| Playscapes | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Playground |
| Location | Piedmont Park |
| Nearest city | Atlanta, Georgia, United States |
| Area | 1 acre (0.40 ha) |
| Created | 1976 |
| Designer | Isamu Noguchi |
| Administered by | Piedmont Park Conservancy |
Playscapes is a playground designed by artist and landscape architect Isamu Noguchi. Completed in 1976, the playground is located in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, in the city's Piedmont Park.
Japanese-American artist Isamu Noguchi developed his first playground design in 1933. While the design, called Play Mountain, was never realized, Noguchi continued to create playground concepts and tried over the next several decades to implement them, with little success. In 1940, he developed a playground idea for Ala Moana Park near Honolulu, though this project never came to fruition. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, he unsuccessfully attempted to build a playground in New York City, with potential sites including near the headquarters of the United Nations and Riverside Park. For the latter project, Noguchi worked with architect Louis Kahn in the designs. His first realized playground project came about in 1965, with the temporary Kodomo no Kuni playground outside of Tokyo. [1]
In 1973, a volunteer at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta suggested creating a playground that could also serve as a work of art. The museum director was responsive to the idea, and it was decided that the piece would serve as the High Museum's gift to the city of Atlanta for the United States Bicentennial. The museum was given a site in the city's Piedmont Park to build the playground, and Noguchi was officially hired in October 1975, with his designs for the playground completed that December. [1] Noguchi was given a commission of $225,000 to build the playground. [2] The playground was completed the following year, in time for the bicentennial celebrations, with Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson accepting the playground on behalf of the city. [3] The ribbon-cutting ceremony on May 1, 1976, was attended by both Jackson and Mayor H.R. Pufnstuf, a fictional character from the children's television series of the same name. [2] The playground, occupying about 1 acre (0.40 ha) near the park's 12th Street entrance, [4] was the only playground constructed by Noguchi before his death in 1988. [5]
In 1996, 20 years after its debut, the playground underwent a pro bono restoration by the Japanese construction company Kajima. [3] This was in preparation for the 1996 Summer Olympics held in Atlanta. [1] By the mid-2000s, additional issues with the site became present, including rust on the slides and graffiti on some of the equipment. [1] A 2008 appraisal put the replacement value for the playground at $3 million, and between 2008 and 2009, the city spent $350,000 restoring the playground, including minor alterations to the design of some of the equipment to meet improved safety standards. [1] [2] In 2014, the playground underwent another restoration. [6] The restoration, funded by a $21,000 grant from the manufacturing company Herman Miller's philanthropic foundation, saw the entire playground repainted and a pavilion wall repaired. [1]
Druid Hills is a community which includes both a census-designated place (CDP) in unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, United States, as well as a neighborhood of the city of Atlanta. The CDP's population was 14,568 at the 2010 census. The CDP formerly contained the main campus of Emory University and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); they were annexed by Atlanta in 2018. The Atlanta-city section of Druid Hills is one of Atlanta's most affluent neighborhoods with a mean household income in excess of $238,500.
The Noguchi Museum, chartered as The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, is a museum and sculpture garden in the Long Island City section of Queens, New York City, designed and created by the Japanese-American sculptor Isamu Noguchi. Opening on a limited basis to the public in 1985, the museum and foundation were intended to preserve and display Noguchi's sculptures, architectural models, stage designs, drawings, and furniture designs. The two-story, 24,000 square feet (2,200 m2) museum and sculpture garden, one block from the Socrates Sculpture Park, underwent major renovations in 2004 allowing the museum to stay open year-round.
Isamu Noguchi was an American artist and landscape architect whose artistic career spanned six decades, from the 1920s onward. Known for his sculpture and public artworks, Noguchi also designed stage sets for various Martha Graham productions, and several mass-produced lamps and furniture pieces, some of which are still manufactured and sold.
Piedmont Park is an urban park in Atlanta, Georgia, located about 1 mile (1.6 km) northeast of Downtown, between the Midtown and Virginia Highland neighborhoods. Originally the land was owned by Dr. Benjamin Walker, who used it as his out-of-town gentleman's farm and residence. He sold the land in 1887 to the Gentlemen's Driving Club, who wanted to establish an exclusive club and racing ground for horse enthusiasts. The Driving Club entered an agreement with the Piedmont Exposition Company, headed by prominent Atlantan Charles A. Collier, to use the land for fairs and expositions and later gave the park its name.
Volunteer Park is a 48.3-acre (19.5 ha) park in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, United States.
Herman Miller, Inc. is an American company that produces office furniture, equipment, and home furnishings, including the Aeron chair, Noguchi table, Marshmallow sofa, and the Eames Lounge Chair. Herman Miller is also credited with the 1968 invention of the office cubicle under then-director of research Robert Propst.
