No. 19 – Perkins

Visited Wednesday, August 4, 9:30am. Empty. Partial shade.

The basics

0.15 acre playground on Perkins Street at Perkins Place. Renovated in 2006. Residential parking. No restrooms. Closest snacks/restrooms on Broadway. Asphalt play courts on one side, metal structures on a rubber surface on the other.

The fun stuff

Three swings (2 bucket, 1 tire)
Spinning toys (1 standing, 1 sitting)
Water sprinkler
Half court basketball space
Graphic play areas
Benches and picnic tables (including accessible seating options)

This small playground, designed by StoSS Landscape Urbanism to encourage organized and free play, has a lot of open space and not a lot of the usual play structures, but is certainly visually stunning and modern. The Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development website mentions that “The functional and vibrant graphic design elements have been cited internationally in landscape architecture publications”.

The park is divided into two sections, with separate gates, and is separated inside by a chain-link fence, and surrounded on three sides by a high, bright yellow fence. The swings and spinning toys are on one side and the basketball and open play spaces on the other. The bucket swings seem oddly misshapen, something we also saw at the playground at the old East Somerville Community School on Cross Street. I thought it an age-related thing at ESCS but now I’m wondering if it is caused by older kids trying to use these swings? Also, when we visited the sprinkler was out of order but when I called I was told that a part had been ordered and it was in fact to be repaired later in the day.

The Somerville Open Space and Recreation Plan 2008-2013 lists this park renovation among its success stories and points out that according to the 2000 U.S. Census, over 6,500 people live within a quarter-mile of the park and that children in the Perkins Park neighborhood make up a higher percentage of the population than in any other community in Somerville. I would like to hear from parents who have visited this park on a regular basis, or return myself, to see this playground in action serving this community. And to see the sprinkler in operation!