Cynthia Gentry's Blog Posts Tagged 'design' (22)

By Cynthia Gentry, Founder & Executive Director, Atlanta Taskforce on Play (ATOP)

Atlanta, GA  April 5, 2013

We are so proud that in their April 2013 edition Atlanta Magazine named ATOP's Woodruff Park Playground the #1 thing that every Atlantan (and hopefully visitors, too) must…

At long last, our Playable10 International Design Competition winner is arriving at its new home! Installation of the winning design begins Saturday morning (June 23, 2012) in downtown Atlanta's Woodruff Park. The play structure will be unveiled…

Can you imagine being a 6-year-old girl and climbing into this nest with your best friends? I can see covering the floor of the nest with some kind of soft grasses or even blankets... I'd love for them to be able to bring big pillows and have a spend-the-night party in there. It's brilliant.  It's…

The red, dancing ATLs hint at the big design about to be revealed

At long last, the winning design in the Playable10 International Design Competition has been built and was unveiled on November 1, 2011 at…

Tuesday, November 1, 2011 is a huge day for the Atlanta Taskforce on Play (ATOP). There's a big surprise being unveiled at the National Recreation and Parks Assn. conference, and it's something we've been working on for years. Here's how it all started:

In 2003, I built my first…

 (Google office in Zurich - designed by the playful and brilliant architects at CamenzindEvolution)

I remember going to buy shoes in Baltimore at age 3. I entered the store via a SLIDE!!

I remember…

The news broke recently just before dinnertime. Steve Jobs was resigning as CEO of Apple. Graphic artists, photographers, writers, artists, Mac-junkies, “computer nerds”, and lovers of beauty everywhere bowed their heads and sighed.  The great Master of Design (form AND function) was stepping…

There is an article in this month's Garden Design Magazine about an ancient "Chapel Oak" in the tiny French farming village of Allouville-Bellfosse in Upper Normany. The tree holds two tiny…

Jeff Santos, a video game designer from Canada won the first ever Playable10 International Design Competition with his ATL design for Woodruff Park. The competition was sponsored and organized…

Only in New York would somebody turn old dumpsters into mini-pools that get lugged into the city on a Saturday morning. What a hilarious idea. I'm not going to bother thinking through whether it is sustainable as anything other than a stunt. I'm just looking at the pictures (on the Inhabitat…

This is a picture of the world headquarters of the Atlanta Taskforce on Play (ATOP), and that big red rubber ball? My new desk chair! The idea came from my doctor who said it would help me build up my core muscles during all of those hours spent at work, but I've got to say, it's doing great things for my head, too! I'm so glad the only color they had was red. It just wouldn't be the same if it was gray. Color and design, really do make a…

Check out Devan. This has got to feel like flying.

It amazes me that there are no skate parks in Atlanta, but that is about to change thanks to the Atlanta BeltLine. Later this year, an amazing new skatepark will open in the Old Fourth Ward. I don't think I'll ever find myself on a skateboard, but I can't wait to watch the kids in this amazing park.…

Laura Sargeant Richardson, a principal designer for frog design, Inc. knocked the stuffing out of me with this Howard Chudacoff quote. She was speaking at The Sandbox Summit at M.I.T. , a very exciting symposium on technology, play, creativity and cool…

These children from the Acholi Quarter in Uganda spent their afternoon yesterday drawing pictures for the Playable Kids International Design Competition. They are lovely pictures and we are so happy to have them be a part of Playable Kids.

Children all around the world have been excited by the request to draw what play feels like to them and it has me…

I was looking to see where most visitors to our Playable 2010 website came from and discovered that a blog from Poland was one of our biggest sources. It's the blog for Pracownia K. Architektura + Dzieci, which I gather is an architecture and design firm there. Other than "architektura" I can't read a word of Polish, but the…

This wonderful drawing about "My Idea of Fun" comes from Ada, a 5 year-old from Istanbul, Turkey. It is an entry into the Playable Kids design competition. The whole point of Playable Kids is to get children to inspire the architects, designers, artists, and others who are competing in the Playable 2010 design competition. The children's competition closes on February 26, 2010. Go to…