“I told myself that I would not allow my children to come, just from safety concerns, but once I got here, and saw how safe the cables were, and saw how well they maneuvered themselves to the top, I was fine with it.”īut would everyone be fine with it? Talking about climbing is one thing, but actually climbing is another matter entirely. We heard from her son CJ at the beginning of the story.
“My first impression was terrifying.” That’s Meredith Crocker. Super fun, super exciting, and safer than I expected.”īecause it’s so different from typical playground structures, safety concerns have been raised by some parents.
I see really young ones, I see parents, I see college students. I’m looking at it right now and I see all different ages up there.
“They have been going up and down nonstop since we’ve been here. Tuscaloosa resident Lori Winfield just brought her two sons to the space net for the first time… General consensus from the public seems to be that the space net is fun but challenging and that anyone of any age can climb it.īut the moms and dads have to do the driving to get here. Since its soft opening in June, the structure has been crawling with both children and adults. “It’s kind of what you would consider a destination playground.” She believes people will come from all over to climb the space net and travel down the spiral slide. So I feel like the more people that see the park at Snow Hinton will catch on to that idea and do different variations in their area.” “We are seeing a very big trend towards this type of play unit. And so kind of piecing it together, we came up with this idea and I think it turned out fabulous.”īeavers says structures like the one in Snow Hinton are the future of playgrounds. “We showed them really cool ideas from all over the world. She worked closely with PARA to bring their vision to life. Luci Beavers is Kompan’s Sales Rep for the state of Alabama. “The Tuscaloosa Country Parks and Rec had an incredible vision.” The Danish playground manufacturer was eager to provide exactly what PARA wanted. “When we had first started talking about this, we looked at a lot of companies and they didn’t have anything exactly like we wanted it, so we knew it would have to be custom-made.” “We went through several design stages, and several, I mean twenty, at least, where it just wasn’t good enough yet.”Īdrian Cleckler is the playground designer at PARA. Projects of this magnitude take time, and bringing the space net to Tuscaloosa was no exception. This style playground is more common in larger cities so we’re kind of on the cutting edge.” “Everybody sees the hard plastic or wooden playground units, and this one is a lot different.
“It’s kind of an out of the box play unit for PARA.”īecky Booker is PARA’s Public Relations and Marketing Manager. It’s part of a five-point-six million dollar renovation to the city’s various parks. This unique play unit is the brainchild of Tuscaloosa’s Parks and Recreation Authority. Ten-year-old CJ is certainly a fan: “I’ve been on it more than twenty-five times today.” The pyramid is called a space net, and despite its futuristic name, it’s actually a playground – and it’s been grabbing the attention of children and adults alike. If you’ve driven past Tuscaloosa’s Snow Hinton Park recently, you’ve no doubt noticed the strange red pyramid-like structure and towering spiral slide. Kompan Space Net/Spiral Slide at Snow Hinton Park in Tuscaloosa