Bienenstock Bringing Nature To Life
We engage communities to re-imagine and rebuild their
green space through better
designs,
partnerships, and
programs that connect
their children and adults to nature. The
parks and
playgrounds we create
reflect the natural heritage of the site and the needs of the community through
a collaborative and inclusive design process, a
skilled team of installers and
well orchestrated
community builds.
Rolling hills, winding pathways, giant logs, boulders and large native trees and shrubs define spaces filled with
art,
music and
nature. These are
CSA,
ASTM and
ANSI compliant playgrounds for all abilities, where the only barrier is the limit of your imagination. This is the place in our
community where generations will form their critical bond with
nature and each other.
Bienenstock
green space can be
found in
public parks, at
child care centres, Conservation authorities, Teachers’ Colleges and Universities, preschools, elementary
schools,
private schools, zoos, hospitals,
nature centres, and
cities, across
Canada and the
United States.
We are a social enterprise that has responded to a crisis. Children no longer have the freedom to roam or explore their neighbourhoods, walk to school, or even climb a tree as we did when we were young. Our
playgrounds have become flattened, paved and sterilized land punctuated with catalogued monuments of plastic and steel while obesity rates, diabetes, asthma and ADHD run out of control through our children and youth. Screen time for kids in
North America now exceeds 52hrs per week and for the first time in history; our children will have a shorter lifespan than their parents. This happened on our watch, and it is becoming clear that something has gone terribly wrong.
We need to reassess the places where we engage children and the way in which we engage with
communities to create our common
Green Space. While the traditional playgrounds of the past three decades focus on ease of maintenance and
gross motor activity, Bienenstock relies on our 25years of experience in park maintenance and
construction to allow us to keep tight controls on the maintenance footprint of your
parks while we engage children with
nature. We support all aspects of child development and create opportunities for children of all abilities, cultures, and fitness levels.
Gross motor skills and
fine motor skills are engaged,
cognitive skills develop,
attention spans increase, school grades rise, absenteeism decreases, creativity abounds and
collaborative play and learning grow. In short, the child flourishes and the
environmental stewards of the future emerge.
The same benefits of Bienenstock greenspace holds true for adults. We are an increasingly urban and sedentary population faced with the irony of growing urban centres and a shrinking sense of community. Our identity was once linked to the national natural heritage that we left behind as we moved to the city. Now, our connection to the land and its people has been replaced by high speed connectivity and screen time. We have become a nation of stressed out grown ups and our productivity, environment, and health is suffering.
But unlike the feeling of hopelessness that we are often left with when we are faced with the monumental task or fixing our cities and our environment, this is something we can solve. There is a proven answer to much of this nonsense. Great design through Bienenstock’s inclusive and professionally facilitated process will restore a sense of community while it restores the ecology of your
public green space. Whether you are 8months old, 8 years old or 80, our
parks engage your
community fully from first concept to
community build and the decades that follow. These are the common spaces for everyone. Fully accessible, natural, beautiful, functional and inclusive…this is what a public park is meant to be, this is where we bring nature to life.
Our clients include the
YWCA,
YMCA,
Humber College,
Seneca College,
Ryerson University,
Toronto Child and Family Services,
Toronto Community Housing Corporation,
Right to Play,
Parks Canada,
Tree Canada, Cities of
Toronto,
Hamilton,
Ottawa,
Midland,
Vancouver,
Collingwood,
Batawa,
Edmonton, School Boards, Private Schools, Nature Centres, Conservation Authorities,
US Army, etc... Full list available upon request.
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"Natural Playgrounds should be the standard for all our playgrounds. They truly connect children with nature through play and are a sort of classroom for the next generation of environmental stewards."
~Dr. David Suzuki
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"As the Mayor of Canada's largest city, Toronto, I'm happy to see more natural playgrounds in our neighbourhoods: they connect our children to nature and promote healthy living..."
~Mayor David Miller
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