Play, play, play: Elm Creek will be kid magnet

One of the biggest playgrounds in the metro area -- featuring seven slides shooting down from 25-foot towers, a pyramid-shaped climbing net and saucer swings -- will be built in Elm Creek Park Reserve in Maple Grove this summer.

"This is going to have a big wow factor for kids," said Stephen Shurson, landscape architect for Three Rivers Park District. "We wanted a place that kids will view as bigger and better than their neighborhood playground -- a destination you might say."

With enough room for 500 children, it will double the size of the old play area and is expected to become a regional attraction for children ages 2 to 12. And their parents, of course.

Demolition of the old wood playground, built in 1981, started April 9 after park commissioners approved a $1.2 million expenditure for the playground. Most of the new construction will be finished by fall for a grand opening next spring.

The size, features, color and design of the play area will have children "sprinting right up the middle when they see everything," Shurson said.

Located next to a swim pond and picnic area, the playground may draw as many as 1,500 visitors a day.

The design promotes physical activity, creativity and fun, Shurson said. "We were after play, play, play: as much fun and as much interest as possible for the resources we had to put into it."

The new playground will be built of steel, rope, concrete and plastic on a colorful, spongy pad cushioned from below by shredded recycled tires. The entire area will be wheelchair-accessible.

Levels of play will ascend from the ground for the youngest children up to the slide towers that top off four stories above ground level. The two 18-foot towers will be joined by a skyway at the 14-foot mark.

A 30-foot plastic dinosaur skeleton will be sunk in the ground-level sand lot with its rib cage protruding for small diggers and climbers.

The whole area will invite kids to move, run, climb, twist, turn and glide, Shurson said.

A circular treadmill will replace the old-fashioned merry-go-round. A third of a mile of rope will wind through the pyramid-shaped climbing net. Disc swings will allow kids to swing with friends.

For parents the play area will include more tables with umbrellas and benches, in response to surveys showing a desire for more shaded seats where they can watch their children, Shurson said.

Elm Creek is the third of Three Rivers' seven large creative play areas to be rebuilt. The other two are Highland Park Reserve in Bloomington and Lake Rebecca Park Reserve in Rockford.

The first phase of the Lake Rebecca area, with a big-woods theme, opened this spring.