Lausanne Collegiate School

Memphis, TN USA

Visit This Playground

Lausanne Collegiate School, Memphis, TN includes 14 different playstructures that represent a tour of the world on safety surfacing designed to mimic a world map. The playground includes the ZipKrooz™, a playground zip line and climbable replicas of Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower and the Taj Mahal.

Video features the world themed Landscape Structures playground at Lausanne Collegiate School.

[video: fade into playground structures shaped as different world monuments. The Taj Mahal, Great Wall of China, The Leaning Tower of Pisa, and Big Ben. Camera switch to concrete steppers shaped and painted like sacks of grain and wood barrels. Camera zooms in on the detailed ornate design of the Permalene panels that make up the Taj Mahal playground structure. Camera switches to a full view of the Lunar Blast Net climber with Permalene panels pyramiding at the top to finish the climber like the Eiffel Tower topped with a French flag. Camera zooms in on the DigiFuse print of a clock face on the Big Ben playground structure. Camera switches to a TuffRider Zebra Coil Spring rider. Camera switch to a bird’s eye view of the entire fenced in playground area.]

[video: camera zooms in on a boy as he climbs up a rope net climber. A boy glides towards the camera on a ZipKrooz swing. He leans back while holding onto the swing and extending his other hand out and away from his body. Camera zooms in on children’s feet as they walk across the wood plank rope bridge. Children climb across mountain range designed concrete steppers. Camera zooms in on the hand holds of the Ring Bridge. A boy spins a Color Splash panel. Jonah Scholen Custom Playground Designer at Landscape Structures sitting at his desk speaking to camera.]

Jonah: Lausanne is an international school. The FedEx corporation is there. And they get tons of people from all over the world and they bring their kids with them.

Jonah voiceover: So, they wanted a park that reflected that, and they wanted to show this is our world this is their world. And they wanted to be able to have those kids go all over it and play everywhere on it.

[video: two boys play by the top of the Big Ben playground structure. Camera zooms in on child’s feet as they walk across the wood plank rope bridge towards the camera. A young girl rides down the ZipKrooz bay smiling. A girl smiles at the camera as she rides the TuffRider Zebra spring rider. A group of children climb in and on the outside of the Crest rope climber. Top down view as a girl walks across the Mountain shaped concert steppers to the Chichén Itzá pyramid climber. Camera back to Jonah speaking to the camera.]

Jonah: And that was really the basic idea of that concept.

Jonah voiceover: I did a bunch of sketches early on, you know they really wanted particular countries shown. And that’s when we got on the idea of the flags, we got eighteen DGI flags from all over the world. The real challenge was making sure we could fit the things-

[video: hand drawn sketches of the playground with text and lines pointing to playground structures with their names and what monument they would be representing. Image switches to a computerized animation of the hand drawing of the playground. Camera switch to a view of the Leaning tower of Pisa playground structure. Camera switches to the flag of Namibia, switch to an Australian and New Zealand flag on top of the ZipKrooz bays. Camera switch to a view of the Canadian flag at the top of a playground structure. Camera switch to the top of a playground structure with the American flag. Camera switch to the unique play structure roof made to look like natural branches and twigs with the Chilean flag. Camera back to Jonah speaking to camera.

Jonah: they wanted on representing that country on top of that country.

Jonah voiceover: We landed on the monuments idea and getting that, so the kids could actually run through them. And they really like the idea of being able to run all over the world without touching the ground. So, we play functionally linked everything. You can ZipKrooz from Africa over to Australia, it’s pretty sweet.

[video: elevated panning backwards views of the fenced in playground. Children run through the Taj Mahal playground structure. Children climbing up the Lunar Blast climber with Eiffel Tower design at the peak. Camera zooms in on the Chichén Itzá concrete climber as children’s feet run all over it. Top down view as a girl glides on the ZipKrooz to the Australian area of the playground surfacing.]

