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The St. Kilda Adventure Playground just outside of Melbourne, Australia / Photo: Fernando de Sousa via Flickr

I don’t know about you, but when I was a kid, I don’t think I ever once used a “play structure.” I can still vividly remember the playground at my elementary school, with its castles, pirate ships, Amazonian treehouse cities, secret lairs, and rivers of lava. My friends and I never thought of the wooden pavilion, the monkey-bars, or the giant tire off in the corner of the lot as what they actually were. The term “play structure” did not apply–there was nothing structural about the way that we used that place.

Today, of course, that same corner of the school yard is occupied by a brightly-colored construction that is very safely bolted to a rubber pad. Gone are the wood chips (which served as gold doubloons, secret keys, magic gems…), the giant tire, and anything remotely resembling a treehouse. There is a slide, and big plastic blocks with Xs and Os on opposing sides, where children can enjoy hours and hours of unstructured tic-tac-toe. If such a thing exists.

This is an all-too-common story, and one that you probably know well. Over the past few years, we have siloed different types of play within playgrounds, just as we have siloed different types of uses in cities. Pieces of play equipment that might be transformed into fantastical alternate worlds when jumbled together are isolated (a slide here, a tire swing there), underlining that each piece is meant to be used in one specific way. But research and support have been mounting for years to back up what many of us feel on a gut level: these sanitized playscapes are junk.

There has been a recent burst of interest in adventure playgrounds, which “depend on ‘loose parts,’ such as water, sand, balls, and other manipulable materials.” Thoughtful articles from The Guardian‘s Justin McGuirk, Kill Screen‘s Yannick LeJacq, and Cabinet magazine’s James Trainor have each explored the history of this movement within the past couple of months, revisiting everything from Aldo van Eyck’s work in Amsterdam following WWII, to the unique cast of characters (Richard Dattner, M. Paul Friedberg, Lady Allen of Hurtwood, et al) behind the surge of interest in London and New York in the 1960s. To see so much solid new writing on this subject should be encouraging to anyone who hopes to see kids playing amidst wood chips again. Unstructured play is having a moment, and moments are meant to be seized.

Cities are where us “grown-ups” play at leading meaningful and enjoyable lives, so it may be helpful (if anecdotal) to think of playgrounds as the staging areas for the cities of tomorrow. If we want to live in siloed cities, with offices here, houses there, and all quarters safely demarcated by wide arterial roads, we should probably go right on ahead building playgrounds where the slides and plastic tic-tac-toes cower away from each other. But if we want bustling, creative cities full of the surprise and serendipity that makes urban life so enjoyable, we might want to start thinking about playgrounds as microcosmic multi-use destinations.

I think of my favorite public space now, Washington Square Park, and it reminds me, in a way of that schoolyard playground. There are so many different things happening at any given moment: people are playing music, and games, they’re kissing, chatting, taking photos, sunning, jogging, and watching the world pass by. The magic of that park is in its open-endedness, and its mix of these activities. That’s what a great place looks like.

Shouldn’t our playgrounds be great places, too?

Because we stay nearby, we have gone through the space at least 20 times, so we were prepared for little or no use, but a rat was unexpected.

A space that offers so few options, that controls you and limits you in every attempt that you might want to make, we know instantly that people who try to use it in the way they want are going to be irritated and will not stay long, and probably will not return. In addition, the fact that it is an art museum of “renown,” you would think that there could be a garden with sculpture, amenities, and flowers…something that might lift one intellectually or spiritually.

In contrast, when you compare this public space with the sculpture gardens of the Hirschhorn and the National Gallery in Washington, or the Modern Art Museum’s garden in New York, you realize how far off the mark the Tate Modern is. What a loser.

Inside the situation is similar, especially in the main hall where world-class contemporary sculpture is laid out randomly, seemingly with no pattern. This could be a wonderful setting with more features like that of a garden atrium or plaza, such as cafes and seating that are provided in the American Wing at New York’s Metropolitan Museum. The space is acting more as a storehouse for art, not the public space that it could and should be.

Canary Wharf

We had never heard positive comments about the Canary Wharf development, so we were not expecting a lot when we went there. We were more disappointed than we expected to be. They have four outdoor public spaces and a maze of underground shops that are virtually hidden from view and hard to find. Three of the public spaces were filled with cars. Evidently, they think so little of their public space that they think a car show is an attraction to enliven them.

