Imagination Playground, opened in 2010, was designed and gifted to the city of New York by the Rockwell Group to encourage children to interact with the playground, the play equipment and most important with each other. Given there not being a straight line in the design and given that the site is a landfill of minimal stability and bearing, getting Rockwell’s design documented, bid and built was a serious challenge for Rockwell, for Arup, the civil engineers and for the New York City Department of Parks. The Crow’s Nest, the small red ovoid utility and play structure was largely constructed off site in Brooklyn and barged to Burling Slip for final finishing by Modern Modular with Leslie Armstrong Architect as a consultant.

Radhi Majmudar at ISSE, served as the structural engineering design consultant and performed the concept and design development work for the support structures for the playground and in particular the “crow’s nest”.

The playground is sited on what was once a cargo unloading area, and its design recalls a ship’s deck, with the various elements tied together by ramps and flooring of reclaimed teak.

At Imagination, children create their own play structures using those massive foam blocks and other “loose parts” such as plastic wheelbarrows and small car tires.

The crow’s nest lookout reached by secret stairways and a rope climbing structure mimicking a ship’s rigging, which rises out of the ample sandpit, enhance the park’s nautical vibe.

The structural design included a prefabricated steel structure for the crow’s nest and various steel and timber supports for the platform structure.