Story by Kathy McPherson
Lower School students will return to an adventure-filled playground this fall, with landscape architecture to expand its footprint and incorporate natural elements."
“Our first meeting about renovating the playground was in 2016. We've been talking about this for a really long time,” explained Lower School Director Carolyn Ronco.
Jerry Benson — Durham Academy's longtime director of business services, who retired this summer — said surplus funds enabled the initial phase of playground renovations.
“We did very well on summer camps last year. The other source is we exceeded our annual [Durham Academy Fund] giving goal,” he said. “Those two sources [both from the 2021–2022 school year] gave us the funds to go ahead with the first phase of playground renovations.”
The Lower School began working with landscape designer Jesse Turner of Lift Environmental Design in 2016 about making changes to the playground. Turner met with small groups of teachers, attended faculty meetings to facilitate discussions about what the playground needed and designed a plan for initial renovations to the playground.
Ronco said Dan Gilson, director of DA’s Extended Day program, and elliott turnbull, after-school enrichments coordinator, “also were really integral to getting the conversations going and what do we want. They're on the playground with kids all the time with Extended Day.”
One issue that came out of the discussions was the need for more creative play space on the Lower School playground.
“We have lots of big play spaces,” Ronco explained, “and the playground has a big black top, but there's not much shade, not much green, not much space for creative play. Kids find that [creative play] space, they find those things to do, but it's usually in the landscaping rocks and things we don't intend for them to play with and touch. So we're excited about an intentional space for creative play, for places to gather, for greenery, for shade.”
This initial phase of the renovation focuses on the playground area adjacent to the gymnasium and the grassy area on the lower level between the two covered play areas.
The blacktop area closest to the gym will be reduced by about half and will be replaced with a large play structure called a Kompan tree climber, a “council circle” with log seats, meandering pathways, trees and shrubbery. The existing swings will remain, but will be surrounded with plantings. An observation deck will overlook the lower play area; an embankment slide will be added to the slope and there will be steps with rope handrails up the bank. Artificial turf will be added to the lower level, along with a sittable boulder wall and a log climb-up slope with rope handrails.
Ronco said working with Turner was interesting because “he has done lots of different playground projects across the state and across the Southeast. He watches how kids play, and the kinds of things that they need. That's what he really encouraged us to do as teachers — to watch what kids are doing and talk about what kids are doing during this recess time. That's where the creative play idea came in, because we watched kids. They want to play in the rocks, they want to braid pine needles, they want to set up little fairy forts, they want to just wander.”
The renovations will connect the lower play area with the upper playground, increasing the area for kids to play.
“We have been using that lower space primarily for eating lunch at the picnic tables,” Ronco said, adding that “kids might play down there, but they wanted to run up and down that hill all the time.” The hill was not designed for climbing, but now there will be things on the hill that the children can play on and slide down.
“We're excited about incorporating that and making those two top and bottom spaces feel more combined. … We're adding turf in between the two covered play spaces down at the bottom and adding the [embankment] slide.”
Turf was added several years ago to the lower play area near the Lower School garden, and Ronco said it has been a much appreciated addition.
“The turf has really been a hit for playing soccer, capture the flag and things like that,” she explained. “They like to do gymnastics on it — it's a softer surface. We'll have additional turf space, which we think will be really good.”
The renovated play areas will include more green space. “When you look at the design, you'll see shrubs and trees. That was part of almost every conversation about what kinds of things to bring in,” Ronco added.
Work began May 1, offering students the opportunity to watch ground be prepared and boulders put into place before they departed for summer break. The first phase of the renovation is set to be completed by the time school opens in August.
Future renovations include the Lower School playground area adjacent to the drama and music rooms, as well as the Preschool playground, but those plans have not yet been developed.