This very large complex rivals any office park in size. the complex fails on every score. The bottoms of the buildings are stark and empty, or covered with columns to hide any use that might try to reach out. Even when you get behind the columns or arcades, and you get some retail or a nice entranceway, the result is still stark and uninviting. Any outside street is uninteresting and uninviting. One almost hopes to see some seedy characters to add some personality to the place. There is clearly a very limited clientele that they want to attract.

Contrast this complex with either Battery Park City or Rockefeller Center and you see how far off the mark Canary Wharf is. One begins to think as Winston Churchill said… We shape our building, and afterwards they shape us… pretty scary!

ABN AMRO Headquarters

This building should not be in London or any city, not even Houston or Atlanta. It would not add anything anywhere. We don’t even think it should be a stand-alone building in a suburban office park. But to locate next to one of the most vital and interesting neighborhoods in London is a travesty of the highest order. One can only think that people who work in this building must be from another planet that must be placed on this earth to stamp out anything of interest around it. To even think of putting such a building in the city is amazing. It reminds us of the Bonaventure Hotels in Atlanta and Los Angeles, which Holly Whyte labeled the “most brutal” buildings imaginable. We thought we would never see another building like this in any city after exposing those disasters.

The design of these buildings, like the Canary Wharf complex, is driven by fear. They are designed to be separate and apart, aloof and indifferent to the world that they have removed themselves from. It is scary to think what the people are like inside these building, what decisions they make and what impact they have on the rest of the world. The contrast between ABN Amro and Spittlefields Market and the Whitechapel and Aldgate Neighborhoods is probably the starkest anywhere. This new development imposes a way of life that is so contrary to, alien to, and so inferior to what is already there. Build on what is there. Don’t destroy centuries of growth and impose something so superficial and empty in its place.

Old Street

The newly improved section of Old Street in Shoreditch really missed the mark. It undertook to make a horrible, by all accounts, one way eastbound road through an important and revitalizing neighborhood, and did merely a road improvement when it could have done a major community renewal project by creating a series of public spaces and development opportunities to draw people instead of just a road. Traffic could have been part of the solution, but it was the only consideration. A fifty year decision that truly limits the potential of a very important and interesting community is a sad commentary for a city that is beginning to focus attention more than ever on regeneration and public spaces.

The South Bank Centre; National Theatre, Royal Festival Hall, and Queen Elizabeth Hall

No complex of public performance space could be more uninviting than this. We went buy these buildings four times on our last visit and we could not tell you what they were or what was going on in them, even after the fourth pass. All we know is that it is the center for skateboarders, and they provide some real entertainment.

The whole second level is a real mystery, and where you enter any of the facilities is also very hard to decipher. The potential for this complex fronting on the South Bank walk and the Themes River is extraordinary. Add the Shell Center, The London Eye and the Old County Hall (Saatchi Gallery, London Aquarium, Dali Universe) and you have a row of buildings that would compile the greatest entertainment stretch anywhere in the world. And it is across the river from Parliament and some of the most important public buildings in London. Awesome! We think that this stretch of the South Bank Walk is functioning at 20% of its capacity.

Shell Center

Why can’t corporate headquarters in critical locations be shining examples of their participation in their city’s life? Rockefeller Center with GE as its signature tenant is the best example. But Shell (Royal Dutch) is along with ABN Amro, and the Canary Wharf development sadly lacking in their responsibility. Their location is center to the future of London and the walkway from Waterloo Station through their building to the waterfront is horrible, – probably the worst experience in London and certainly the worst gateway.

GLA Building (City Hall) and Plaza

There may be many important innovations in this building, but when you see it for the first time, it is very dreary and dull. It also seems so minor a building for such a grand city. It has a terrible sunken plaza that is only good for skateboarders and skaters. We think the building should be replaced with a building worthy of being the “City Hall” of a great city. Move out or replace.

British Museum Entranceway

This almost feels like the truck entranceway or the entranceway to a public building that doesn’t want visitors. There is no art, no flowers, and no park… nothing to do. And yet behind this empty courtyard is a vast, wonderful museum, one of the most honored in the world.

