Thousands of New York City students in the United States have helped remake their drab asphalt schoolyards into vibrant, green spaces that they actually want to play in over the summer.
The students acted as junior landscape architects. Through a hands-on design process, they made up wish lists – with wants like a swimming pool, chocolate fountain, merry-go-round and koi pond – and whittled them down to what was realistic. They measured and mapped out their play areas and incorporated feedback from teachers, parents and neighbours, who all voted on the final design.
A total of 225 kid-designed playgrounds have been built across the city since 2002 through the Community Schoolyards programme, which is run by the Trust for Public Land, a parks and conservation group, with city education and environmental officials. The projects have cost almost US$200mil (RM815.6mil), paid for with government funds and private donations.
The playgrounds have whimsical themes with unicorns, dragons and aliens, but are practical in a way that only those who use them can appreciate. One Queens middle school designed an "introvert’s corner” with a gazebo and plants for those who just want to sit and read.
We visited six kid-designed playgrounds, which have become community hubs that welcome everyone and stay open year-round. This is what we found.
Pink Basketball Court
The girls at a playground in the Bronx wanted a basketball court of their own because the boys were taking over the courts. One half-court was painted pink while the other three half-courts and the full court were painted blue.
The girls feel more confident playing on the pink court, and they said they didn’t worry about being judged by the boys. While the boys can play on it too, they ask first. "It just makes me comfortable and it makes me happy,” Charlotte Lawrence, 11, said. "And it makes me, honestly, believe in myself because I’m not alone on this court.”
Life-Size Chess
The students at the North Hills School in Queens were inspired by the Harry Potter series, where wizards-in-training play life-size chess, to put in two giant painted chess boards.
"It adds more life to the game because it’s bigger and you can see the characteristics of each piece better,” Ayden Chabane, 11, said. The only drawback is the pieces can break or go missing.
Hair-Braiding Station
Girls were sitting on the ground at a playground in Harlem to have their hair braided, so more comfortable tiered seating was designed just for them. It has three pairs of steel slat benches – with one seat slightly lower in each pair.
Kassidee Clarke, 11, has had her hair braided at the station by Hunter Nunnally, also 11, but students have also found additional uses for the benches – jumping on them for parkour, using them as a dance stage and pretending to be sitting in cars with the driver in the higher seat.
Floor Is Lava Play Surface
A "floor is lava” obstacle course at a playground in Brooklyn has a theme of "rock stars” and "gems”. A volcano was painted in the middle of the basketball court, with lava flowing around play equipment, chess tables and benches.
The game has been an icebreaker for students who hop and skip over the lava. "I like that it’s something a lot of people can play,” Amia Peoples, 11, said. "I connected with a lot of people on this playground.”
Mushroom Stepping Stools
Students at Emanuel Kaplan School designed stools that reflected the history of their Queens neighbourhood, which was once woodland. The mushroom stools have bright red tops with white spots. The stools do double-duty as both a place to rest and play. "We use them for hopping on,” Jack Henshaw, six, said. "We can go one by one by one by one and sometimes we skip one or two.”
Pollinator Garden
Students at the Pacific School in Brooklyn wanted a petting zoo with goats, donkeys and llamas, but settled for a pollinator garden with butterflies, bees and insects behind the school.
A fourth-grade club, Team Tomato, cares for the garden, but the entire school gets involved. Classes grow seedlings inside the school in the winter. Parents donate plants. Kamali Foreman, nine, makes sure to stop and smell the mint and lavender. "It makes my nostrils say, 'This is nature,'” she said. "I’m breathing in nature.” – ©2026 The New York Times Company
