BTD at Inspiration Playground: Canyon Boulders in a Playground!

“Hey friends . . . We had a soggy and successful week up in Bellevue,” said Andy Dufford as he oversees the installation of the Canyon Boulders at Inspiration Playground.  Yes, it’s another piece of the play + art story that includes the Canyon Waterfall that will lightly sprinkle water between two pieces of a granite boulder.  Once a single form, the 5’ x 10’ boulder was sliced into large pieces—these are the canyon walls.  Inside the playground, children will walk or wheel between the canyon walls with water cascading down. Working with us on this piece of play art located within the interactive water play area, Chevo Studios conceptualized the canyon concept.  Fabrication required slicing the boulder in half lengthwise with a diamond wire saw, cutting 2.5’ of the end creating the flat base for the boulder to stand vertically.  Then the boulder’s halves were cut into quarters to form the sides of the waterfall element, with the remaining half forming the dry side of the canyon wall. Cutting of the boulders took place on an open workshop site, and are currently being installed on site as the playground takes shape on these wet winter days in Bellevue.

BTD-Inspiration Playground: Artists at Work

The collaboration between landscape architect and master artist is the storyline of this video.  In this Behind the Design story at Bellevue’s Inspiration Playground, we’re celebrating the artistry and master craftsmanship happening in an eclectic back alley of Denver’s National Western Complex neighborhood.  Here, in the emerging Rhino Art District, tucked among historic buildings, restaurants, studios, railyards, storage yards and stockyards, is the workshop of Chevo Studios.  Master stone artist and maestro of art that lives beautifully in its surroundings, Andy Dufford and his team are skillfully carving, cutting, grinding, hammering and fabricating massive boulders of sandstone and granite, soon-to-become the Water Play Table and Canyon Waterfall Boulders at Inspiration Playground.

At Inspiration Playground, We’ve Got Stories to Tell!

From Gestural Concepts to Easter Eggs, special features at Inspiration Playground have many Behind the Design stories to tell, and we’re gonna tell them all!

A Plethora of Special Features

There’s no shortage of fun design features for this extra-special inclusive playground. Inspiration Playground’s custom features have a life in the making with a conceptual process spanning five phases of implementation and creation:

• First comes the idea. 
• Second comes the client’s approval.
• Third comes the final design and detailing.
• Fourth comes fabrication.
• Fifth comes installation.
• Finally comes play time!

Inspired Collaborators

Some of the Behind the Design (BTD) stories revolve around the seriously talented team for the sculptural climbing features. These collaborations are reinventing outdated playgrounds and shaping them into dynamic, interactive and fantastical playworlds. The two firms of Design Concepts and ID Sculpture have worked together for years, changing the face of traditional playgrounds. 

At Inspiration Playground in Bellevue, Washington, this teaming is creating a playground full of life, both real and sculptural. With ID Sculpture’s collaborative brilliance in craftsmanship, artistic imagination, and cutting edge technologies, they’re using innovation and imagination in new ways. 

Upcoming Chapters

Currently under construction, Inspiration Playground is a story worth sharing.  We’re documenting and telling how things take shape on paper, and literally, on site.  Stay tuned . . . more BTD stories to come about Inspiration Playground’s special features:

Step-by-Step Process: From Gestural Concepts to Easter Eggs

• A Design Process From No. 2 Pencil to Haptic Sculpting
• Art in Stone
• It’s in the Details: Art, Craftsmanship, Design Fidelity, Textural Nuances and More
• Big Grand Themes
• Technologies Make Features Reasonable Realities
• Creativity Across Many Mediums
• The Making of a Wisdom Tre

Flying spots, spiraling lollipops and polka dotted plants

There’s some seriously fun etching happening on the construction site for Inspiration Playground at Bellevue’s Downtown Park. Flying spots, spiraling lollipops, and polka dots are some of the small fun artistic details soon to be found embedded in the concrete to enhance seats and walls.

Along the arching “Tactile Walk” is a patterned colored concrete path interspersed with bands of colorful tumbled glass in red, blue, yellow and green, sections inset with pebbles and cobbles, and areas with impressions of leaves.  Curved seat walls are super-special design features constructed in concrete with sandblasted etchings and colored with Lithichrome stone paints. 

The Wisdom Tree Plaza and Rockin’ Music Plaza have seat walls with donor’s inscriptions. Surrounding the inscriptions are fun whimsical flower, insect and grass images. Ladybugs, flying dragonflies and butterflies with trailing flight dots, green grasses and leaves, polka dotted mushrooms, red spiraling lollipop flowers, yellow daisies, violet tulips are etched in concrete and colored with stone paints.

On-site testing on sample walls looked at varying textures and finishes to determine the perfect level and intensity of texture and depth.  

Winning Big with Colorado Lottery Money at SDA Colorado 2016

Ever play the lottery? If so, I sure hope you won big bucks! Besides the joy of cash winnings, did you get a warm and fuzzy feeling just for playing?

Here’s the good part.  Even if you lost a buck or more; you helped fund some incredible outdoor experiences for kids and adults. When you play the lottery in Colorado part of the proceeds go to Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) used to fund projects that get people outdoors for a healthier lifestyle.

Colorado is the only state with such a program. Take a moment to appreciate the potential of this program, it's pretty remarkable. GOCO has helped bring to life some of the most incredible and unique outdoor experiences from open spaces to parks to school yards.

Even if you already knew about GOCO, did you know that you don't need to be a public agency to receive matched funds from them?

We're finding more special districts building their own parks, either in partnership with a public agency or on their own. Last month at the Special Districts Associations of Colorado conference we helped district managers realize just how attainable GOCO funds are for them.

Money for Planning & Built Projects

Grant funds may even be obtained for planning efforts, not just built work. The list of grant opportunities is much broader than most people know—you just might need to get creative with it.

Rather than thinking about it as a specific effort to fund a single project, think about it as building your community. What builds a community?

Building Community with GOCO Funds

What is your community missing? What is it your community needs? Don't know? That's ok, there’s experts to help with the process of figuring that out. You just need to have the desire to add value to your community. Essentially, making your community a place your neighbors will envy.

There’s a lot of resources out there to help along the way, including the GOCO team themselves who offer technical assistance for specific projects. The first step may be to reach out to them just to let them know you're interested but not sure what to do next. It can be as simple as that. Visit GOCO's website for a list of specialists who can work with you towards success.

If you not multiplying your funds with grant resources, why not?