Fernbank Forest is a 65-acre mature mixed forest that is part of Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta, Georgia. It has some relatively old trees compared to much of the forests in the Piedmont; as such, it has been extensively studied by scientists. Large specimens of white oak and tulip poplar, which grow up to 156 feet tall, can be found along one slope within the forest. There also are a few equally tall loblolly pine. Other canopy species include American beech, black oak, northern red oak, southern red oak, pignut hickory, bitternut hickory, mockernut hickory, winged elm and red maple. Eastern flowering dogwood, sourwood, umbrella magnolia and eastern redbud are prominent among the smaller trees. The forest floor is covered by many shrub, wildflower, and fern species.
Ponce de Leon Avenue, often simply called Ponce, provides a link between Atlanta, Decatur, Clarkston, and Stone Mountain, Georgia. It was named for Ponce de Leon Springs, in turn from explorer Juan Ponce de León, but is not pronounced as in Spanish. Several grand and historic buildings are located on the avenue.
Morningside/Lenox Park is an intown neighborhood in Atlanta, Georgia founded in 1923. It is located north of Virginia-Highland, east of Ansley Park and west of Druid Hills. Approximately 3,500 households comprise the neighborhood that includes the original subdivisions of Morningside, Lenox Park, University Park, Noble Park, Johnson Estates and Hylan Park.
Chastain Memorial Park is the largest city park in Atlanta, Georgia. It is a 268-acre (1.08 km2) park near the northern edge of the city. Included in the park are jogging paths, playgrounds, tennis courts, a golf course, swimming pool, horse park and amphitheater.
Moerenuma Park is a municipal park in Sapporo, Japan. It has playground equipment, outdoor sports fields, and objects that are designed by Isamu Noguchi, a Japanese American artist. Visitors can enter the park and use the parking lot for free. Construction began in 1988; the park opened in 2005. It won a number of awards including the Good Design Award in 2002.
A playscape is either a piece of land modified for children's play, a particular structure on a playground, or a nontraditional type of play environment. Landscape architects and designers are increasingly using the term to express areas of cities that encourage interaction and enjoyment for all ages. The term was probably first used in the mid-twentieth century, possibly first attributable to the National Institute for Architectural Education in 1957, and associated in the 1960s with the New York-based Playground Corporation of America. It is mentioned by Joe Frost in his 1992 book, Play and Playscapes, referring to attempts to replace or add on to the rubberized surface, metal and plastic of traditional playgrounds.
The Noguchi table is a piece of modernist furniture first produced in the mid-20th century. Introduced by Herman Miller in 1947, it was designed in the United States by Japanese American artist and industrial designer Isamu Noguchi. The Noguchi table comprises a wooden base composed of two identical curved wood pieces, and a heavy plate glass top.
Historic Fourth Ward Park is a park built on the site of the old Ponce de Leon amusement park, in the Old Fourth Ward of Atlanta, just south of Ponce City Market and just west of the BeltLine Eastside Trail.
Free Nelson Mandela is a sculpture in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, created by David Hammons in 1987. Alternatively referred to as a monument, the piece was originally created as a statement demanding the liberation of the imprisoned South African activist, Nelson Mandela. The official title is Nelson Mandela Must Be Free to Lead His People and South Africa to Peace and Prosperity. However, it is most frequently called just Free Nelson Mandela, because those words are carved in the face of the granite rock that is the bottom portion of the sculpture.
Bayfront Park is a 32-acre (13 ha) public, urban park in Downtown Miami, Florida on Biscayne Bay. The Chairman to the trust is Ary Shaeban. Located in the park is a bronze statue of Christopher Columbus sculpted by Count Vittorio di Colbertaldo of Verona, one of Benito Mussolini’s hand picked ceremonial bodyguards known as the “Black Musketeers.”
Shoji Sadao was a Japanese American architect, best known for his work and collaborations with R. Buckminster Fuller and Isamu Noguchi. During World War II he was stationed in Germany and was a cartographer for the U.S. Army.
Sea Change is a historic summer estate at 27 Corning Way in Northeast Harbor, Maine. Its main house is an International style structure, originally built in 1940 to a design by Wallace K. Harrison in collaboration with Isamu Noguchi, and rebuilt from the original plans in 2005 after a fire destroyed the original. Outbuildings on the property include three once-detached Shingle style cabins and a carriage house, all built in the late 19th century by Erastus Corning. The most unusual structure on the property is a large reinforced concrete bomb shelter, built in 1961–62 to design by William F. Pederson. The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009, for its exceptional collection of modern architecture, including the Cold War-era bunker and a rare Harrison design located outside New York.
The Radio Nurse was the first electronic baby monitor. Manufactured by the Zenith Radio Corporation, it went on sale in 1938. The product was developed by Zenith executive Eugene F. McDonald, and designed by Japanese-American sculptor and product designer Isamu Noguchi. Although the product was manufactured for only a few years, it has been acclaimed for its design. It is still in demand as a collectible and is in many museum collections.
The Sidney Lanier Monument is a public monument in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Located in Piedmont Park, the monument consists of a bust of Sidney Lanier, a notable poet from Georgia. The monument was dedicated in 1914.