Whether you’re celebrating with a partner, your children, dear friends, or simply carving out a quiet moment for yourself — there are thousands of ways to say I love you.
Love can look like planting a tree you’ll never sit under.
It can look like preparing a nourishing meal.
It can look like creating a space where children feel free, wild, and fully alive.
And this month, I want to talk about love in one of its most powerful forms:
designing spaces that nurture the next generation.
The Rise of Natural Playgrounds
Over the past few years, research around outdoor nature play for children has exploded. Across American cities, momentum is building to replace sterile, plastic-heavy playgrounds with environments rooted in nature.
If you’re curious, simply search “natural playgrounds,” or read the recent LA Times article highlighting how transforming preschool play environments is changing learning outcomes in profound ways.
Many countries have embraced nature-based play for decades. The United States is finally catching up — recognizing that overprotected, overly engineered play environments don’t necessarily create resilient, imaginative, or physically capable children.
Scientific research now confirms what many of us intuitively know:
- Children need contact with soil to build robust immune systems
- Exposure to soil-based microorganisms helps “train” immunity, reducing allergies and inflammation
- Microbial diversity supports gut health and sensory development
- Uneven surfaces, textures, and natural materials strengthen balance, coordination, and risk assessment skills
Nature is not a liability.
It is a teacher.
A Local Example: Presidio Tunnel Tops
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Here in San Francisco, one extraordinary example is Presidio Tunnel Tops.
If you haven’t visited yet, I highly recommend making a day of it. The views of the bay are breathtaking. The landscaping is world-class. And the expansive play garden is dynamic, beautiful, and deeply engaging for children of all ages.
Natural logs.
Branches.
Recycled materials.
Earth, sand, rock, and water.
It’s immersive. It’s sensory. It’s alive.
Art Garden Design’s Work in Natural Play
Since 2024, Art Garden Design has successfully installed five natural playscapes for early childhood development centers.
We’ve partnered with Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF) to bring these custom-designed spaces into facilities serving lower-income communities — because access to healthy environments should never be a luxury.
And let me tell you — building these spaces is far from a walk in the park.
This is not:
“Call Home Depot. Place order. Deliver tomorrow.”
This is:
- Sourcing raw timber from local lumber yards
- Partnering with the Presidio Trust and local tree companies
- Salvaging 24”–48” wide logs from fallen or hazard trees
- Engineering structures using massive organic materials
- Designing with imagination and child psychology in mind
It’s part scavenger hunt.
Part structural engineering.
Part art installation.
Part childhood memory-making.
What Makes These Spaces Different?
Each play environment includes elements such as:
- Clusters of log stumps for climbing and balancing
- Irregular bark textures to pull, touch, and explore
- Wooden slides
- Hand water pumps to build mobility and cooperation
- Rocks and pebbles for collecting and building
- Sand play zones
- Music walls for sound exploration
- Zero petroleum-based products
Nothing is perfectly symmetrical.
Nothing is overly polished.
Everything invites imagination.
LIIF develops educational components for each site and works directly with childcare facilities before and after installation — guiding educators on how to use the space as a teaching tool, not just a recess area.
This is intentional play.
Rooted in development.
Rooted in health.
Rooted in equity.
Why This Matters
For decades, the multibillion-dollar playground industry has pushed plastic as the safest, cleanest solution. But sterile environments don’t build resilience.
When we remove risk entirely, we also remove growth.
Nature teaches:
- Balance
- Negotiation
- Problem solving
- Sensory integration
- Courage
- Collaboration
If we want healthier adults, we must cultivate healthier childhood environments.
A Call for More Collaboration
We need more organizations like LIIF.
More public spaces like Presidio Tunnel Tops.
More private facilities willing to fund and prioritize these environments.
This is for the love of our children.
For the love of community.
For the love of the planet.
I feel deeply grateful to be one of the leading contractors in San Francisco helping build these spaces — developing better installation techniques, improving systems, and collaborating with facility directors, funders, designers, architects, material distributors, tree companies, and local contractors.
This work is layered, complex, and powerful.
And together, we can rebuild America’s health — starting with its youth.
If you’re an educator, facility director, funder, or parent interested in bringing a natural playscape to your school or community, I would love to start a conversation.
Because love isn’t just a feeling.
It’s something we build. 🌿
FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT US AT ARTGARDENDESIGN.NET/CONTACT