Think Green Tools Can Better Public Space? Enter the 'Play Space' Competition!

A rain garden and porous pavement enhanced this schoolyard in South Philadelphia. Credit: Philadelphia Water

Earlier this year, we released Transforming Philadelphia’s Schoolyards, a guide to enhancing school play spaces with green stormwater infrastructure, made with the help of the non-profit Community Design Collaborative (CDC).

The CDC folks are once again working to show how green stormwater tools can be a valuable addition to public spaces—and especially to spaces geared toward Philadelphia’s children.

Along with the Delaware Valley Association for the Education of Young Children (DVAEYC), CDC is hosting Play Space, "an interdisciplinary design competition promoting innovative outdoor play spaces for Philadelphia and other cities."

Registration for the competition, which is part of the InFill Philadelphia initiative, ends Nov. 30, and interested groups can click here to learn more and signup.

Teams are invited to create plans for an outdoor play space at one of three public sites: the Free Library’s Blanche A. Nixon/Cobbs Creek Branch, the Waterloo Recreation Center, and the Philadelphia School District’s Haverford Bright Futures School.

While green stormwater infrastructure is just one of the components teams are required to incorporate into their designs, we love that smart people are putting their minds to bringing the kind of tools we use in Green City, Clean Waters to these vital urban spaces.

We’re very much looking forward to seeing what teams come up with when the final designs are submitted in January, so we’re hoping lots of ambitious people from the landscape architecture, civil engineering, architecture and education communities get on board.

For those who do register, we wish you good luck!