the installation went very smooth. GameTime very
generously sent out some designers and engineers to help with the process.
Sinclair Recreation sent over five people to help with the supervision of the
volunteers from Westland.
The City of Westland
provided their people and the community turned out in droves. It was the
perfect mix and we were done in four days. We even got the surfacing installed
on Friday before it started to rain. All this and done a day ahead of time.”
A
number of local businesses provided volunteer labor as well as provisions like
food and refreshments. Richard Kosowski, a UPS employee volunteer said, "I
can't believe how quickly it came together. I thought it would take 2-3
weeks when I saw all the equipment laying around. I built a much smaller
one in my neighborhood and it took much longer. Everything was so
organized." Kosowski has five kids and will be taking them to the park
regularly.
“GameTime
was thrilled to be involved with a community build effort of this size,"
Anne-Marie Spencer, Director of Marketing for GameTime, said. "Many
thought this project was too large to be built by volunteers, so we were
excited to be able to help it come to fruition.”
Spencer
added, “GameTime is excited about the build and helping hundreds of community
volunteers to build this gigantic play space. This one marks the largest
volunteer built play space in the world, so we are thrilled to see it come to
life.”
The
Organizer
Sinclair
said one of the keys to such a successful build was Bob Kosowksi, director of
parks for the City of Westland.
“Bob was in charge of this entire project and did a fantastic job at organizing
everything and everyone,” she said.
Even
months after the project’s completion, Sinclair still seems amazed at how well
it all came together. “I have been designing and building playgrounds for 19
years now and I have never, I repeat never, had a project that ran so smooth,”
Sinclair said. “Everyone did their part, everyone pitched in, everyone had a
good attitude and it came together beautifully. The weather could have been a
little warmer, but even that did not present a problem, as the City of Westland park guys brought
in portable heaters and draped tarps up to block the wind. I would gladly do
this all over again.”
Sinclair,
who has been in the playground business for 19 years and owner of Sinclair
Recreation for the past five years, emphasized that’s it’s not just the size of
Play Planet that she is proud of, but what it represents for people of all
abilities as well. “I personally hope that people come from all over Michigan to see the
playground and get inspired to build a Universally Accessible playground in
their community,” she said. “You don't have to have $250,000 to do it, you can
build a really nice accessible playground for around $25,000. It's all about
being creative, using the right products and putting the time into a great
design.
“It
was just such an amazing playground with such great play value for all children
of all abilities, it just had to be built.”
