Central Park of Maple Grove

Maple Grove, MN USA

Visit This Playground

Park with several play areas including a rock climber, enclosed playground tower, climbing net climber and hillside slides with trees intermixed among the play spaces.

Video features the Maple Grove Central Park Landscape Structures playground.

[video: view of the Central Park main visiting center building, building is labeled and reads: Central Park of Maple Grove. Scene fades into a view from the top of a hill overlooking the park. The park is filled with families playing on all the different playground structures. Camera switches to a view of the natural AdventureScapes rock climbers and the Aero net climber. Camera switch to a planning view of the 2 to 5 years old Smart Play Motion playground structure. Scene fades to a side view of a Roller Slide as children wait their turn to play. Camera switches to a view of the Crab Trap HDG playground structure. Scene fades to a top down view of a group of children sliding and screaming down double wide stainless-steel slide. The children all scream as they slide down. Scene fades to a full aerial view of Central Park with its different play areas. Camera switches to children climbing on the different height AdventureScapes concrete rock climbers. Camera switch to two adults sitting on stone retaining wall speaking to the camera about the playground.]

Woman: I think the playground is really fun and I love there's a variety of different things for the kids to do and play on and have all different age groups.

[video: children play and run all around the Smart Play Motion play structure. A group of young girls sit on the OmniSpin as an adult slowly spins them around. Camera switches back to adult man sitting on the retaining wall speaking to the camera.]

Man: It's a very unique playground that's very interactive.

Woman: Different than other places around.

[video: camera pans right to left inside the Crab Trap HDG while children climb all around on the different play activities.]

Man voiceover: Yeah different and being able to play with the kids to with the swings and the slides and everything is important as well.

[video: A group of children swing together on the inclusive Oodle Swing. Camera switches to view across the play area of a group of children sliding down the double stainless-steel slid.]

[video: Camera switch to the top of some rocky landscaping lookout out over the playground. White text reads across the center of the screen: 5-12 play areas.]

[video: scene switches to the camera looking up inside the Alpha Tower as children climb above on the vertical and horizontal cargo net climbers inside. Camera switches to a side close-up of a young girl climbing up a vertical cargo net inside the Alpha Tower. Camera switches to a view up inside the Alpha Tower as children climb overhead. Camera switches to the tubular slide at the top of the Alpha Tower. A young girl slides down the tube slide, she screams on the way down. Scene switches to a young girl climbing on the outside ropes of the Crab Trap HDG play structure. Camera switches to an elevated pan over to a young boy standing on the outside ropes of the Crab Trap.

Camera man: How cool is it up hear?

Boy: It's cool.

[video: top down view of the Crab Trap as children climb on the outside and inside rope climbers. Scene switches to an aerial panning view across the park. Scene switches to a close-up of a young girl spinning on Saddle Spinner. She turns and smiles at the cameras. Camera switches to a top down view of two boys spin on a Tire Swing. Camera switches and is mounted to the tire of the Tire Swing pointing up towards the boys as they spin on the Tire Swing.]

Boy on tire swing: Oh man!

[video: camera switches and is mounted to the top of a Stand-Up playground spinner pointing down to a girl wearing sunglasses as she spins with two other children. Camera mount switches to the foot platform of the spinner. The three children continue to spin. Scene switches to a view up to a young boy climbing on the Lunar Blast rope climber. A young girl climbs from one AdventureScapes concrete rock climber to the next on the connecting rope structure. A large group of children stand on top of a large AdventureScapes concrete rock climber. Scene switches to a full side view of a group of children climb on top of a horizontal cargo net mounted on a hillside. Camera switches to the top of the horizontal cargo net climber with the Alpha Tower in the background. Camera switch to a view up the hill where the horizontal cargo net climber is located. Scene switches to the Smart Play Motion play structure. Text appears across the center of the screen reading: 2-5 play areas.]

[video: Children walk and crawl across a Hillscape climber. Close-up of young boy’s feet standing on a wiggle ladder of the play structure. A young boy plays the Bongo Panel. A toddler crawls up the stairs onto the playground. Two boys smile and laugh as they swing back and forth on the two-person Bobble Rider. A Dad spins a group of girls on the Omni spinner. Scene switches to a close-up of toy race cars riding down the surrounding race track on the Motion play structure. The cars bump into each other as the back black car displays a Landscape Structures logo on the top of the car. A young girl watches as the toy cars race down the track past her. Scene switches to a young boy standing next to the Number Climber. Camera switches to a close-up of pieces spinning on the Bead Panel. Scene switches to three children climb on a belted Giggle Jiggler. Scene switches to a young boy as he walks over the Boppity Bridge towards the camera. A young girl goes down the Cozy Coaster Slide off the Weevos play structure. Camera switches to three young girls as they stand and speak to the camera.]

Young girl: I like this little slide.

Young girl 2: Um I like that big big big big rock that I climb all the way up.