Lloyd’s new building dates from 1986 and is commonly listed as one of London’s most magnificent pieces of modern architecture. Along with the Pompidou Center in Paris, it’s a one-of-a-kind kind building, and is intriguing because of that. However, with only minor changes at the ground floor, the building could have been truly interesting to both building users and passers-by. Being able to view the ground floor from the sidewalk would be wonderful. And for the ground floor uses to more accessible would help enormously for this unusual building to fit into the city.

This could be a wonderful example of modern architecture, if it only had more accessible uses at the ground level and better views into the ground floor activities, which could all make for a very lively base feeding into the Leadenhall Market. It’s fun and memorable to see the guts of a building all on show right before your eyes.

Broadgate

One wants to like this complex that attempts to copy New York’s Rockefeller Center. As a recent development (1985-1991) it tries hard to please. It has many of the makings of a quality office complex, but it is disjointed and fussy where it could be simple and connected. Arcades obscure the retail; art and water features are not well integrated, more of the “look but don’t touch” variety. The skating rink area has so many levels that it’s hard to know where you really are, or where you want to be.

Berwick Street Market

This is a very small and insignificant market in a rough and messy area. However, it sits in the middle of the West End. At present it seems to be used mostly by local residents and office workers. It is known to be very cheap but good quality. With some improvement to management, appearance and product offering, this small market could add vitality and help bring up this area. An opportunity waiting to be taken advantage of.

Hyde Park

This is a wonderful, vast open space, originally designed for horseback riding, waiting to become the best park in the world. It has probably the largest open field of any urban park and in a recent walk across the entire length, we felt so glad and relieved to get to the other side. Looking at and drawing from the extraordinary models of Central Park and Prospect Park in New York and Brooklyn, respectively, as models for Hyde Park, could give a whole new opportunity to a great city.

Regent’s Park

Regent’s Park is similar to Hyde Park, but is in a more residential area and could be an even greater asset to the families and visitors that could take advantage of its many possibilities.

The train stations in London are the best in the world, each a wonderful experience in its own right. Taken all together, it’s hard not to become enchanted with the wealth of ingenuity that Londoners brought to building a great rail system. There is no doubt that cities all over the world modeled themselves on London’s great stations. By looking carefully at each one, it would be possible to piece together the best of the best. But to add a bit of challenge, we think the test of a truly outstanding train station is its context: how it situates itself in the surrounding neighborhood. This is an enormous opportunity for London, and in some situations there are uses that show possibilities for renewing these very important gateways, such as Borough Market between London Bridge and Southwark Cathredal. Many of the stations are or have been renewed and some have major new additions such as the Eurostar Terminal within Waterloo.

The London Underground

We use mass transit in every city to which we travel, and we love the Tube, putting it among the top of any city’s transit system. We have never been tied up on it, having used it over a hundred times. Yet we know that Londoners love to hate it. Sure, it’s crowded, smelly, and hot in the summer, but it gets you almost anywhere quickly and safely. It has good information and a fare system that allows people to take full advantage of it. In addition, it is “the” place, like transit systems in other great cities, to see people from all over the world. It is as interesting as the most vibrant international marketplace. Everyone is on view and in the right situation, you can get into a conversation with someone you would never meet anywhere else. Still, it can get better… The real opportunity for London Transport is to upgrade the stations and better integrate them into each community.

Double Decker Buses, London Cabs

Getting five people in the back seat of a cab is one thing; allowing them to face each other and carry on a conversation is a phenomenal asset and wonderful experience (especially when compared with New York City cabs). Besides the vehicles, London cab drivers are the most professional in the world. They make you feel well-taken care of, and we like to think that their new-found freedom from insane levels of traffic has made them less peevish and better able to act as real front-line ambassadors for London. And the London double-decker bus is a world-class treasure. Weaving through the city, taking in everything from a second-story height is a photographers dream… and very special experience for tourists and residents alike. What’s more, with the new congestion charges (see below), the bus has become a very real option for getting around. Terrific!

