53rd St. Park
I’m sure that the last thing that anyone reading this blog wants to stomach is another tirade about the need to eat right and exercise. It would be a hypocritical message for me to offer considering my own inability to get my shit together. Many of you know that every movement I make is coupled with a million tiny crackling sounds as my rusty gears slowly but surely grind themselves into nothingness. I do, however, heartily believe in my father’s doctor’s message: “motion is lotion,” and consequently I feel moved by creative approaches to get the body moving.
About 6 months ago I took a trip to Miami and stumbled across what is one of the most interesting public works design projects I’ve seen. 53rd St. Park is located in North Miami Beach nestled between monolithic hotels, a glorious beachfront, and the uncomfortably busy Collins Ave. If you are in Miami, you can check it out here: 53rd St. Park
One side of the park features a seusical-jetsons-styled children’s playground equipped with a mini-climbing wall and some weird inside-out-slides sitting atop an astroturf slab. This side was cool in its own ways, but I forgot to take pictures of this section, so for more info you’ll have to check it out yourself.
More innovative, in my opinion, is the little circular trail of astroturf on the opposite side of the park. I’ve been to parks before that have trails featuring “stations” which you can use to exercise or practice balance or whatnot as you walk along them. This park, like those others, featured stations, but instead of rusted balance beams and cut-off tree stump stairs these stations consisted of playground-like equipment which leverages the individuals’ body weight as a counterbalance mechanism along with simple pictorial directions offering alternative exercises and the optimal number of repetitions for different weights.
By looking at the pictures you can pretty much tell what kind of exercises you would do with the equipment. The constant breeze (and consequent view) provided by the ocean and the consistent visual aesthetic of the park make for an overall enjoyable setting. If you’ve seen workout parks like this before or other positive public design projects please throw us a reference in the comments.
