Built Environment News
Commentary
The New York Times, Op-Ed – February 11, 2007
How Green Is Your Playground?
By Richard Louv
Perhaps because of my belief in the importance of playing in nature, I find the plans for the playground near South Street Seaport both intriguing and frustrating, especially if this model is advanced as a prototype for new urban play areas nationally. The proposed design replaces slides and swings and other traditional structures with sandboxes filled with blocks, ropes and pulleys, as well as wheelbarrows, crates and cardboard tubes.
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Allies
Sacramento Bee – July 03, 2006
‘Last Child’ inspires rethinking among land developers
By Mary Lynne Vellinga
The Sacramento Bee reported in July 2006 that Sacramento’s biggest developers, Angelo Tsakopoulos and his daughter Eleni Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis, who together run AKT Development, “have become enthusiastic promoters” of Last Child in the Woods. “This book is really going to change how we build neighborhoods," said Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis. Meanwhile, Derek Thomas, founder and chief operating officer of Newland Communities, the nation's largest privately owned residential developer, has committed his company to changing its design approach. “We need to find more ways to integrate community into nature,” he told CBS News in a report on nature-deficit disorder.
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C&NN has designated April "Children & Nature Awareness Month." As part of this effort, we invited network members (like you) to list their April programs and share their strategies for building public awareness. Find out what's happening in your community on the C&NN Movement Map.
As part of our ongoing efforts to build the movement, the Children & Nature Network has published two new resources for leaders, organizers, and participants at the local, national, and international levels:
An annotated bibliography of 20 premier studies focusing on the children and nature connection.
