|
American Playgrounds: Revitalizing Community Space | 
 enlarge | Author: Susan G. Solomon
Publisher: UPNE
Category: Book
List Price: $35.00
Buy New: $26.34
You Save: $8.66 (25%)
New (11) Used (6) from $20.04
Avg. Customer Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 319188
Media: Library Binding
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 276
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 1584655178
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.06873
EAN: 9781584655176
ASIN: 1584655178
Publication Date: August 24, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
For years, designers, educators, and community administrators have clamored for a book that will highlight the problems with contemporary playgrounds, tender sorely needed strategies with which to redress them, and stimulate national debate about today's crisis of undervalued public space. Susan Solomon's groundbreaking and marvelously illustrated American Playgrounds is that book. Since the 1970s, Solomon maintains, American playgrounds have degenerated into irrelevance as cultural artifacts and educational tools. Imbedded in Solomon's text is a frank indictment of American attitudes that are stunted by a heavy-handed emphasis on safety that limits the nature of play and the vitality of places for public assembly.
During the past decade an elite few American architects, landscape architects, and sculptors, including Stanley Saitowitz, Walter Hood, and Mary Miss, have pioneered the restoration of aesthetic and developmental values to play areas for young people. Solomon appraises these success stories and proposes fresh and urgent remedies that blend excellent design principles, innovative planning, and affordability--a vision for the future of the playground in America. Supplementing her impeccable command of primary and secondary sources with hundreds of hours of interviews with designers and clients, the author confronts a seriously under-developed topic with powerful and complex arguments rich in social history, law, theories of play and childhood, and urbanism. Readers will be inspired--and equipped--to take up the gauntlet of advocacy for superior American playgrounds.
Accessibly written, American Playgrounds will fascinate diverse constituencies, including parents, educators, policymakers, and art, architectural, and cultural historians. For those commissioning, funding, designing, and overseeing playgrounds, it will be indispensable. The book includes a foreword by Martha Thorne, Associate Curator of the Department of Architecture, Art Institute of Chicago.
|
| Customer Reviews:
 American Playgrounds: Revitalizing Community Space February 6, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I really enjoyed and found this book quite useful in research I have been undertaking. Covers the history of american playgrounds, outlines some of the more interesting projects that often move away from the standard 'post and platform' playgrounds that dominate the market.
Great for anyone who is planning a playground or community space.
Well written, well researched and well documented references, great for practising professionals or students alike.
 Superb Insights June 3, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Susan Solomon's approach to the recent history of American Playgrounds is insightful, well-researched and very well-written. Although academic, the book is neither esoteric nor patronizing. The illustrations are excellent. As a designer, I found her discussion of safe play spaces very illuminating. I would recommend this book to practitioners, historians, and students. It's not just a history of play, but a history of American thought. Great book!
Use as a Textbook February 24, 2006
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I am currently using this book as a text for a 1-credit class called "The Playground Project" and it is such a wonderful compliment. I feel as if I am really gaining a lot of information from it, and it's a quick and fun read.
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |
