Gray, rainy skies on Friday didn’t give a great preview of the capabilities of the new shade structure at Hillcrest Elementary School’s accessible playground, but its builders expect it to provide relief on hot, sunny days.
The school partnered with a KU design-build studio class instructed by Keith Van de Riet, associate professor of architecture, to install the shade structure over the picnic table area at the school’s accessible playground, the Ryan Gray Playground for All Children.
Van de Riet’s class “designed and fabricated an 800-square-foot pavilion and companion rain garden with native plantings to provide shade and ecological benefits” for the playground, according to a recent KU news release.
The class and community members gathered Friday for a ribbon cutting to celebrate the structure’s completion. Van de Riet and Hillcrest Principal Sarah Kruse spoke at the gathering.
KU students who worked on the project are third-year architecture majors who have prior experience with drawings, conceptual development, computational design and model making.
With the shade structure project serving as a case study, Van de Riet’s class is designed to advance those skills. It also allows students to give back to their greater community.
First opened in 1993, the playground commemorates the late Ryan Gray, a former Hillcrest student. Gray was born with an inoperable brain tumor and used a wheelchair from sixth grade on. He died at age 17 in 1990. Gray had represented inspiration — a “good luck charm of sorts” — for the 1988 KU men’s basketball national championship team.
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Molly Adams (she/her), photojournalist and news operations coordinator for The Lawrence Times, can be reached at molly (at) lawrencekstimes (dot) com. Check out more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
