The Malone Family Memorial Playspace located in Baltimore, Maryland at City Neighbors Charter School was designed to honor the six Malone children who lost their lives in a home fire on January 12, 2017. Upon reaching the one year anniversary of the tragic fire The City Neighbors Foundation launched a design build effort to bring hope and peace to their community by creating a healing garden dedicated to the lost children in the form of a nature inspired playspace. JP MorganChase generously donated the land next to the charter school’s current playspace for the creation of the new playspace.
The design effort brought together students, teachers, families and design professionals to create a space that honors the lives of the Malone Children.
With a theme of ‘Magic in Nature’, the space offered the school and community a green space of learning, exploring, gathering, and healing. The space features a winding pathway around the entire area, climbing equipment, a zipline, slides, swings, interactive educational and natural play materials, musical instruments, and science experiments. At the very heart and at the highest elevation of the playground is the memorial garden, a circle of six cherry trees that serve as a place of remembrance and peace.
Groundbreaking Video: https://www.wbaltv.com/article/children-break-ground-on-playground-to-pay-tribute-to-classmates-lost-to-fire/21100412
Client: City Neighbors Charter School
Architect: Isackson Design Group
Foundation: City Neighbors Foundation
Play Equipment: Landscape Structures; Bears Playground
News
https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-malone-playground-20180606-story.html
