Seward Park Play Area Renovation (Seattle Parks Foundation)

Photo courtesy Leonid Makarov

Seward Park’s 277 acres of old-growth forest on the Bailey Peninsula, jutting into Lake Washington, draw a variety of people, from families with babes in strollers to senior citizens. But some of the biggest fans are the children who romp in the playground that the Miller Foundation helped make possible through a $25,000 grant to Seattle Parks Foundation made in the summer of 2009, with the work being completed in the fall of 2010.

The old playground, built in the 1970s, was too small to meet neighborhood needs. In addition, it had a rusty slide, basic swings, a deteriorating wooden play structure, some spring toys of questionable safety, and a gravelly sand area.

In 2007, community members from Mount Baker to Rainier Beach raised over $700,000 to build a much-expanded play space including amenities for toddlers to teens. The design is naturalistic and features a tree house, discovery sand pond, climbing rocks and ropes, a zip line, an outdoor class area for the adjacent Audubon Center, nature-themed art, and a native plant garden.