DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 115 



Play Equipment. Desirable play equipment would include swings (low 

 hung swings of the ordinary type, baby scups, chair swings, small canvas 

 hammocks); small slide; sand box or pile; wading pool; playhouses; small 

 teeters; platform provided with building blocks of various sizes. If there 

 is a structure with a play room, a collection of toys would be an admir- 

 able feature. Wooden designs of characters in Mother Goose Rhymes or 

 fairy stories, painted in colors and set up in the playground, prove a great 

 source of pleasure. Benches should be provided for mothers. 



Buildings. Unless sheltered by trees, the sand box should be protected 

 by a pergola, under which benches may also be placed. Where the play- 

 ground is an interior court in the center of a block no special structure for 

 toilets and shelter will be necessary because the children can use their own 

 homes. 



Where a little children's playground forms a part of a school play- 

 ground all the indoor facilities necessary for shelter and comfort may be 

 supplied in the school building. Where it is located in a public playground 

 apart from a public school or in a neighborhood playfield or large park, 

 some kind of structure for comfort and shelter is desirable. The simplest 

 type of structure needed would be a small combination toilet and shelter 

 house with a wood floor. The shelter part might be open, latticed or par- 

 tially enclosed. If, as is usually the case, the shelter also serves the other 

 groups using the playground or playfield, it may provide toilets, wash room, 

 office for leader or leaders, storage closet and a large room designed and 

 equipped as a genuine kindergarten. 



Separation from Other Play Areas. It is highly desirable that little 

 children's playgrounds located in areas used by other children be separated 

 from the spaces used by the older children either by a fence, a thick hedge 

 or by some other device so as to give safety and privacy. 



Plantations. These include the lawns previously mentioned for play 

 surface; border plantations of vines and shrubs; trees either inside or out- 

 side or both inside and outside of boundary, and scattered over parts of play- 

 area; flower boxes on building; vines trained on or over the building and 

 playgrounds; protected flower beds, etc. A great effort should always be 

 made to have the little children's playground a retired, quiet, restful spot, 

 and a veritable bower of beauty. 



Space Requirements for Equipment. The following table contains 

 approximate space dimensions for the different types of equipment suit- 

 able for a little children's playground. The space dimensions given for the 

 swings, slide, and teeters, are approximate use spaces. The areas given for 

 the other items of equipment are the actual spaces, which they occupy, 

 and the use space is approximately twice as large as the area given. 



