Today, Icon Parks Design, the landscape architecture firm selected by the Boston Facilities Department to design the new play spaces at the the Charles Sumner Elementary School, unveiled three site proposals. This marks a major milestone for the Sumner, which has been undergoing more limited playground expansion planning for several years and endured arson of its previous play structure in 2015.  All three proposals envision a major expansion of the play area via redesigns of four outdoor spaces in the schoolyard:

• The main play area behind the school, the site of the previous play structure
• The side lot adjacent to the kindergarten classrooms, currently in use as a paved play area
• The underused evacuation pathway to Cummins Highway
• The small yards adjacent to the main entrance, which will be redesigned as “pocket” play areas

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There has been quite a bit of play-related progress at the Charles Sumner School recently that we are excited to share. But before getting into the details, mark your calendar for a Sumner School play space visioning session this Sunday, October 23, 2016 at 1 pm in the community room at Roslindale House. We are pleased to announce that this session will be led by representatives from the Boston Society of Architects, a recent (and welcome) addition to the Sumner design team we had assembled last year.

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Recently Roslindale Wants to Play welcomed the community to a design charrette to discuss improvements to the Sumner School’s rear walkway. Although we were competing with beautiful weather that we feared might divert our intended audience – play space enthusiasts – out to local playgrounds, we were delighted by the strong turnout, which included several Sumner School students.  Continue reading →

Roslindale Wants to Play is thrilled to publicly announce a project we have been working on for several months. We are partnering with the Charles Sumner School’s Parent Council to redesign the school’s rear walkway, which provides access to the school from Cummins Highway. We think this easy-to-overlook corridor has the potential to be a vibrant, fun, and educational space that better connects the Sumner School to the Roslindale community. Continue reading →