A playground is one of the few amenities that works twice. It shows up in the listing photos and on the tour, and it keeps working every afternoon for the families already living there. The pool costs more and closes in September. The clubhouse gets booked twelve times a year. The playground gets used every day it isn't raining, by the residents you most want to keep.

It's usually one person who gets it done. A board member who's tired of hearing that there's nowhere for kids to go. A property manager who's watching families leave for the community with the play area. A project manager who wants the amenity finished before the model opens. Whoever it is, they end up making the case to people who are fine with things as they are — so we try to make that easier. Tell us the number you're working with, and we'll show you what it buys, in a form you can easily put in front of a board or an owner.

The number is usually smaller than a park department's, and that's fine. A small playground beats no playground, and a well-designed small one beats a badly-designed big one — the difference is what's actually on it: how much there is to do, how many kids can do it at once, and whether it works for the four-year-old and the nine-year-old who'll be out there together. We design to your budget rather than around it.

And it should look like it belongs. Colors that work with your buildings, something with a bit of character rather than the same structure at every community in the county. Residents notice, and so does anyone touring.

Whoever installs it, someone maintains it for the next twenty years. We'd rather put in equipment that holds up than equipment that looks good on day one. Parts stay available, and when the board turns over or the manager changes, we're still here.