Our team partnered with WRT to reimagine the existing play space at Benchmark School into an immersive nature play based experience that celebrated and protected the significant old growth trees on campus. We worked closely with the students and staff through engagement activites where we asked them to dream big, through drawings, models, and storytelling about play memories and experiences. The resulting playground was designed by kids, for kids. There are plenty of places to get up high, in signature treehouses and tall slides; to move their bodies fast, in four bays of swings and at the Gaga pit; to try out risky experiences, at the parkour structures and salvaged logs and boulders; or just chill outside with friends, at the “Buddy Bench” log, picnic tables, or curled up inside playhouses. Stormwater management was an important part of the design and a number of rain garden full of native plants capture and infiltrate, while log steppers through them support direct contact with natural systems. Plants were intentionally selected for seasonal change, encouraging STEAM learning outdoors, and getting kids excited about nature.