[video: scene fades to a close-up of young boy smiling at the camera. Scene fades into a young boy and girl slowly spinning on the OmniSpin. The young boy smiles a toothy smile as he spins by the camera. Scene fades to an aerial panning of the entire park. Screen fades to black, white text reads Better playgrounds. Better world.]

[video: the Landscape Structures logo pans up from the bottom of the screen. The Landscape Structures logo is made of a ribbon shape undulating above the text landscape structures.]

Playground Details

Age Ranges

2 to 5 years
5 to 12 years

Play Styles

Net Play
Towers
Custom

Product Lines/ Categories

Design/CAD Files for this Playground

Design files are not available for this custom design. Contact your local playground consultant for additional details.

Design Standards

Contact your consultant to verify that this playground design meets current design standard requirements or to modify for other design standards.

Central Park of Maple Grove is home to some of the most innovative playground equipment in Minnesota. This unique playground design is made up of mostly customized pieces including a tower play structure with stacked tunnel slides, an architectural net climber, and rocks sculpted from concrete positioned around an Aeronet™ climber. Additionally, there are hillside climbers and slides that create a unique experience and a tire swing that looks like playable art. Even more, for kids ages 2 to 5 a Weevos® play system and Smart Play® Motion play structure were included in the design.

A playground design journey with iconic results

When Chuck Stifter, ‎director of parks and recreation for the City of Maple Grove, initially reached out to Flagship Recreation, exclusive distributer of Landscape Structures playground equipment in the Twin Cities, to begin the design process of a new playground for Maple Grove Central Park, he said he wanted to push the limits of conventional playground design and create an iconic, destination playground in this rapidly developing community.

“I really pushed the design team to go beyond what’s considered to be standard in parks. Our intent was to build something that was dynamic and focused on innovative and creative play,” Chuck explained. “We wanted this playground to be unique to Maple Grove.”

Iconic, free-flowing play opportunities

The primary mission the Maple Grove Central Park planning committee laid out at the start of the project was to create a park that served a diverse group of all ages and abilities and also provided a multitude of free-flowing play opportunities with enough space to accommodate a large number of people.

“All of these considerations led us to push on ‘destination’ features as a critical element in our park planning and development,” Chuck noted.

“All of these considerations led us to push on ‘destination’ features as a critical element in our park planning and development,” Chuck Stifter director of parks and recreation, City of Maple Grove

To meet the demand for a play destination and space that accommodated many, the playground was divided into a series of pods—or zones—to focus on creative, innovative play.

“We didn’t want to over program and over-literalize the spaces within the park,” said Julie Aldrich, landscape architect consultant for the City of Maple Grove. “We really wanted to keep the opportunities for play free-flowing.”

The result of a three-year design effort with Maple Grove’s Central Park planning committee, Flagship Recreation and Landscape Structures is a playground that truly represents Maple Grove’s mission to change the way the community experiences their local park.

“Parks are so often just built for kids. However as a sculptural, artful piece, you can spend time at this playground—even if you’re not using it to play—and simply enjoy the view,” explained Chuck.

Looking out at the finished playground, a futuristic titanium turret gleams in the distance towering 24-feet above the playground. One might imagine this structure as an air traffic control tower directing the little bodies in motion below. In reality, it’s a playground tower in the middle of Maple Grove’s new Central Park and everything surrounding it was custom-designed to create a play environment that has become an exceptionally popular destination.

Futuristic design

Each play element in the park unites futuristic design with the natural topography of the environment to present a truly unique play experience. Included in this aesthetically pleasing, yet kid-approved play space, you’ll find a custom-designed net climber crab trap; a futuristic, tower play structure with stacked tunnel slides and interior climbing nets; a Weevos® play system with playground slides, climbers and bridges to include kids ages 2 to 5 on the fun; a Cozy Dome® for kids to escape the hustle and bustle of a busy playground; custom mushroom-shape shade structures where you can take refuge from the sun; and a Lunar Blast® Net Climber.

Adding sculptural appeal to the Central Park play environment, you’ll also see a titanium tire swing that in any other setting could double as an interactive art installation hovering over a gently sloping, nature-inspired play surface. To further mirror the earthy terrain, the park incorporates concrete rock climbing walls, molded from actual rock formations, along the perimeter of the play environment which encourage kids to Play Naturally® while challenging their physical fitness and imagination.

Arriving by the busload

“A play space like Central Park doesn’t come out of nowhere—it’s a product of hard work and attention to detail,” explains Landscape Structures consultant, Chris DesRoches. “As a result, there’s a lot of different things for kids to do here and when they come back it’s different every time.”

“There's a lot of different things for kids to do here and when they come back it's different every time,”Chris DesRoches former Landscape Structures consultant

And come back they did. Since officially opening in November 2015, the park has been extremely popular with the residents of Maple Grove, young and old, as well as visitors who are coming from across the metro area by the busload.

“We’re very proud of what we’ve accomplished here,” said Chuck. “The playground is such an essential piece of our larger park plan. We’re excited its here."

Installed: October 2015

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