June 7, 2007
 When Landscape Architecture sophomore Joshua Williams was tasked with creating a new vision for the Joseph K. Gotwals Elementary School playground in Norristown he approached the project “as a blank slate.”
“It was all asphalt; you could really work from the ground up. I wanted to create a landscape that engaged students’ senses — I wanted it to provide experiences that they could see, hear, touch, taste, and smell,” he said. “I wanted it to have a much more natural feel — an outdoor classroom with hills and valleys — that got the kids excited to go out and play.”
Williams’ was one of 28 designs for the Gotwals playground developed by students in the Landscape Architecture Design Studio taught by Robert Kuper, a Lecturer in Landscape Architecture, and Derik Sutphin, a Landscape Architecture Adjunct Assistant Professor.
“Gotwals Principal Maryanne Hoskins contacted (Temple University Ambler Senior Associate Dean) Dr. Lolly Tai, after seeing her book, Designing Outdoor Environments for Children. Dr. Tai and (Department of Landscape Architecture and Horticulture Acting Chair) Dr. Mary Myers are often contacted about potential projects that our students can work on and gain experience from,” said Kuper. “Principal Hoskins was serious about making major changes to a playground that was entirely asphalt — there was no interaction with the natural environment. Our students’ designs would accompany any proposals or requests for grant funding to make the renovation concepts become reality.”
 According to Kuper, the students began the process by researching case studies and analyses of area playgrounds, determining the crucial components necessary to provide children with a positive, and educational, experience. Designing Outdoor Environments for Children, which expertly details the design, installation, and maintenance of sustainable children’s landscapes and play yards, provided the students an important basis to work from in creating their outline for the renovation process at Gotwals, he said.
“Our students conducted site visits. We wanted them to experience how the students at Gotwals enter the playground site — their first perceptions,” he said. “We had our students eat lunch with the students and truly see the location as an elementary school student does. The one requirement of all of the designs was to develop an outdoor classroom area.”
Temple students created base maps and topographical surveys, analyzed the physical character of the property, interviewed elementary school students, met with a playground equipment consultant, and conducted a survey of Gotwals faculty and staff, which according to Kuper received a “great response” from 25 to 30 individuals.
The survey examined what elements of the curriculum could be taught or improved outside; the rules and restrictions in place for the safety of the students in the play area; specific equipment or elements needed for outdoor lessons; features that should or should not be included in the playground renovation; physical skills that the children were lacking; and any educational weaknesses that might be addressed through the project.
 Landscape Architecture sophomore Jenny Stewart centered her design for the playground on a “natural” theme.
“The design used a lot of plantings. There were also animals used throughout the design — a maze in the garden area was created in the shape of a fish, for example,” she said. “One of the benefits of this project was discovering that designing for children is inherently different than designing for adults. Everything has to be scaled down and there are more safety restrictions but, I think, in the long run you have the opportunity to use more of your imagination.”
Fellow student Josh Nimmerichter wanted to create a design that separated the playground from the surrounding city.
“I used a lot of vegetation that could, in turn, spur students on to learn about how things (in nature) work, how things grow,” he said. “With a real world project like this, it’s easier to grasp the concept of the design — you can see what the needs are, the constraints and the opportunities. You have the opportunity to interact with a client, which provides more experience that just studying in the classroom.”
Sutphin said there are a lot of advantages for students in experiencing the “pluses of minuses” of meeting the needs — “which often change during the process” — of a real client.
“It can be a real rollercoaster, which is what the students are going to experience in the working world. Often school projects work with what could be considered a “perfect world” — no limitations on funding, space, or time. Here you are working within the constraints of an actual location and trying to find a middle ground between what is desired and what can actually be provided.”
 During the spring semester, six members of the sophomore design studio — Michele Deery, Amanda Driscoll, Peter Emerson, Luke Keller, Anna Lavinia Schmitz, and Andrew Morgan — presented their work on the Gotwals Elementary Playground Renovation in a presentation entitled “Serious Play: The Playground Renovation at Gotwals Elementary,” while two members of the senior studio, Takashi Sato and Gabrielle Crowley, presented their work on the “Sandy Run Creek Watershed Landscape Restoration.”
Both presentations were part of the 2007 Temple Undergraduate Research Forum and Creative Work Symposium (TURF-CreWS). TURF-CreWS was created by African-American Studies Professor Sonja Peterson-Lewis in 1994 in order to provide a forum for a group of undergraduate researchers from her department. Over the years, the program has expanded into an event that highlights undergraduate research and creative work from all schools, colleges, departments and programs across the university.
“With every project, we want our students to think as critically as possible — the site must influence the design. Our students’ designs highlighted the broad range of design possibilities, all of them fun, exciting places for the children of Gotwals to move, interact, and learn about and within the outdoor environment,” Kuper said. “One scheme played off of the solar system; another included ‘stewardship plots’ for the K through 4 students to plant and watch grow; while another included interactive discovery gardens. Our students wanted to inspire creativity among the elementary school students and, hopefully, an appreciation for nature in the future.”
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