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Gronk to spike ball forever in rebuilt Esplanade playground
By adamg on Thu, 11/09/2023 - 12:10pm
One guess where they got the idea for this slide.
DCR last week unveiled designs for the Gronk Playground it will be installing on the Esplanade - centered around a slide meant to immortalize the way Gronk used to spike a football after a touchdown.
The playground will replace the current generic playground next to the Alfond Spray Deck across Storrow Drive from the "If You Lived Here" apartments and will be ADA compliant, DCR says. It's named after Gronk because he donated some $1.2 million for the playground upgrade.
The exterior panels of the spiked-football slide will feature "inspirational quotes" from athletes, DCR says.
The Spike slide seen head on:
The playground will also include a 40-yard dash area and a "Gronk High 5 Low 5" board that features a life-sized visage of the 6'6" fully extending one arm up and another down, along with a ruler that goes up to the 8 feet he can reach. Kids who can't reach his raised hand can instead give him a low 5 on the other hand.
Other parts of the playground, which will have areas for both younger and older kids, will pay homage to other things Boston is known for, including smaller slides for younger kids coming off an elevated play area shaped like a Duck Boat and a "bridge climber" shaped like the Zakim Bridge:
Plans call for the preservation of two existing elm trees on the site. The main playground features will be placed away from the trees' root zones and any work near them will be done by hand to minimize any potential damage to them. Five new shade trees will be planted.
DCR says it has approval from state waterfront regulators, the Boston Conservation Commission and the Massachusetts Historical Commission for the renovation.
Overall playground design (trees not shown):
The Boston Sun has more details.
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Comments
Ugly.
Ugly.
The stupid highway thats 10
The stupid highway thats 10 feet from this playground? Agreed, Storrow is ugly and should never have been built.
Thank you for sharing
I suggest you simply don't play on it then
Magoo sez
Magoo for one is not impressed with “Gronk”. “Gronk” Magoo thinks is full of a whole lotta dueschbaggery. And for inquiring minds, Magoo has said this to “Gronk’s” face after which Magoo promptly turned on heel in the fashion of a poppycock and kicked up dirt into “Gronk’s” face and Magoo went on Magoo’s way. Magoo.
And I for one, am not
And I for one, am not impressed with Magoo.
Pretty cool
Good on Gronk for helping out public improvements.
I wonder if he has any intention of continuing any connection to the area in his retirement.
For sale: Emerald Necklace
Only 1.2m to tag your name to one of Boston's premier features and you get a tax deduction too. Score!
Alternatives?
Defunding of public space is what results in these "partnerships" and "sponsorships".
Your move.
Ok
Fund public spaces then? I'm not sure why it's this person's responsibility to solve our capital expenditure problems. They're just (rightly) calling out how absurd effectively selling naming rights to a playground is.
No worries
Just ratchet the property tax up a few more points. We might end up with the highest cost of living in the US, but at least we won't have parks named after local philanthropists, well, loving ones at least.
The alternative is funding
The alternative is funding parks with tax revenue, and keeping the Esplanade as-is with a walkway, grass, and trees, uncluttered by random structures.
This is replacing an existing playground
So to the extent that it's "cluttered by random structures", that's not going to change.
Oh no
Wait until you hear about the Hatch Shell.
Hmm
I always it was named that because it was the remainder of the shell (egg) some enormous prehistoric creature was hatched from.
OK, they shouldn't have done that either, then
There's enough named after Fieldler, so we could rename it after Shaw, the architect. Or literally any number of people. Or just call it the Charles River Shell. I'm not sure why you think this is some kind of revelation.
More slide specs please
Specifically, need more info on how the Gronk slide compares to the cop slide in adult maiming capability.
who could forget...
good ole' Gonk
Away! Away with the negativity!
This is a really fun and whimsical design that little kids are going to absolutely lose their mind over - awesome work to all involved!
Yay kids!
Make sure to slide headfirst and get a head start on your CTE.
WTF?!
Damn, that’s a really bad joke about something great Gronk did for the kids. I guess misery always wants company…
Hmmm ...
Is that what happened to you?
FYI
Pop-warner is abysmally toxic, but there is an alternative: https://nflflag.com/locations/massachusetts
You can tell
You can tell
Winter is coming when Bostonians are finding reasons to hate on a playground
As a child I played on that spot…
… as well as in several playgrounds on the Esplanade. It was a child’s paradise along the river. This doesn’t come anywhere close to the old playgrounds with real swings etc.
The newer one near the snack bar is ingenious.
"This playground is not appealing enough to me, an adult"
Ever thought that, just maybe, the people who literally get paid to design and build playground infrastructure might know a little bit about what's appealing to kids?
Ever think that putting words in other people’s…
… mouths and putting quotation marks around your own words as if you are quoting that person is questionable debate style?
Oh, you're actually a child?
I guess that's on me for assuming that when you said this design was bad, you were speaking as an adult and not as the target audience for a playground for children, but my apologies.
...shouldn't you be in school?
I don’t know which is more of an eyesore…
… the MLK CSK monument or this.
At least the sculpture on the Common is intended to represent something good and inspirational rather than rope little kids into idolizing a deadly exploitive “sport” that brings in mucho dollars for a huge corporation.
I'm with @Lee!
Where the heck are the swings? Real swings are fun for kids of all ages. Maybe put in some of those what I called "Diaper" swings for the toddlers when they first came out. Is swinging deemed more dangerous than climbing high things now?
What's up with that airplane evacuation slide looking thing on the side of the football structure; Who's that for?
There are swings on the lower
There are swings on the lower right side of the plans. They weren't the ficalpoint of the design but they are there.
This playground seems to have all the elements you'd expect from a playground if you look at the overall plans
Swings are not a top choice
We went through this with the redesign of the outdoor area at my kid's school. Swings take up a whole lot of space and can not be used by very many people at a time, so designers these days prefer other sorts of playground gear.
So sick of stuff being named
So sick of stuff being named after sports - how about scientists or brain surgeons or amazing teachers or come on!
You realize why it’s named after him, right?
.