London Traffic Congestion Charges

This really seems to be working. We can’t remember being able to move anywhere on the surface in London in the past. Now it seems actually to be a pleasure. It is easier for pedestrians and bicyclists, and once again you can get somewhere by riding the bus. We think congestion charges are only the start: A whole series of public-space and pedestrian improvements can follow. We can even envision that London could create (or re-create) some truly great streets. For example, Oxford Street, which formerly was oppressively full of traffic, now seems actually quite comfortable both in a bus and on the sidewalk. Quite a change.

Covent Garden

This is the best of the “festival marketplaces” in the world. Its key location near theaters, Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square, and Piccadilly Circus make this entire area the most interesting and dynamic center anywhere for eclectic entertainment, crafts, upscale retail, restaurants, and museum. Historically, it served as a true food market, and one could feel deprived of that use today, but what has replaced it has no parallel anywhere. With that in mind, continuing to improve Trafalgar and Leicester Squares will make this area really shine.

Seven Dials, Neal’s Yard

This district at the northern end of Covent Garden is very comfortable – almost too comfortable – for London. It is truly special, with a scale that shows a kinder, gentler side of London that you didn’t think existed. The small buildings, narrow streets, and little alleyways reveal wonderful treasures of little courtyards, such as Neal’s Yard, that seem almost like a hidden paradise. And while it is very historic, the overwhelming feeling is that it is contemporary, with uses that fit the setting. New York has Greenwich Village and Paris has the Marais, but this area is somehow even more enchanting. It’s one of those places positively draws you toward it, and makes you want to return to often.

Harrods Department Store Food Halls

There is no classier series of upscale food halls with better displays, counters, and eateries anywhere in the world. You can feast your eyes and browse to your heart’s content. It is better than a museum, partly because here you can buy anything you want.

Leadenhall Market

No market in the world contrasts more with its setting than Leadenhall Market. South Street Seaport comes close, though it’s a bit contrived. Leadenhall, however, is the real deal, having been in operation for 122 years (although some form of food market has been on this site since the Middle Ages). But the marvel of Leadenhall is that it is has survived in an environment of urban devastation. The contrast has only gotten worse with new development. We feel strongly that contemporary design, with its array of materials, could be wonderfully contextual; yet architecture in the “City” is about empty, blank building bases with reflective glass and heavy columns. New retail and storefront design, practiced all over London and in other great cities, has not, unfortunately, carried over into new development in the “City” – or for that matter, in Canary Wharf.

Columbia Road Flower Market

This is the place to go to see a huge array of flowers, and perhaps even buy some if you can maneuver through the tightest crowd we have ever been wedged into. The Market has been around since the 19th century, tucked away in one of the small streets in London’s East End. Expanded to include coffee, crafts, and antiques, it has evolved into a quite a trendy Sunday hangout and appears to attract people from other parts of the city, too. Get there early if you expect to get anything.

Borough Market

One of the best collections of gourmet foods anywhere, with specialty growers and producers from all regions of the UK and other parts of Europe. Tucked under the railroad trestles next to Bridge Station and Southwark Cathedral, it also one of the highlights of the South Bank walks along the Thames. This is one of only a very few spaces that we consider a place I would go to for my annual birthday pilgrimage.

Millennium and Hungerford Pedestrian Bridges

It is fantastic to be able to walk over a major river without vehicles rumbling by at your side. Even better, London has provided two such places to do this in the last few years. The results of these efforts, combined with the comfortable pedestrian crossings on the London, Tower, Southwark, Waterloo and Albert Bridges, has virtually brought the two sides of the Thames together. This is certainly a transformative opportunity, probably wisely foreseen by visionary planners, which will define London for the future. No city has such opportunity to reinvent itself, and these bridges, more than any other development, create the setting in which to do so.

Battersea Park

This wonderful neighborhood park provides a good model for success, along with the great Olmsted Parks in the United States, for London’s Regent and Hyde Parks. There are so many creative/inventive aspects going on here, it’s a virtual laboratory for defining the neighborhood park for the 21st century.

Queen Mary’s Gardens

This great garden within Regent’s Park, though very well-hidden, is a true treasure for all of London. The outdoor theatre which we were so lucky to attend gave us a real thrill.

St. James’ Park

This wonderful park has always been a respite from the busy city around it. It sits between Buckingham Palace and Whitehall with great views to either side. It is spiritual place, and far and away the best park in the heart of London. Its only real rival is Queen Mary’s Gardens, which has many similar qualities, but is buried deep in Regent’s Park.

