Tom Sawyer Island at Amelia Earhart Park

Hialeah, FL USA

Visit This Playground

Families enjoy this nature-inspired playground. A father helps his toddler down a PlayShaper slide. A group of older kids play on the Geoplex net structure.

Playground Details

Play Styles

Themed
Net Play
Preconfigured
Nature-Inspired Play

Product Lines/ Categories

Freestanding Play
PlayBooster®
Smart Play®

Min Area Required

75' x 84' (22,86 m x 25,60 m)
- 2-5 Area: 58' x 52' (17,68 m x 15,85 m)
- 5-12 Area: 26' x 23' (7,92 m x 7,01 m)

Max Fall Height

93" (2,36 m)

Design/CAD Files for this Playground

Ages 2-5 yrs

Motion

Learning Wall

Overhead Events

Sports & Fitness

Log Balance Beam

Climbers

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Mainstructures

Site Furnishings

Acorn Seat

Swings

Enclosures

Recycled Wood-Grain Lumber Panel

Motion & More Fun

Slides & Gliders

SlideWinder2® w/Tree Branch Support

Custom

For more information about items included in this playground

Contact Your Consultant

Miami-Dade County Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces Department wanted to create a playground that promoted outdoor adventure. They got what they wished for with this custom, nature-inspired PlayBooster^® Netplex®. Recycled Wood-Grain Panels and a woodsy color scheme fit right into the landscape. On Netplex, kids ages 5 to 12 enjoy a multi-level, webbed net experience that’s great for climbing, racing and just hanging out. A Log Balance Beam, Mushroom Steppers, realistic climbing rocks, Acorn Seats and bouncers that look like wooden leaves round out this venturesome theme. Pathways surrounding the soft yet level surfacing creates accessibility so that all kids can play together. For little ones ages 2 to 3, the nearby SmartPlay^® Motion has been given a natural color scheme and offers 16 built-in activities for entertainment.

Creating a play-in-the-woods experience

During the 1970s, the director for what was then the Metro-Dade Park and Recreation Department envisioned Amelia Earhart Park as an ideal location for a farm village where children could go to connect with nature and learn about animals. Nearby the farm village is a lake with a man-made island that the director wanted to turn into a "play-in-the-woods" experience.

An island adventure is created

The island was designed as Tom Sawyer’s Play Island, which is accessed via a long bridge from Amelia Earhart Park. Visitors are met with native cypress trees along the shoreline, boulders and oak trees further inland. Once the island was sculpted, a few pieces of playground equipment—climbers, swings and playground slides—were added.

After nearly 40 years of existence and a playground renovation in the late 90s, it came time for the County to update the play space with playground equipment that met new safety and accessibility standards. Karen Cheney, landscape architect at Miami-Dade County Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces department, was assigned the project.

A repurposed playground

“When I got started on this project, I knew that I wanted to keep the theme of nature play,” explained Karen. “I worked closely with Nikki Hall, my Landscape Structures playground designer, and Rep Services, our local playground consultants to create a play space that would complement the surrounding environment, and fit within the space and budget.”

The playground design includes the net-based Netplex® play structure that is linked to a more traditional PlayBooster® “I was blown away by all the raw material that I had to work with.” Karen Cheney Landscape Architect, Miami-Dade County Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces Department. The posts of both playground structures are custom printed to look like tree bark, and recycled wood-grain lumber panels add to the nature-inspired play experience. Custom oak leaf balance boards, mushroom steppers and a log balance beam enhance the nature play theme and deliver challenge disguised as fun. Even more, Smart Play®: Motion 2-5 provides age-appropriate adventures for young visitors so that entire families can spend hours exploring and playing on Tom Sawyer’s Island.

In addition to the play environment, Karen worked to upgrade the surrounding land into more usable space. The grade separation was renovated to be a concrete gravity wall that she envisioned as a balance beam for children as well as a resting area for visitors. The floor of the nearby shelter was replaced while the original structure was untouched to keep the living roof of Resurrection Ferns intact. And to ensure that the old-growth oak trees wouldn’t be harmed during the renovation, Karen teamed up with an arborist.

“We had a few serendipitous conditions here—the existing boulders and beautiful trees,” said Karen. “It all came together to gel into a repurposed playground that’s distinctive.”

A prescription for nature deficit

The new playground design on Tom Sawyer Island at Amelia Earhart Park opened in February 2015 to rave reviews. According to Karen, the playground is well-used and everyone is excited about the completed project. “People come on weekends to spend the day at Amelia Earhart Park, and the Island has become a real prominent feature once again,” she said. “The new playground equipment has given new life to the space.”

“I’ve been designing playgrounds for a long time,” Karen explained. “Place making is all about recognizing the history of the space, and you build from there. We focused on making this about nature play because we recognize that our kids really do have a nature deficiency. We hope the new playground, along with our existing recreation programming, will instill a love of nature to a new generation.”

Installed: February 2015

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