Building the Better Playground

By Deborah L. Cohen

Tom Jambor couldn't quite find what he was looking for in a preschool for his two young children when he moved from Buffalo, N.Y., to teach early-childhood development at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 1975. So he teamed up with a colleague to convert a rezoned house into an early-childhood center grounded in the philosophy of the developmental psychologist Jean Piaget, who stressed the importance of movement and play in children's early learning.

To balance the cognitive skills children were practicing indoors, Jambor planned an outdoor play space that would enhance their physical and social growth as well. Dusting off skills he picked up studying drafting in high school and designing substations for the Wisconsin Electric Power Company before he went on to college, he blended trees, tires, sand, and other pliable materials to erect a swinging, swaying, running, jumping, and climbing paradise.

That feat--plus a three-story treehouse he built for his own children--earned him an unsolicited position as the chairman of a committee to build a playground at his son's first elementary school, which became the prototype for the more than 100 playgrounds Jambor has created...