Abernathy Natural Playscape

RICHMOND/HOSFORD ABERNATHY NATURAL PLAYSCAPE

Outdoor playtime is critical to a child’s development, but access to technology is causing kids to spend more time in the house and less time exploring the outdoors. Natural playscapes are a brilliant solution - cleverly designed with native elements that stimulate the senses, encourage imaginative play, and evoke children’s innate connection to nature.

For the Childswork School in Portland’s Richmond/Hosford Abernethy Neighborhood, the Grasstains team collaborated with Learning Landscapes to build a natural playground that gives students the opportunity to jump from rocks and stumps, play with water and let their imagination run wild. With the help of countless volunteers and DePave, an organization dedicated to transforming paved areas into more ecologically friendly spaces, we were able to create a multi-sensory environment for unstructured outdoor play – a cornerstone for the development of happy and healthy children. 

To complete this project, the team combined our play area and design services with garden feature services like stone masonry and water feature installation, and carpentry services for the installation of fencing as well as wooden structures for climbing and gathering. We finalized the playscape with thoughtful landscaping, including native plant species that attract interesting little creatures and perfect the natural aesthetic.