Super Playground

Submit Your Photos to the #LastSlide Project

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As many of you know, our beloved Highland Park Super Playground will go through a lot of changes very soon. The all-wooden playground that was built by the community three decades ago has sadly reached the end of its life. The city, along with the Highland Park Community Council, the HPCC Playground Committee and other active members of the community, have spent the last year gathering ideas and creating what has been dubbed Super Playground 2.0. See the final design plans here.

While the new brings with it a great deal of excitement, it also strikes a bittersweet chord with the many Highland Parkers who were involved in its construction and/or have fond memories of playing at the Super Playground over the years. Out of respect for all of the playground lovers out there, the HPCC thought it would be a fun idea to not only celebrate the new, but also commemorate the past prior to the deconstruction of the current playground.

A rendering of the new Super Playground

To accomplish this, we have created the #LastSlide project to collect pictures, both past and present, of the Super Playground and the fond memories that accompany them. If you would like to participate, please send your pictures to hpccspecialprojects@gmail.com and once compiled, we will include them in our monthly newsletter.

While many of us are sad to say goodbye to the Super Playground, we could not be more excited about the new design. While we don’t have an exact date yet for the closing of the current playground, it will be coming up soon. We invite you to enjoy one more visit to the current playground we look forward to seeing all the memories that make up the #LastSlide project.

Keep an eye out in the HPCC Newsletter and neighborhood ListServ for more announcements about the official playground closing dates well as planned community events leading up to the Grand Opening of the new Super Playground 2.0 this summer!

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HPCC, Mayor Peduto mark next year’s kick-off of Highland Park projects

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Left to right: Stephanie Walsh, HPCC president; Chris Hornstein, Public Works acting director; and Monica Watt, HPCC Super (Duper!) Playground committee member.

A celebratory groundbreaking on Wednesday, November 17 marked the official start of two major and long-awaited Highland Park projects: the new Super Playground and the restoration of the nearby historic pedestrian tunnel. Rosanne Kolbe and Marsha Levine, two Highland Park moms who led the effort to originally build the playground in 1991, were on hand to mark this special occasion. Their efforts to raise funds and organize community members to build the playground helped spark a citywide program to rehabilitate all of its playgrounds. Thirty years later, the rebuild of the Highland Park Super Playground marks the beginning of another citywide effort to rehab and invest in new playgrounds with a new focus on equity.  

Also on hand for the groundbreaking were Mayor Bill Peduto; Public Works Acting Director Chris Hornstein; Senior Project Landscape Architect Andrea Ketzel; and HPCC Super Playground Committee Members Sabrina Culyba, Mac Lynch, and Monica Watt (committee member Betsy Rogerson was unable to attend). Thank you to the Public Works and HPCC committee members for their hard work engaging the community and keeping this important project on track!

Please note that this event will not mark the closure of the playground. It will remain open through early 2022, until construction is ready to begin, to minimize the downtime of the popular park amenity. The estimated reopen date is Memorial Day, 2022. The HPCC plans to hold a community celebration at the playground before it closes for construction. Look for more information about the event in early 2022.  Continue to watch for project updates on the city’s website.