With all its movie theaters, restaurants, and even a high-end hotel, Leicester Square is an “I don’t know what I am” kind of place. There’s the building offering theatre tickets for venues that are not even in the area; all the heavy traffic and an anomalous green park in the middle; and its role as a crossroads of sorts between Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, and Covent Gardens – so much that this space doesn’t seem to have a real identity.

South Bank and Riverside Walk

This could be the most fantastic waterfront promenade, when you realize the abundance of important uses along the river: performance facilities, the London Eye, City Hall, Borough Market, and the Tate, to name just a few. One can only begin to imagine how extraordinary the whole experience could be, if it weren’t for the sad fact that so many of the major institutions contribute so little to the experience. Either they simply have little presence, or they offer up simply awful parks such as at the Tate Modern or the Greater London Authority (GLA). Some of the obstacles to achieving success in this place are significant, but there are plenty of other simple things that could be done. One would be helping people coming out of the Tube stations in seeing and knowing where they want to go; or better identifying buildings, along with their activities and their entrances, or layering a series of amenities, such as seating, public art, drinking fountains, and small performance spaces. All this could add significantly to the visitor experience on the waterfront, at a relatively small cost.

Old Spitalfields Market

Spitalfields Market and the surrounding district are being ferociously nibbled at by narrow-minded, stifling development that is contrary and destructive. This place could be one of London’s greatest attractions as a gateway into a fantastically diverse and entrepreneurial neighborhood. Working with the market and adjoining neighborhoods to build on their enormous and varied assets would far out-perform the development that is currently proposed for the AREA. Where is the wisdom that seems so prevalent in other parts of London? Why are people blind to the city-building, job-creating, reservoir of talent that is alive and ready to grow in this Market and the rest of East London? Help!

Kensington Gardens

This special area covers the west end of Hyde Park, including Kensington Palace and the Orangery Café. It is mostly used for strolling, rollerblading, swan-watching and paying tribute to Princess Diana at her former residence. While Kensington Gardens is otherwise rather limited in what it offers, there is an attempt to seek excellence. For example, we came across one of the best playgrounds we have ever seen here, a wonderful model for any park.

Oxford Street

What a difference six months makes. Oxford Street used to be so depressingly full of traffic that you wanted to get off it as quickly as possible. Now you feel like exploring it and discovering all it has to offer. It is the best-connected street in the city and borders interesting areas along both its north and south sides.

Great Court, British Museum

This is an enormously interesting space: a building within a building, and within the interior building, a magnificent library that one can view from windows in the restaurant on the backside from the entrance. But, as magnificent as the building is, the space between the interior and exterior buildings could be a great public space where art and architecture could be combined in exciting ways. And yet the building seems to give off an air of being too important for art, or for people to comfortably fit in and be a part of it.

We have been to London many times in the past several years, and every time we go, we are invigorated. London is terrific in this way: The more you go, the better and more interesting it gets. Exploring London’s neighborhoods reveals more with each visit; indeed, this is where London’s assets are, and it is one sign of a great city.

London is also particularly wonderful at the opening of the 21st century: It’s got an aggressive agenda centered on urban regeneration; rebuilding transportation systems to emphasize transit, bike and pedestrian use; and creating successful public spaces. In fact, all of Britain is engaged in a national agenda of renewal.

As with all great cities, however, there are also some disturbing trends and indicators that are holding back the quest to become better:

Parks and Squares

London’s parks and squares are currently the weakest link in the city, and as a result, have the most potential for transforming the city’s image. Hyde Park and Regent’s Park were originally laid out for horseback riding, and they still have the vast open spaces that were necessary for that activity. Yet today people are more likely to be walking, and these parks don’t offer the variety that’s needed to engage walkers. Olmsted’s parks, for example, created with a social purpose of bringing people together in natural settings, are the best examples to contrast with Hyde and Regents Parks. St. James Park, Queen Mary’s Gardens, and Kensington Gardens are quite good, but probably the best model in London is Battersea Park.

