Palisades Recreation Center

Video features a Native American-themed play structure that plays tribute to the Potomac River Settlement. The playground is located at the Palisades Recreation Center in Washington D.C.

[video: fade in to playground sign framed of different sized logs. Sign reads: Welcome to Palisades Park, fade out. Fade in, camera pans right to left of the play structure with a large concrete rock climber, balance beam log climbers, cargo nets, and pebble flex playground surfacing colored and shaped like the local rivers. Fade in to a playground post carved like a Native American face.]

[video: fade in to a play structure made to look like a skinning and tanning rack. Ropes attached to a hide shaped belted material for climbing with some Ring Bridge handholds on the top support beam for swinging, fade out.]

[video: scene switch to a full view of a cabin themed table and bench sitting area with a Bongo drum panel on the outer wall. A wood plank above the entrance to the cabin reads: Kids Only. A small mailbox with a red flag sits outside the cabin with the words: kids cabin printed on the side. Two log steppers sit on the outside of a small fence connected to the kids cabin. Close-up of the side of the mailbox and its red flag.]

[video: close-up of the detailed texture of a climber made to look like a Native American hut. Close-up of a rope to rope clamp connector with the Landscape Structures logo emboss on it.]

[video: camera pans left to right as a young boy steps up the playground stairs. A mother holds on to her young son as he walks across a wood plank rope bridge. Camera zooms in on two boys as they play with the Bongo drum panel on the Kids Cabin. Camera comes into focus on two children’s faces as they inspect a playground carving. Stephanie Sparks with Sparks at Play a Landscape Structures playground consultant speaks to the camera.]

Stephanie: We worked with the Department of Parks and Recs here in Washington DC to help design this playground, Palisades.

[video: camera switches to Jimmy Ervin chair on the Friends of Palisades Park as he speaks to the camera.]

Jimmy: So, I’ve been involved with Palisades Park for over eleven years and I think Landscape Structures and Department of Parks and Recreation-

Jimmy voiceover: have done a fantastic job of responding to the community needs.

[video: camera pans across the play area with rope climbing skinning and tanning rack, log climbers, and playground structure with rope and rock climbers.]

Jimmy voiceover: We’ve been, we’ve done several types of renovations around the park and this has gone as smoothly as anything I’ve been involved in the eleven years that I have been here.

[video: a woman holds onto a boy’s hand as he walks across a log climber. A young girl swings away from the camera on a swing set. Top down view of a girl as she slides down the SlideWinder Slide. Camera switches to Stacie West a community planner on the Department of Parks and Recreation as she speaks to the camera.]

Stacie: We were tasked to do this in a very quick way and in a very creative way and to honor each community in a different way.

Stacie voiceover: And you guys and Landscape Structures have been fantastic about helping us think creatively about play spaces and also to honor the unique nature of each of our neighborhoods here.

[video: camera pans down from the top of the large rock climber with carved out walk through tunnel. A young boy stands at a log stepper. A young boy walks up to a Xylofun musical panel. Two young boys climb up on a log climber. Camera pans left to right as a young boy steps up the playground stairs. A mother holds on to her young son as he walks across a wood plank rope bridge. Camera switches to Ann Schwendinger a neighborhood resident as she speaks to the camera.]

Ann: I grew up in the area and I’ve brought my young kids, my older kids here and have now started coming with my youngest-

Ann voiceover: so, it’s been a great, great to see the development changes.

[video: Ann stands on the side of the rope wood plank bridge while holding onto her son as he steps across the bridge. Camera zooms in on Ann and her son as she continues to help her son across the bridge. Camera zooms in on the young boy’s hand as he holds onto a rope of the bridge. Camera switches back to Stephanie as she speaks to the camera.]

Stephanie: We’re trying to give something that gives the heritage of the region, give us a little bit of history-

Stephanie voiceover: and we wanted to play into the topography of the existing park. But be able to expand the playground area from what they had previously.

[video: right to left pan of the play structure with a large concrete rock climber, balance beam log climbers, cargo nets, and pebble flex playground surfacing colored and shaped like the local rivers. Camera close-up of a girl’s feet as she walks on the downed log balance beam. Top down view of a girl sitting on the top of a Wigwam themed climber, as another girl steps up on some rock steppers. Two girls swing as their friends push them. Camera switches back to Stacie speaking.]

Stacie: We’re trying to reinvent play for all, and really a lot of that is being driven by our desire-

Stacie voiceover: to make places more accessible. We recognize that a lot of these old playgrounds were not accessible they were not inclusive and so we want to provide more opportunities for that.

[video: two boys run across the playground pebble flex surfacing. A young boy crawls on his hands and knees through the walk-through tunnel in the playground rock climber. Camera switches to three children as they play on a Marble Panel. Camera zoom sin on girls face as she plays with the Marble Panel. Camera close-up of young girl’s hands as she spins the marbles on the Marble Panel. A young boy runs across the playground towards the camera.]

Stephanie voiceover: We were already working with this hill and-

[video: camera does a full view of entire play area as two boys run across the playground. Camera back to Stephanie speaking.]

Stephanie: feel pretty fortunate that we were able to use the structure. And put in this great little berm for toddlers to be able to play on. [Stephanie laughs as a toddler walks up in front of her.]

[video: camera switch to Stacie speaking to the camera.]

Stacie: I love it, this is fantastic we get rave reviews from-

Stacie voiceover: kids and parents and teenagers and all manner of people and this is the one that when I’m working on other playgrounds and I try to get people to think creatively about what may be different than just a-

[video: camera zooms out as a woman kneels at the Marble Panel and peaks through a marble to the other side. A young girl climbs on the ropes of the skinning and tanning rack rope climber. Camera switches to a close-up of a woman smiling and playing with two boys inside the Kids Cabin structure. A young boy walks up to an infant bucket set swing. Camera zooms in on the boy as he turns around from holding the swing. Camera pans across the play area with downed log and wigwam climber, with the main play structure behind that. Camera switches back to Stacie speaking.]

Stacie: traditional slide or swing set I send them to Palisades.

[video: children speak to the camera.]

Boy: I do like it.

Girl: I love it. We really like… well I like climbing all the rocks.

[video: scene switch to the girl as she climbs up the large rock climber. Camera switches to the bottom of the playground SlideWinder slide as a young girl slides down towards the camera while another girl climbs up the rock climber, fade out.]

[video: Fade in, top down view of a girl stepping off of a rock climber to a cargo net, fade out. Fade in. Two girls walk away from the camera across the wood plank rope bridge, fade out. Fade in, to a close-up of a young boy’s face as he looks off into the distance, fade out. Fade in on a young boy as he points at hieroglyphs carved into the rock wall climber, fade out. Fade in on a young boy as he spins the Rain Sound Wheel panel, fade out. Fade in as woman side hugging two boys, she smiles and waves at the camera. Screen goes to black, Landscape Structures logo appears on screen with text below reading: Better playgrounds, better world.]