Playground Picks: Coolest Play Spaces in New York City
DECEMBER 7, 2010
There are hundreds of playgrounds in New York City but a few gems give kids a chance to give their creativity and imagination a workout. 
Among the city’s more notable public play spaces, the newest is Imagination Playground at Burling Slip in the South Street Seaport. Designed by the architecture firm responsible for the interiors at Nobu, the figure-8-shaped sandbox features fountains and canals of running water as well as a network of lifts and pulleys. Play is supervised by specially-trained city workers (“play associates”).
Another creative must-play is the Science Playground at the New York Hall of Science in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. The 60,000 square-foot exhibition invites participation with a water play area, light-activated kinetic sculpture, a 3-D spider web, and a special section for kids under six.
The semi-secret wonderland that is the Glass Garden (via Mommy Poppins) is hidden away in Midtown in a secluded courtyard of the Rusk Rehabilitation Institute. Open to the public, the 1,700 square foot conservatory is less playground and more discovery zone, featuring an aquatic garden, koi ponds, turtles, rabbits and swings and a hammock. Other treasured city playgrounds include the Ancient Playground near the Met on the Upper West side, Bleecker Playground in the West Village, and the newly-opened expanded playground (via NYMag) in Tompkins Square Park in the East Village.
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