PLAYGROUNDS

While not strictly architecture, playground equipment of the Space Age dramatically reflected the googie style. Children were able to "play astronaut" in rocket ships, in flying saucers and on concrete "lunar" surfaces. Other park fixtures echoed the swiss cheese and amoebae design motifs that were popular in the 1950s and 1960s. Here are some examples from a number of community parks.

Click on pictures to enlarge

Astro Circle
Oakland, CA
Removed 1999
Photos by Steve Walsh

This park was a join creation of the City of Oakland's Parks Department and the Kiwanis Club of Grand Lake Oakland. A flying saucer stoods on a raised landing pad. Nearby, a metal pipe full of "swiss-cheese" holes provided another climbing surface. The saucer is now in storage, awaiting a good home.

  

Lake Park
 Lake St./Main St., Huntington Beach, CA

The pink, concrete, swiss-cheese climbing structures once stood in many Huntington Beach parks. They have slowly been replaced by truly cheesy plastic play equipment.

Rockets and saucer ships were also common.

  

The atom was alternately a symbol of hope and danger during the Space Age. It inspired different feelings in different people and at different times. Today, children play on this large atomic model in Lake Park.

I'll let you ponder the latent metaphors for yourself.

Moon Park
 Costa Mesa, CA

This park features a large "lunar surface" and once featured other space-themed play equipment. A crater-pocked concrete surface includes "astronaut footprints" and a bronze marker commemorating Apollo 11.

All photography copyright Chris Jepsen, 1999, unless otherwise marked

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