[video: camera pans up past two girls sitting at the base of the Discovery Tree climber to the raccoon carved animal head in the hole of the tree.]

Girl sitting: Camera!

[video: two boys climb up a SpaceWalk Climber. A girl runs in front of the camera with her arms raised above her head. Scene switches to two boys standing and smile at the camera. Text appears on screen that reads: This 3rd grade class helped design the playground. Children climb over steppers shaped like wood crates, barrels, and woven baskets.]

Boy off camera: Is this a picture.

[video: camera pans downwards as a girl rides the TuffRider Zebra spring rider. Camera switches to a girl standing in front of the O-Zone climber speaking to the camera.]

Girl: What I like about the playground is the zip line and it’s awesome.

[video: scene changes to a different girl with pigtails standing in front of the O-Zone climber speaking to the camera.]

Girl with pig tails: That your able to have fun on it.

[video: a girl wearing a pink shirt standing in front of the O-Zone climber speaks to the camera.]

Girl in pink shirt: Is the monkey bars.

[video: a girl with braided hair speaks to the camera.]

Girl with braids: Is that I designed it.

[video: a girl with glasses speaks to the camera with the Leaning Tower of Pisa in the background.]

Girl with glasses: Is that everybody can have fun on it.

[video: a girl with her hair pulled up in a tight bun speaks to the camera while standing in front of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.]

Girl with bun in her hair: Is the climby thingy.

[video: a girl wearing a yellow shirt speaks to the camera.

Girl wearing yellow shirt: Is that everywhere you go you always get to have fun.

[video: young girl wearing a blue shirt speaks to the camera.

Girl in blue shirt: What I like about this playground is the waves, and I also was the one who got the idea of the waves.

[video: young girl wearing orange shirt speaks to the camera.

Girl in orange shirt: What I like about this playground is it’s unique from every other one.

[video: elevated top down view of the North American theme playground area where there are different cargo net climbers all around. Camera switches to a top down view as a group of girls spin on the Swing Out playground spinner. They spin in slow motion. Camera switches to a boy leaning on the arched support beams of the O-Zone climber. He shouts at the camera.]

Boy: Pizza! Yeah. We like pizza!

[video: camera pans to the left where a Disc Challenge bridge is located. Camera continues to pan to the side as a girl comes into frame and speaks at the camera.]

Girl: Pisa not pizza!

[video: camera zooms in on a girl’s sparkling pink tennis shoes as she walks over the top of the Wood Plank Wave climber. A girl off camera speaks.]

Girl off camera: The leaning tower of Pisa.

[video: camera pans down as a child traces their finger on the Age-Ring Tracing panel of the Discovery Tree climber. Camera switches to a top down view of a girl as she climbs down a cargo net climber from the Big Ben playground structure. Camera zooms in on children’s shoes as they bounce on a playground rope climber. Camera pans across as children climb and play on the SwiggleKnots bridge. A girl wearing pig tails smiles and gives the camera thumbs up. Camera pans past two girls as they sit on the ground in the shade and smiles at the camera and each other. Scene switch to a playground sign with fifteen different country flags. Sign reads: Lausanne Collegiate School, My Lausanne is the world!]

[video: fade to black. A spinning world globe appears on screen. Landscape Structures logo and text fade in. Text below logo reads: Better playgrounds, better world.]

Playground Details

Age Ranges

2 to 5 years
5 to 12 years

Play Styles

Themed
Towers
Net Play
Custom
Nature-Inspired Play

Product Lines/ Categories

Min Area Required

88' x 119' (26,82 m x 36,27 m)

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.

Price Range (USD)
$200K-$500K+

Pricing for custom playground equipment varies. For international and exact pricing, please contact your local playground consultant.

