After six years, exhausting revisions and countless neighborhood spats, the Helen Diller Playground at Dolores Park is finally complete.
Saturday marks the official playground opening and, according to reports, it's been worth the wait.
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"You see the design on paper and you have an idea of what it will be like," said Friends of Dolores Park Playground Chair Gonzalez Madynski to the San Francisco Chronicle. "But seeing it now, in the actual space, it's beyond our wildest dreams."
According to Friends of Dolores Park, playground details include two slides (including one 45-foot "super slide"), climbing walls, a suspension bridge, rubber flooring, a shipwreck, swings, climbing structures and ropes and a "sound garden" with chimes and drums. The Chronicle reported that the playground will even feature a therapeutic swing for children with disabilities.
The playground will be divided into a school age play area for children five to 12, a pre-school play area for children two to five and an all-ages sand box.
Though it looks like kiddies will have to brave the unfortunate rain, the much-anticipated ribbon cutting ceremony will surely still be well attended. True to Dolores Park form, entertainment will include face painting, hula hoop dancers, and, according to Mission Mission, a performance by Orange Sherbet, "a family-friendly band that writes rap songs about the benefits of eating locally-sourced sustainable seasonal vegetables."
We can't wait.
Check out photos of Helen Diller Playground's construction courtesy of Dolores Park Works. For pictures of the completed playground, check out the slideshow on SFGate. Then, check out a video of Orange Sherbet in action, courtesy of Mission Mission:
