Dedication - Playground - Oakland Past and Future - Tile Installation
No one at the Oakland Parks Department could tell us what the long concrete "bench" was for, or how it came to be at Peralta Park. Its main function at the site, it seemed, was to separate the children's play area from the adjacent basketball courts with the elegance of a highway barricade. It didn't have the right proportions for a seating bench either, as we could see that the basketball players would sit on the bench, electing to perch on the top.
The design team had considered removing the bench, a costly line item which would have left very little money for actual improvements to the playground. Susan and Andree, the project artists, were approached, with a blank slate - so to speak - and the idea that we could turn this eyesore into an asset for the park.
While Susan and Andree worked with the students in their respective classrooms creating the tiles, the tile setters prepped the bench surface.
The layout was planned out in advance. Oakland future tiles were mounted on one side; the tiles celebrating the past went on the other side. Solid color tiles were interspersed strategically among the graphic tiles created by the students.
Dedication - Playground - Oakland Past and Future - Tile Installation
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