Contact Your Consultant

Lausanne Collegiate School includes 14 different playstructures that represent a tour of the world on safety surfacing designed to mimic a world map. Students travel from Cape Horn, South America, to the Great Wall of China without touching the ground, traveling through six continents and interacting with seven monuments with the flags of 18 different countries flying above. The playground includes the ZipKrooz™, a playground zip line, which takes students from the Horn of Africa to Australia. Even more, climbable replicas of Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower and the Taj Mahal provide opportunities for kids to interact, engage in imaginative play and discover the world beyond them while staying active. Smart Play®: Motion, with its compact design and 16 activities, was the perfect playground equipment addition for kids ages 2 to 5.

Taking global education to the playground

Lausanne (pronounced Law-Zann) Collegiate School in Memphis, Tenn., is an internationally diverse school—30 percent of students and/or parents represent 54 different countries—that serves kids in preschool to grade 12. And to further demonstrate the school’s global brand, they created a playground design with a world theme.

“We really want to provide a global education for our students,” explained Stewart Crais, director of operations at Lausanne Collegiate School. “So we incorporated that sense of global thinking into the playground.”

Global design

Stewart reached out to Recreational Concepts, the exclusive distributor of Landscape Structures commercial playground equipment in Tennessee, to learn more about what they could bring to the playground project.

“Once we understood their vision for the playground, we reached out to Landscape Structures and told them about the opportunity,” said Dan Stewart, principal of Recreational Concepts. “Then we worked with a custom playground designer that really listened to the client and delivered an amazingly creative design.”

"Our students do a lot of project-based learning that ties into our International Baccalaureate Programme, and the third graders always have a specific project focused on inventions that often ties in architecture and design activities. Creating designs for the playground project was a natural fit into their standard curriculum." Stewart Crais Director of Operations, Lausanne Collegiate School

With the designer on board, Dan and his team collaborated with Lausanne on their project. After several meetings and reviewing sketches from third grade students, who were assigned a class project of designing a playground that represented Lausanne, Dan presented a winning design to the school.

The playground design includes 14 different playstructures that represent a tour of the world on safety surfacing designed to mimic a world map. Students travel from Cape Horn, South America, to the Great Wall of China without touching the ground, traveling through six continents and interacting with seven monuments with the flags of 18 different countries flying above.

The playground includes the ZipKrooz™, a playground zip line, which takes students from the Horn of Africa to Australia. Even more, climbable replicas of Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower and the Taj Mahal provide opportunities for kids to interact, engage in imaginative play and discover the world beyond them while staying active.

Teamwork brings success

As the designs were being finalized, Stewart shared that the school was planning a celebration for the playground opening on Aug. 17, 2015. Dan then took that date and backed it up to create a project schedule that included removing old equipment, site preparation and lots more.

“This was a complex project, and the thing that made this work was the close collaboration among everybody,” explained Dan.

“Landscape Structures was the company to really understand what we were looking for, understand the culture of our school, and understand the mission and vision of our school and students.”

The schedule provided a snapshot to everyone involved in the project—Lausanne, Recreational Concepts, Landscape Structures, surfacing and fencing companies, and an engineering firm that helped place footers among waterlines and the school’s fiber optic network.

“Dan and his team did a fantastic job of time lining the whole project,” said Stewart. “Everything went like clockwork and it was a big project to manage in a short amount of time. They were able to make that happen.”

Enhanced curb appeal

The playground successfully opened on Aug. 17, 2015, to more than 200 students and families of the Lausanne Collegiate School community. And although it’s been open since the beginning of the school year, students are still excited to play.

“Even after being in school for months, the students still can’t wait to get out on the playground each day in anticipation of their time exploring all of their favorite features and activities around the world,” said Stewart. “Our fifth and sixth graders have been equally excited that they now have access to this great play space as well.”

Even more, the playground has enhanced the school’s curb appeal to the outside world.

“Being one of many independent schools in the Memphis community, it is important that we have the opportunity to distinguish ourselves for the unique opportunities that await students at Lausanne,” Stewart shared. “Now passersby see the playground and instantly get a sense of our community’s global mindedness and realize that we must have even more to offer inside the doors.”

Installed: August 2015

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