About the author: Anojja Shah (left) is a Tribeca mom who spends her days running after a feisty 2-year-old. When the Taskmaster is asleep, she enjoys reading, exploring her new neighborhood, and catching up with friends. In past lives she worked as a journalist and on Wall Street in equity research.

It’s been quite a summer for new playgrounds in downtown NYC, and the fun’s not over yet. Next up is the Pier 25 playground, slated for October. I chatted with Donna Walcavage of AECOM Design + Planning, the playground’s designer, to get more details on what’s to come. While Walcavage’s name might not be familiar to downtown parents, her work certainly is: she designed the Rockefeller Park playground in Battery Park City.

Climbing is going to be huge at Pier 25. Plans include a 13-foot climbing net and fake rocks set up as a climbing challenge. There will also be a horizontal climbing wall, complete with hand and foot holds like adult climbing walls.

Pier 25 will also have a miniature golf course (visible at left). Both photos by Anojja Shah.

Anyone with kids knows how few swings there are downtown. Playground designers don’t like including them, because they require a lot of space in front and behind. But parents asked, and parents shall receive.

This may not be relevant until next spring, but Pier 25 will have a lot of water features. Expect to see ground sprays, misters, mushroom sprays, and two poles that send water up and down using moving buckets and a twirling feature. And, sure to be crowd pleasers, there will be water cannons. (Or, in kiddie terms, really big water guns.)

And no playground is complete without a sand area. Unlike other local playgrounds, where sand has been clogging drains and causing pools of stagnant water to form, Pier 25’s sand area will include its own water source—which means kids don’t have to cart their buckets (and all the sand in them) back and forth to other parts of the playground, which should cut down on clogs.

Walcavage says the entire area will be fenced in, with three entrances. There will be a few umbrellas for shade now, and trees have been planted that will eventually grow and provide more shade. The playground is designed for ages 2 to 12—so no matter how badly you’d like to grab that water cannon, you better find one elsewhere.

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