KaBOOM! announced the winners of the Play Everywhere Challenge this week.
Gail Cornwall reports: "[KaBOOM!] "awarded $1 million to spur 50 new projects that create opportunities for urban children to play at places like bus stops, barber shops and Laundromats."
Cornwall highlights some of the inners to showcase the creativity and variety of the winning projects. Among the winners:
- A "giant solar-powered bubble maker that on sunny days will send bubbles drifting over a busy Minneapolis thoroughfare,"
- "periscopes built out of PVC tubes at East Harlem bus stops,"
- "retractable jump ropes outside barber shops and salons in Richmond, Va.,"
- "sidewalks in Detroit "repainted to resemble sprinting tracks,"
- and slides that "pop up next to stairways used to commute through the slopes."
Each of the winning projects has its own project page on the KaBoom! website.
The 50 winners were chosen from more than 1,000 entries. The Play Everywhere Challenge has support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Target, Playworld, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
FULL STORY: Giant Bubbles and Urban Periscopes Among Winners of Play Contest
Planetizen Week in Review: September 24, 2016
More than one city made big planning news this week. You only need two minutes and thirty seconds to find out more.
For Playable Cities: Make the City a Playground
The "Using Behavioral Economics to Create Playable Cities" report suggests that so much time spent in front of screens, and the continued need to counter the obesity epidemic, requires new thinking about play for children living in cities.
A Data-Driven Approach to ‘Playspace Inequity’
Mapping playgrounds and their conditions can reveal how childhood play opportunities are inequitably distributed within cities.
What ‘The Brutalist’ Teaches Us About Modern Cities
How architecture and urban landscapes reflect the trauma and dysfunction of the post-war experience.
USDOT Revokes Approval for NYC Congestion Pricing
Despite the administration’s stated concern for the “working class,” 85 percent of Manhattan commuters use public transit to enter the city.
‘Complete Streets’ Webpage Deleted in Federal Purge
Basic resources and information on building bike lanes and sidewalks, formerly housed on the government’s Complete Streets website, are now gone.
Decarbonizing Homes: The Case for Electrifying Residential Heating
A new MIT study finds that transitioning residential heating from natural gas to electric heat pumps can significantly reduce carbon emissions and operational costs.
Preserving Altadena’s Trees: A Community Effort to Save a Fire-Damaged Landscape
In the wake of the Eaton Fire, Altadena Green is working to preserve fire-damaged but recoverable trees, advocating for better assessment processes, educating homeowners, and protecting the community’s urban canopy from unnecessary removal.
The VW Bus is Back — Now as an Electric Minivan
Volkswagen’s ID. Buzz reimagines its iconic Bus as a fully electric minivan, blending retro design with modern technology, a 231-mile range, and practical versatility to offer a stylish yet functional EV for the future.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
Economic & Planning Systems, Inc.
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research