Relying on the Experts

As Sandy Recovery construction kicks into high gear at Red Hook Houses, NYCHA called in the experts to help design the new playgrounds that are part of the Authority’s $440 million investment in the community: kids.

“I like to go on the swings a lot,” said 9-year-old Red Hook Houses resident Jasalise Velasquez. The fourth grader was excited to give her input at the playground visioning session held in December.

For the visioning session, NYCHA joined forces with KaBOOM!, a national non-profit dedicated to bringing active play into children’s lives. “We got all kinds of exciting ideas, really got the energy flowing in this room and lots of great output coming from these kids,” said KaBOOM! Project Manager Jacob Stahler.

“It’s really important for the kids to be a part of designing the playgrounds and making them exciting,” said NYCHA’s Vice President for the Office of Recovery and Resilience, Joy Sinderbrand. “We want to make destination playgrounds with different themes or different elements that attract kids of all strengths and abilities.”

“The vision for my playground: I do a lot of cat stuff because I’m obsessed with cats,” said Velasquez, who drew her playground with a giant cat slide in the middle of it. Her drawing and the rest of the dream playground sketches created by participants will be used by the construction teams to build playgrounds that kids are guaranteed to love.