ABSTRACT
In the post-World War II era, the perception of increasingly unsafe and deteriorating urban conditions led to a desire to improve cities for children, and an interest in urban children’s spaces as catalysts for greater social, cultural, and economic renewal. Architect Richard Dattner’s work with New York City playgrounds in the late 1960s highlights this investment in the potential power of childhood. Dattner was concerned with the loss of community and humanity caused by decades of urban renewal projects and patterns of suburbanization that had left New York City undervalued, vacant, and dangerous. His focus on children’s health and playgrounds was an attempt to revitalize New York. Public life, community, and civility, were being threatened by the privatization of citizens’ lives, the increasing segregation and polarization of classes, and the loss of precious public space claimed for the automobile. Dattner wrote, “The diminishment of the public sphere disturbs the balance needed for a healthy, civilized existence . . . .” 1 For Dattner, to “humanize the city” was to create spaces of play that would cultivate healthy, intelligent, and free public citizens. In short, Dattner was striving to create active urban communities with thriving civic engagement. As a tool for much-needed reconstruction and progress, playgrounds for children were assigned an important role in this urban renewal.
