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Imagination Playground Comes to Washington Heights

By Carla Zanoni | July 7, 2010 8:38pm | Updated on July 8, 2010 6:25am

By Carla Zanoni

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS — Children can climb, stack and pile the more than 25 building blocks that make up “Imagination Playground,” a public park installation that debuted in Washington Heights' J. Hood Wright Park this week.

The biodegradable blue foam block playground was designed to allow kids to exercise creativity and build their own play spaces. The movable playground features loose parts like cones, slides and blocks in different sizes.

The play set, designed by David Rockwell — the architect behind JetBlue's new JFK terminal and Robert De Niro's Nobu restaurants — will be available at 10 public parks in the five boroughs through Labor Day, and will make week-long debuts at five other parks throughout the summer.

"I wanted to explore a way to create a play space that would encourage creative, child-directed free play,” Rockwell told DNAinfo when the park opened at the High Line in May.

Washington Heights resident Tanya Barach said she was excited to hear that the playground would open at the park this week.

“I like that she can use her own imagination in the playground and gets a chance to explore,” Barack said as she watched daughter Sofia Carrasco, 19 months old, play with the blocks.

A favorite game for brothers Owen and Liam Wells, 2 and 4 years old, is knocking down the larger blocks — like giants knocking over gargantuan tiles, as they described it. 

By Wednesday, the play set was already showing signs of heavy wear, with dirt smears making the original bright blue material appear dingy.

A spokeswoman for Parks said that staff regularly clean playground equipment and a spokeswoman from Imagination Playground, the nonprofit that distributes the play sets, said that the blocks are antimicrobial.

Owen and Liam’s father, Steve, 35, said a little dirt wouldn't keep his family away from playing with the blocks.

“They do already look pretty dirty,” Steve Wells, 35, father of the two boys, said. “But neither me nor my wife are germaphobes. It’s OK for kids to get dirty.”

The Imagination Playground will be at the park until Labor Day.