Photograph by George Sakkestad
Neighborhood youngsters play on Blossom Hill School's new playground equipment, custom-designed by Barbara Niles.
By Shari Kaplan
Los Gatan Barbara Niles' job is child's play. Literally. While some business professionals go to work and deal with silicon chips and integrated circuits, Niles deals with swings, slides and seesaws through Playgrounds Plus, the business she has run out of her home for the last several years.
A manufacturer's representative for several recreational equipment companies, Niles designs creative playscapes for public and private schools, daycare centers, city and county parks and housing complexes in the South Bay area; only about 2 percent of her business is for private residences. Some of the companies she works with also provide more "grown-up" park structures such as benches, tables, gazebos and trash receptacles.
The enterprising mother of two began her home-based career about 12 years ago, selling pool and patio furniture so she would "still have time to be a mom" when her young son and daughter came home from school.
"After a few years of that, I realized that I needed to either sell a whole lot more furniture, sell something else or go get a [different] job, and I didn't want to give up the flexibility of working out of my home," Niles recalls.
With an appreciation for playgrounds that only having children can bring, Niles began working with another play-equipment manufacturer's representative and then branched out on her own.
Although operating a home business may seem leisurely, that's not always the case, especially with a job like Niles', which often involves extensive consultations with prospective clients.
There really is no typical day, Niles says. Her workdays vary according to how much time she is in or out of her home office.
"For me the fun part is getting out and calling on clients--getting the creative juices flowing in terms of trying to make something that meets their needs and their budget and offers the best play value," Niles says.
She also says that an integral part of the process is not talking but listening. It's important to get clients talking about what their visions are, she says, so she can give them what they want, even if they're not quite sure how to express it. She often compiles what she calls a "wish list."
"I go out and gather information from the client in terms of space available, age group of the kids who'll be using the structure, the budget and things like that. Then I put those things together in a freehand type of drawing," she explains.
Afterward, Niles or her assistant takes the sketches and uses a computer program called AutoCAD--which stands for computer-assisted design--to construct a virtual playground on screen. Among other things, the program contains pull-down menus from which Niles can select different heights, lengths, shapes and styles of play apparatus.
AutoCAD allows her to see how the pieces would look when placed together in different ways and lets her see the "fall zones"--areas where if children jump or fall, they won't hit other structures or land out of the enclosed play area with its impact-absorbing ground cover.
All apparatus must also follow safety guidelines set by the Consumer Products Safety Commission that govern factors such as height, size and materials used in all newly installed playground equipment. Any playgrounds with older equipment must make suitable upgrades or replacements by the year 2000.
The biggest change Niles has seen in playground equipment over the years is a move back to theme structures. Until fairly recently, she says, the common thought was that children would not engage in very imaginative play if the structures followed only one theme. And so equipment became "very generic," and children's activities followed suit.
"Now we're going back to theme structures and trying to encourage social and community type play," Niles says. She now hears of children calling playgrounds "the castle park" or "the frontier park"--identifying the area by its equipment theme, rather than by its actual name or location. This is in contrast to how she and her children used to refer to the Live Oak Manor Park (parallel to Longridge Road in Los Gatos) as "the long, skinny park."
As for her own creations, one of Playgrounds Plus' latest projects is the new playground at Blossom Hill School, an approximately 2,700-square-foot domain filled with colorful apparatus, including challenge ladders for kids to swing along like monkeys, parallel bannister rails to slide down, steps, ladders and pommels to climb, bridges to cross, firepoles to slide down, spring-up bars, metal rings and several platforms and balconies for resting or visiting.
Although Niles says she rarely talks directly with a playground's primary users--the children--she believes some of the best projects turn out to be the ones in which children are actively involved in some part of the decision-making, particularly when the playground is being designed for a school.
"What I like administrators to do is take the catalog--I always bring extras--cut it up and make a board with all the different components. Let [students] choose what they want for their own structure and vote on it," she says, citing Blossom Hill School as an example.
Student council members helped choose some of the play structures there, and classrooms voted. Blossom Hill students were even involved in part of the fundraising, which consisted of each classroom trying to fill the most five-gallon water jugs with pennies.
"I'm a firm believer that if we have ownership over anything in our life, we're going to take better care of it. The same goes for play equipment; if the kids are in on the decision-making, they're going to take better care of it," Niles adds.
For her, the most rewarding aspect of her work is seeing children play on and enjoy the new equipment and knowing that what she thought the administrators and children wanted is indeed what they got.
"And that's not just for me; it's for all the people who've held bake sales and walk-a-thons and fundraisers. We're all part of that same circle," she says. "I'm very aware of how much is involved in raising the money to put in play equipment. Not only is it necessary for me to provide what kids want, but to do it in a way that conserves the funds as much as possible."
Over the years, several items stand out in Niles' mind as perennial favorites of children everywhere: spiral slides, swings and clatter bridges--"like rickety bridges with the 'rickety' taken out," she says of the latter.
Among other things, bridges foster creative play scenes centered on what's going on under the bridge or why the children are crossing the bridge, such as in the "Three Billy Goats Gruff" folk tale, she says. Swings teach children how to take turns, give them a sense of their own power and aid in the development of balance. And slides are just plain fun.
Niles sees a bright future for playgrounds, from the vibrant colors of the tough plastics and polyester-coated steel used in their construction, to the ever-expanding variety of styles and shapes these materials can be molded or welded into. And because lawsuits have become more commonplace, she says, strict safety guidelines will continue their stronger roles in all equipment design.
Although Playgrounds Plus has kept her busy, Niles has also found time for a completely different business that she has been running from her home--or her back yard, to be more precise.
The Niles family has raised white homing pigeons for about a decade, an endeavor begun when a neighbor had a few pairs he no longer wanted and gave them to the children. Niles, her husband and children watched their brood grow over the years, which they housed in two dovecotes in their grassy back yard.
They transported the birds--which look like large doves--to special events and ceremonies such as weddings and set them free as an environmentally friendly alternative to balloon releases. Being homing pigeons, the feathered friends always found their way back to their Los Gatos home. Niles' son and daughter took most of the responsibility for the bird business until they left home for college.
Niles is in the process of selling the birds to another person, who will carry on the business. As for Playgrounds Plus, she has no plans to give that up anytime soon.
"I can't imagine doing anything else that would be as much fun as this," she says with a smile.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, April 16, 1997.
©1997 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.