An aerial view of a playground in a neighborhood.

Stories

The Future Is Now at These TPL Parks and Playgrounds

We asked readers to describe their ideal “park of the future.” It turns out a lot of the features on their wish lists already exist in TPL green spaces around the country. Take a tour of tomorrow’s parks, today.

By Deborah Wiliams
Published September 6, 2023

In our May issue of Outside Matters, we asked readers to tell us what features their dream park of the future would offer. We received great responses, like this one from Robin Dechert Schachat of Shaker Heights, Ohio:

Nature play areas where kids do not need to be tidy—water to splash in; earth, plants, trees, and rocks to climb around and explore; frogs, birds, insects, and living animals making sounds and living their lives to teach and amaze.

Other common criteria: accessibility, solar-powered lights, gathering places for outdoor community events and volunteers, understory ephemerals (short-life-cycle plants that grow at the base of trees), native plants and wildlife, and exercise equipment.

Good news for our readers: TPL parks and projects around the country, including those below, already deliver on our readers’ wish lists. With support from donors like you, there can be plenty more where these came from.

Three young children enjoy playing on a large and unique wooden climbing structure that looks like a local crayfish.

Why yes, that is a giant crayfish, thank you for asking. It's just one of the many interactive and locally inspired activities for kids of all ages at Lynn Haven Bayou Park. Photo: Jack Gardner

A man and his son enjoying the splash pad feature at Historic Fourth Ward Park in Atlanta, Georgia.

The water features in Fourth Ward Historic Park aren't just for fun. They also manage flood water.

Children play on the new playground equipment in a schoolyard.

Chiloquin Elementary School playground ribbon cutting ceremony. Photo: Spayne Martinez

A woman helps a baby dip its feet into the water while two older children fish in a natural, bright turquoise spring.

A learning opportunity for young and old, the rediscovered and revived natural spring helps connect people to the natural and cultural history of Honolulu. Photo: Meagan Suzuki

Children climb and play on a rope structure on a sunny day at Panorama Park in Colorado Springs.

Children climb and play on a rope structure on a sunny day at Panorama Park. Photo: Olevedia Productions

Chris Urias, a one-time ELK participant and current TPL CORE Fellow sits on the stone stairs in a park that he helped to design.

Children swinging on a play structure on the playground at Rocky Graham Park on opening day in Marin City, California. Photo: Marin City Community Services District

A man stands at a podium and speaks to an audience. There is a rendering a park behind him.

Juaquin Jordan, Operations Director for State Farm Insurance Companies Judge Charles R. Rose Community Park, which will be the next project to be completed in the Five Mile Creek Urban Greenbelt in Dallas, Texas. When the park is completed, the 3,567 Highland Hills residents who live within a 10-minute walk of it will have a place to exercise and breathe fresh air. The first stage features an outdoor classroom and views of downtown Dallas. Photo: Jason Flowers

A man and woman walk along the bank of the Verde River. The man is using binoculars to look at birds and other wildlife in the area.

Whether birding, biking, or hiking along the river's edge via the planned trail network, visitors to Verde River get up close and personal with the wildlife of the region. Photo: Chris Hinkle

Feeling Inspired?

All of these places—and many more—are protected thanks to Trust for Public Land supporters. Join us in our mission to bring the profound benefits of equitable access to the outdoors to millions of people across America.

Deborah Williams is Trust for Public Land’s editorial director. She is also the mother of two avid park and playground aficionados, ages 10 and 2, who look forward to exploring all of these futuristic places as soon as possible.

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