When you first visit London, its small squares are a wonderful feature to discover again and again. But the more you come across them, the more you notice that many are in a bad state, and outside the often too-high fences are just parking lots or fast round-a-bouts. Some are being fixed up such as Russell Square, and the soon to be finished Bloomsbury Square. Russell Square has a new restaurant and a water feature that is a good addition. But these changes still don’t give these squares the qualities of some of the greatest, but they show the contrast dramatically. They represent a good start.

Streets, Bus Stops and Tube Stations

Because the streets of London have been immersed in traffic for so long, the city forgot this network of public spaces, which is its most important asset. London’s new congestion pricing plan has helped to re-introduce this possibility and some of the most transformative opportunities are ahead–if they are taken advantage of. By focusing on walking, biking and using transit, and responding with improvements supporting each of those modes, London can create a wonderful awareness that human use has a priority over the vehicle. Fixing up Tube stations and bus stops needs to be a priority. Having a greater presence will help create more use, but the worn out state of many of the tube stations is a real downer.

Markets

London is full of wonderful markets, both in market halls and on the streets. As wonderful as they are, they still need to be nurtured, enhanced, and replicated to grow that time-honored, high-energy, community-defining sense of activity that enhances the communities that they occupy. Imagine the city without Leadenhall Market, or Southwark without Borough Market. We fear that with the threatened destruction of Old Spitalfields Market, Londoners will lose a sense of history, connection to different cultures, and the access to special foods and creative trends that can emerge from a market environment.

Public Buildings

London’s newer public buildings may have enormous resources and interesting public spaces inside them, but outside, their spaces are among the worst of any city. We found this another of the city’s problem areas. Design trends in London are not taking into account either context or sense of place, and as a result, the city has a wealth of recently-completed, dramatic buildings and new developments in key locations — more than Paris, New York, and Barcelona combined — which may be high-profile, but ultimately do not contribute to the city or its citizens. This is an enormous tragedy and poses, in our view, London’s greatest challenge. Large-scale development and “object-oriented” architecture have been as devastating to communities as the new or expanded roads and highways. This pincer movement has transformed formerly wonderful streets into rivers of traffic, and new buildings into objects to view rather than to use. The result has been as tragic cumulatively to London as the World War II bombing.

One of the most disturbing areas of change occurring in London is in the “City,” where new development fits so poorly into the existing system of streets and development that have evolved over the centuries. This truly incompatible new development is a desecration of a neighborhood that once had sensitivity to its environment and defined how each new development fit into and added to a contextual growth pattern. Recently and at an accelerated rate, this time-honored synthesis has been largely, even totally, ignored. The consequences of this new agenda are devastating. One of the great challenges of urban development is to create something new that is better than the old. Only in rare cases has this happened. We think there should be a moratorium on new development until there is plan for new development and a retrofitting of recent development that has so devastated this vitally important asset to London. We would start with A B N AMRO Headquarters and Lloyd’s. Showing that these new buildings, that are so out of context at their base, could be able to change enough to be an asset, could give people confidence that new development could be an addition. Rockefeller Center in New York has been transforming itself continuously in the last 20 years to be better urban buildings.

In addition, Canary Wharf is the worst of new office park developments in any of the other major cities, and on the South Bank and Southwark, developments such as Tate Modern, City Hall/ The Greater London Authority (GLA) Building, Oxo Tower and the South Bank Centre (Royal National Theatre, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Royal Festival Hall, the National Film Theatre, Hayward Gallery (being renewed at present), IMAX (impossible to access), Saatchi Gallery in the Old County Hall, and The Shell Center greatly hold back the promising and every exciting prospects for the entire south side of the Thames.

Despite these shortcomings, London has far and away the most potential of any major city. The opportunities are extraordinary in its great neighborhoods that continuously need nurturing; and an exceptional retail/entertainment/museum core within a 10 minute walk of Leicester Square. But to pull it all together, London needs a stronger center, and that is where the most promise lies. With its untapped waterfront potential; the potential to transform its parks and squares; and the new opportunity to bring streets back as public spaces coupled with transit improvements, London could quite easily become the greatest city in the world to live in and visit. Paris, New York, and Barcelona have lost their waterfronts to high-volume roadways that have stifled development directly along them and even deep into the communities adjacent to them.

London’s biggest obstacle is that the design professions are too full of themselves to allow their city to reach its potential.