<p>We are in Zurich right now, and happened to chance by a park in which there were lawn chess sets where the locals would hang out, play chess, socialize. My kids decided to play a few games and had great fun, especially as they chatted with locals. (Neither are into chess particularly, but it was a fun spontaneous diversion in our sightseeing.)</p>
<p>It got me thinking -- my teens also can't go by a playground without wanting to goof off, even though they are "too big" for it. It made me start thinking about how designers design public spaces to encourage spontaneous interaction -- fountains, play areas, things like these Lawn chess sets, etc. </p>
<p>What colleges have such landscape pieces that encourage spontaneous outdoor communal interaction? I'm not talking about jogging trails or lakefront trails or "my college lets me rent roller-skates" and things of that nature. I'm talking about designing public spaces specifically to foster spontaneity and community. The only example I could think of was NU's ice skating rink, but that's still not fully spontaneous. Any examples come to mind? Do any campuses have a "playground" designed for young adults?</p>
<p>Not the university, but the downtown area right next to the University of Iowa in Iowa City.</p>
<p>Fountain that kids,teens, and college students can run through on the ped mall plaza.
Huge chess set on the same plaza.
Big Playground area on the same plaza.
Pianos throughout the plaza and downtown area that anyone can sit at and play.</p>
<p>Dupont Circle Park has fountain and community chess set. Accessible to multiple DC schools.</p>
<p>Stanford U has multiple fountains used for multiple activities and lawns for soccer, frisbee etc.
There are multiple sculpture gardens to hang out and play in.</p>
<p>I could go on and on, but I think it is fairly common at colleges.</p>
<p>Our local library in Tennessee has numerous chess boards scattered throughout. They are well used by youth and adults. Every school in our area has a competitive chess team.</p>
<p>The Sarah Duke gardens at Duke are a bit like this. There’s a big grassy area where people can tan or play frisbee, and it offers music concerts in the spring/summer and movies in the fall. Feeding the ducks and catfish in the pond is popular, especially with children. </p>
<p>Facilities include the garden center, which has classrooms, a gathering space for weddings or dances, a horticultural library, etc. In the spring/summer, the terrace cafe is open for food. They recently added a Japanese pavilion that offers traditional tea gatherings. There’s also some bee hives and an associated apiculture club.</p>
<p>Students are usually the dominant force in the gardens, but you’ll find a lot of people from the Durham/Chapel Hill area visiting, especially in the spring and summer. The gardens also provide classes (plant identification, birdwatching, etc.) and do outreach, like bringing activities and plants to children at Duke Hospital.</p>
<p>Of course most every college has a grassy area suitable for frisbee or such, gardens, casual food service, outdoor sculptures of some sort, and meeting rooms. I wasn’t trying to get people to list every student center, pavilion, etc. I was really thinking about specific unexpected things that are deliberately added to an outdoor landscape – the swing is a perfect example of what I’m talking about.</p>
<p>For the past two years Harvard has set out chairs in The Yard to encourage more social interactions. There have been spontaneous games of musical chairs, etc.</p>
<p>Kind of – but I still have something very specific in mind. Another example – we were in Luzern a few days ago, and the waterfront had a quasi “ropes course” that anyone could just jump on, whether child or (ahem) some theoretical American teenagers :-). Transforming an area that you walk through into an area where you stop, do something, and interact with others. It’s the difference between observing a pretty fountain, and those fountains that bubble up from the ground that you jump in.</p>
<p>Love this question. Saint Michael’s College in Vermont has a Word Garden…like the magnetic poetry sets, the garden is full of pebbles and larger stones with words engraved on them. Not sure if people use this as a gathering, interacting spot, but I love it. It is in a beautiful spot on campus.</p>
<p>Maybe somewhat related to your Q - UCSD has quite a number of random and sometimes strange sculptures scattered about, sometimes in obscure locations, so one time my D, W, and I walked all over the campus finding them which was kinda fun. It also has an area of trees people often walk through between areas that are ‘talking trees’ - they have hidden speakers that will randomly talk. You can see some examples by doing a search for ‘UCSD Talking Trees’.</p>
<p>i actually agree with miamidap, LOL. most colleges are structured so that they allow for spaces of public engagement. also, so much of college life requires students to be ‘on’ or ‘engaged’, that i think it’s more impressive and necessary for schools to have places (preferably outdoors) that are primarily used for quiet contemplation…</p>
<p>but more related to the original question, that was one of the first things i noticed about new york city. on my first visit several years ago, my sisters and i took a bus through the city, and the residential area near coney island (can’t remember the name of the neighborhood) had trees and green space with benches set out. it wasn’t a park; these benches were very close to the street, very european style (though i didn’t know that at the time). there were elderly people sitting and chatting/people-watching. i thought it was really nice, and something so different from what we have here in southern california! if anything, our elders need accessible public engagement spaces much more than college-aged kids because without them, many tend to stay inside… lonely and isolated.</p>
<p>One of the things that endeared us to Tufts is that the Outing Club advertised itself during Accepted Students Weekend by hanging hammocks from the trees. Can’t think of too many things that are there all the time - though the cannon (like Carnegie Mellon’s fence) gets regular paint jobs. [Tufts</a> Magazine Winter 2006](<a href=“Home | Tufts Alumni”>Home | Tufts Alumni)</p>
<p>“that i think it’s more impressive and necessary for schools to have places (preferably outdoors) that are primarily used for quiet contemplation”</p>
<p>One doesn’t preclude the other! </p>
<p>The word poetry, talking trees, and hammocks are great examples of what I was thinking about!</p>
<p>Mathmom – NU has a rock that is painted nightly by various groups or individuals, similar to the cannon. My S actually used a line in his essay to the effect that buried under 25 years of paint was a love note on the rock from his father to his mother.</p>