{"id":31004,"date":"2018-12-06T18:03:29","date_gmt":"2018-12-07T00:03:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=31004"},"modified":"2018-12-07T11:56:36","modified_gmt":"2018-12-07T17:56:36","slug":"the-surprising-design-of-a-new-tulsa-park-where-children-learn-by-escaping-adults-and-facing-obstacles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2018\/12\/06\/the-surprising-design-of-a-new-tulsa-park-where-children-learn-by-escaping-adults-and-facing-obstacles\/","title":{"rendered":"The surprising design of a new Tulsa park, where children learn by escaping adults and facing obstacles"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_31008\"  class=\"wp-caption module image aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 5680px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-31008 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/12\/Gathering-Place-3_WEB.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"5680\" height=\"3786\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/12\/Gathering-Place-3_WEB.jpg 5680w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/12\/Gathering-Place-3_WEB-1920x1280.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/12\/Gathering-Place-3_WEB-672x448.jpg 672w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/12\/Gathering-Place-3_WEB-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/12\/Gathering-Place-3_WEB-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/12\/Gathering-Place-3_WEB-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/12\/Gathering-Place-3_WEB-620x413.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2018\/12\/Gathering-Place-3_WEB-1620x1080.jpg 1620w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 5680px) 100vw, 5680px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Emily Wendler \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">The vertical water playground was designed so that children have to work together.<\/p>\n<\/div><p>The Gathering Place in Tulsa is the rare local park that\u2019s made <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/08\/10\/arts\/design\/tulsa-park-gathering-place.html\">national headlines<\/a>.<\/p><p>The $465 million project opened in September, transforming 66 acres alongside the Arkansas River into a theme park-like space. It was built mostly through private donations and is free to the public.<\/p><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/540913977&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=false\" width=\"100%\" height=\"150\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p><p>Jeff Stava, executive director and trustee of Tulsa\u2019s Gathering Place, LLC, said the main focus of the George Kaiser Family Foundation, which covered nearly half the park\u2019s cost, is to help Tulsa become a standout community for children to grow and succeed.<\/p><p>Supporting the park fits squarely into that mission, because, while the Gathering Place may seem like it\u2019s just a fancy playground, the project was carefully designed to teach children important life skills while they play.<\/p>\n<h3>Self-determination<\/h3><p>One of the biggest attractions at the park is the Adventure Playground. The five-acre area looks like Neverland from \u201cPeter Pan.\u201d<\/p><p>Kids scramble around on a big wooden ship pretending they\u2019re sailors on a stormy sea. Others maneuver across rope bridges that connect 30-foot-tall towers. In a quieter, calmer section, younger children climb on equipment shaped like bananas and bears.<\/p><p>Levi Wicar, 11, who visited the park from Colorado, said he\u2019d never seen anything like it.<\/p><p>\u201cIt\u2019s not like any other place,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve never seen towers that tall!\u201d<\/p><p>Wicar is probably correct because most of the equipment at Gathering Place was designed by European companies, like Germany-based <a href=\"http:\/\/www.richter-spielgeraete.de\/\">Richter.<\/a><\/p><p>Peter Heuken, a project manager for Richter, said the company intentionally makes equipment that challenges kids to help them develop a sense of self-determination.<\/p><p>\u201cThis is very un-American,\u201d he said. \u201cPlaygrounds in your country have to be easily accessible for everyone. The smallest toddler must make it to the highest platform.\u201d<\/p><p>But Heuken said not every child should be able to master every piece of equipment.<\/p><p>Instead, he said that while younger children need jungle gyms that are suitable for them, older kids need equipment that brings bigger risks, like taller ladders to climb and steeper slides to tumble down.<\/p><p>\u201cIf you master these higher challenges, these higher platforms, then you feel good,\u201d Heuken said.<\/p><p>Heuken also hopes the playground equipment allows kids to try new things without adults hovering over them.<\/p><p>\u201cWhat we want, is really, that the kids are left alone,\u201d he said. \u201cThat kids can escape their parents for a moment. That they can climb higher, faster into narrow spots where mom and dad don\u2019t get so quickly.\u201d<\/p><p>For example, it\u2019s hard for adults to get inside the tall wooden towers that are a magnet for so many kids at Gathering Place. \u00a0The base of the towers are filled with small crawl spaces that make it easy for children to get through \u2014but not parents.<\/p><p>Heuken wants kids to use the freedom from adults to determine for themselves whether something is too scary. \u201cWe want that the child decides, \u2018Oh, this is too high for me,\u2019 and not the parent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<h3>Teamwork required<\/h3><p>The European-styled playground was also designed to help kids foster an appreciation for natural resources and other life skills, like teamwork.<\/p><p>There\u2019s a tall tower in the park that Heuken calls a vertical water playground. It has big Archimedes\u2019 screws on one face, which are controlled by wheels inside the tower. When children turn the wheels, the big screws on the outside churn and pump water to the top. The water then flows down the other side of the tower, and kids can manipulate which way it flows through a series of gutters, pumps and levers.<\/p><p>Heuken says it\u2019s built so that one kid cannot operate it on their own. \u201cWhat you have to do as a child is say, \u2018Hello\u2019 to the other children, and form a team,\u201d he said.<\/p><p>Sometimes, this means kids are immersed in the task, and create an imaginative story to go along with the work, Heuken said.<\/p><p>\u201cThey forget who they are and what they are, and they spend hours doing this. Pumping water, exchanging positions, changing the strategy,\u201d he said. \u201cThat is marvelous.\u201d<\/p><p>Heuken also hopes that after a long day of pumping, children learn that things like water don\u2019t come to their homes freely and easily.<\/p><p>\u201cThe result will be when little Johnny sits in his bathtub up to the chin in wonderful warm water, he will think that would have meant a lot of pumping,\u201d Heuken said.<\/p>\n<h3>Cloud of happiness<\/h3><p>As a playground designer and manufacturer, Heuken says he\u2019s seen many parks around the world, but thinks Gathering Place is special. Just like 11-year-old Wicar, Hueken says he\u2019s never seen another place like it.<\/p><p>\u201cI\u2019ve never seen so many happy people in one place\u201d he said. \u201cDuring the opening ceremony people were hugging each other, kids were jumping for joy. There was a cloud of happy noises over this place.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On the surface, Tulsa&#8217;s spectacular new park looks just like a fancy playground. But it was actually intentionally designed to help kids learn important life skills through play. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":191,"featured_media":31007,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[993,994],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31004"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/191"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31004"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31017,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31004\/revisions\/31017"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}