The Gathering Place of Tulsa, USA
Richter built America’s largest playground in Tulsa, Oklahoma
Gathering Place of Tulsa Oklahoma USA, © Daniel Perales
Opening
The largest-ever playground in the USA was opened to the public in a gigantic and emotionally charged opening ceremony on 8 September in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
A total of several hundred pieces of Richter play equipment had been erected on the 27-hectare parkland in the preceding months. This included six gigantic towers connected by eight bridges – one of them spanning an amazing distance of 18 metres at a height of six metres.
The designer Günter Beltzig, who had already worked closely together with Richter for over 30 years, designed for Tulsa a ship, an elephant and the Throne Ring, a seating circle made of concrete elements with a very special atmosphere and acoustics.
"Tulsa-Towers"
The “Tulsa Towers”, which were specially designed for the project, are 14 metres high and, with their top platform at a height of ten metres, offer a unique view of the surrounding area.
They already caused a sensation in their place of origin and production, Frasdorf in Upper Bavaria, Germany when the “Tulsa Towers” were erected by the manufacturer for testing purposes on Richter Spielgeräte’s company site in June 2016 following completion. Afterwards they were disassembled and only then, together with the other equipment, shipped to the USA in a total of 32 shipping containers.
Two Richter towers of similar dimensions already stand on another prestigious large playground in the USA, namely the Maggie Daley Park in Chicago.
Special features
Another of the special features that will inspire the expected one million local, national and international visitors of all ages in Tulsa every year is the first Richter vertical water playground, an eight-metre tunnel slide, and an almost nine-metres-high wooden elephant, making it twice the size of a real African elephant bull.
The gigantic dimensions of the structures built there already hint at the unique project, which, from the point of view of the team, will ring in a lasting positive change for playgrounds in the USA.
