For the past five years, Cynthia Gentry has been using biophilic design principles to meet the developmental needs of children by building nature-based play environments. These “living playgrounds” provide spaces for kids to safely explore and interact with nature, which Cynthia explains is crucial for the growth of a healthy and happy child.

Even before her work on living playgrounds, Cynthia has long been an advocate for both nature-inspired building and a child’s right to play. Upon leaving her previous career of almost two decades working with international consulting firms, she began creating rainforest murals for inner city hospitals in Atlanta and started her first nonprofit, Art Heals. She later founded Play Atlanta,… Read more

I never outgrew the feeling that being in nature is being in a magical place. It just never went away. I am very excited about the Vitamin N Challenge because over the past two years of COVID, I haven’t spent much time outdoors and this is the perfect challenge to correct that trend. I also have not been drawing much — if at all.

Lately I have felt this something growing inside. You know the feeling when something needs to change, or you need to do something, but you’re not sure what it is? The minute I read about the challenge I knew I had to draw things, real or imagined, from my garden and beyond.

May 20, 2022

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

by Cynthia Gentry

This past Saturday afternoon a shooter took the lives of 10 people in a grocery store in Buffalo. Later that night someone intentionally burned down a much-loved treehouse in Atlanta’s Chastain Park neighborhood.

The two events share the same date and the same “What is the matter with people?” reaction on social media. But, the two events differ greatly on the scale of tragedies - if there is such a scale. They also differ in potential outcomes, as I will explain.

Around 10 years ago, old friend Jay Smith (retired president of what was then Cox Newspapers, which operated The Atlanta Journal-Constitution) invited me to help the Chastain Park Conservancy design and build a new playground. As a longtime playground-build instigator and planner, advocate for the child’s right to play and a resident of Chastain Park where my twin stepchildren, Summer and Jordan, had grown up, I jumped at the chance.

Stuff and Nonsense: Thinking Differently About Children’s Play was compiled in honor of Cynthia’s late (great) professor in graduate school, Stuart Lester. Cynthia studied Play Theory under Stuart at the University of Gloucestershire in the UK and he played an enormous role in developing the study of play itself and of promoting the child’s right to play in England, Scotland, Wales within the United Nations and beyond. It is hard to overestimate the importance of his work on behalf of children around the world. 

Living Playgrounds, an Atlanta-based company focused on designing and building nature play environments where children can thrive, announces the completion of its newest playground at Woodson Park Academy YMCA Early Learning Center in Grove Park.

The addition marks Living Playground’s second build for the YMCA of Metro Atlanta. The first is located at the organization's headquarters on Atlanta’s Westside at the former site of the E.A. Ware School, one of the City’s first schools serving the African American community. Both playgrounds were created for the YMCA’s Early Learning Centers, the largest provider of early learning in Georgia.

By becoming overly safe, kids have lost space to explore world, says Cynthia Gentry

The experts expressed concern over large number of youngsters being denied right to free play, recreation, unmonitored children activities and play without expected learning outcomes.

As our cities become more and more densely populated, we must design spaces for play into them.

MODA’s exhibition, Designing Playful Cities, took visitors through interactive installations that presented a strong case for designing play into urban environments, encouraged visitors of all ages to engage in play in their day-to-day activities, and inspired designers and developers to create playful spaces in our cities, whether by designing proper playgrounds for children or by converting under-utilized spaces into fun and friendly places.

Curator: Janelle Miniter / Exhibition Advisor: Cynthia Gentry

Consumers no longer want shopping centers to be places just for quick trips to buy clothes or electronics. People of all ages now prefer spaces where they can enjoyably linger.

They want to shop, dine, and play.

As a master of what has become known as “experiential retail,” Birmingham, Alabama-based Bayer Properties knew its conversion of an old family farm in Lexington, Kentucky into a $156 million retail-centered mixed-use destination called The Summit at Fritz Farm needed a memorable, unique playground for kids. The playground had to reflect the local authenticity of the project.

There is a growing need for children’s play spaces in DC, but some think that playgrounds are unsightly and detract from public space. To address this, the Office of Planning (OP) is holding an international competition to design art-based play spaces for underserved neighbor­hoods.

If you believe in playgrounds, you’re going to love what’s happening in Atlanta, Georgia and the whole world has been invited to the ball. There’s now an exciting, new place to exchange, promote and recognize excellence and creativity in playground design.