Hazelwood Play Trail
Team: Studio for Spatial Practice
Client: Playful Pittsburgh Collaborative & Trying Together
Location: Pittsburgh, PA Date : 2015-2019
A playful mind and body is a critical aspect in the lives of people of all ages. The Hazelwood Play Trail (HPT) will raise awareness regarding the benefits of play, while engaging the public with the neighborhood’s unique natural elements. The HPT is a currently developing project, promoting unconventional play-based learning and living in Hazelwood. It is a pathway of playful elements that raises awareness of the benefits and many different forms of play. The trail will allow for multi-generational public use, play advocacy events, community engagement activities, and educational purposes. It will create a space for people to gather and share ideas and to engage in new ways.
SfSP began its involvement in the HPT leading priority establishement and precedent selections with the first Steering Committee meeting in 2015. SfSP worked with community members at the Ultimate Play Day in Hazelwood to solicit ideas for future play interventions along the trail. Lytle Land (formerly the KaBOOM playground) and Elizabeth Street Parklet were two of the originally suggested play “stops” along the trail. SfSP provided landscape architectural services for both projects from Schematic Design through Construction Administration.
The HPT is and will continue to integrate community involvement from all levels. It will change expectations on what play is or could be. It will provoke questions and conversations and allows users to view the same location within the community in a different light.
