Children's Play Areas in Community Gardens: A New Model for Low-Income Areas Children's areas in community gardens offer an important solution to the lack of safe, developmentally appropriate outdoor space for young children of low-income families. Children's Environments Research Group (CERG) developed this initiative from 1995 - 1997. In 1998, three design teams, who were competitively selected from more than 100 applicants by CERG and the Design Trust for Public Space, built three more gardens in East New York, the Bronx, and Astoria, Queens. These have been evaluated and a book for use by community garden groups will shortly be available. Sponsors:Design Trust for Public Space, Hasbro Children's Foundation New Play Spaces for The New Settlement House in the Bronx CERG collaborated with Landscape Architects Johansson and Walcavage to design two play areas at the New Settlement Apartments, a housing project located at East 172nd St. in the Bronx. The smaller of the two projects, the redesign of an internal courtyard at Marcy Place, presented problems such as access, appropriate uses and noise. Four workshops, separately conducted by school-aged boys, girls, parents and teenagers around a large model of the space resulted in a detailed architectural program. CERG then worked with Landscape Architects Johansson and Walcavage, to help finalize the design. Similarly, workshops, meetings with the residents, and site visits resulted in programming and design of the larger play area, a 10,000 sq. ft. playground next to the New Settlement Apartments. Sponsor: New Settlement Houses Topics Coming Soon ! • Children's Gardens in Public Spaces