Portfolio
A Hill that Thrills
With a giant grassy hill and a very large and deep raingarden already in the space, this site offered some unique opportunities to create a very special setting for nature play and exploration at Marymount University’s Early Learning Academy. SEE PROJECT ››
Cooling a Hot Courtyard with New Shade and Surfacing
The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Early Childhood Center at the Henderson Hopkins School in Baltimore, Maryland is the site of this nature play space, a collaboration between Downtown Baltimore Child Care, Baltimore City Head Start, and the Mayor’s Office of Children and Family Success. SEE PROJECT ››
The Wild and Wonderful Schoolyard
In 2024 I had the honor of working with the rural community of Capon Bridge, West Virginia to transform the expansive grounds of their elementary school into a vast and varied nature play and learning campus. The whole town -- artists, farmers, builders, bankers, educators, elected officials, students of all ages, parents, and grandparents came together in the most beautiful ways to build this for their children. SEE PROJECT ››
Play around the Edges
This year-round neighborhood park in Towson, Maryland is also home to the Stone Leigh summer pool club and The Sharks swim team. The new play space features this fabulous SHARKS carved wooden entry arch, a multi-textured barefoot path that’s beautiful and fun for feet, a climbing and sliding hill with a cargo net and stump scramble, bench swings and a custom carved salamander balance beam. SEE PROJECT ››
Community Build Builds Community
EarlySpace worked with the congregation of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church to create the playspace design of their dreams. Volunteers from the church (with a little help from a contractor friend) built everything in their beautiful play space using their incredible skills and the DIY instructions in Nancy’s book, Nature Play at Home: Creating Outdoor Spaces that Connect Children to the Natural World. (Check it out! You could do this too!!!) SEE PROJECT ››
Nature Play at Home
It was wonderful to have had the opportunity (along with the fantastic team from Green Roots Landscaping) to transform this two-level backyard into a space that invites this homeschooling family outside.
We removed non-native ground covers from this steep hill and replaced them with boulder and stump scrambles, and an embankment slide for the kids, a stone staircase, and water feature overlooking a new stone patio for the whole family. SEE PROJECT ››
Transforming a Historic Church Courtyard
The natural play space on the grounds of The Falls Church (the city of Falls Church, Virginia’s namesake) is in a shady courtyard, designed for use by children from the resident early childhood program along with preschool families gathering after school, and children from the congregation on weekends. Within the space there are areas for imaginary play, quiet time, nature connection, as well as active and sensory play. SEE PROJECT ››
Oasis in the Heart of Baltimore
When it was time for their decades old and much beloved wooden play structure to be replaced, this childcare center opted to transform their urban site (wedged between a parking garage, a hospital, and a delicious-smell-emitting commercial bread bakery) into a nature play space. SEE PROJECT ››
A Reggio Inspired Jewish Preschool
The entry to this play space is along an accessible concrete path, stamped and imprinted with Hebrew symbols and quotes. The path leads children and their adults to a playful gate with peek holes into their sprawling nature play space. SEE PROJECT ››
From Blank Slate to Lush Baby Garden
Briya Public Charter School is a unique, two-generational multi-cultural program that serves both young children and their parents with education and health care services. The outdoor space — designed for babies, toddlers, and occasional preschoolers — provides a balance of active and quiet play, places to move, and places to watch and relax, places for a group to gather and places just big enough for one or two children. SEE PROJECT ››
A Renovation Connects Inside and Out
Children, teachers, families, and visitors are welcomed to this natural play space from the thoughtfully designed lobby, where a wall of windows brings the sights and sounds of the outdoors in, and gives children a preview of the space before they enter the playground. SEE PROJECT ››
A city park for nature play
Constitution Gardens Park is the first city park in the National Capitol area with a focus on natural play. The design of Constitution Gardens Park celebrates the past, present and future of the Gaithersburg community by weaving together threads of sustainability with elements inspired by the cultural and natural history of the area. SEE PROJECT ››
Nature play on an historic site
The natural play and learning space at Creative Minds International Public Charter School, adjacent to the historic summer home now known as Lincoln’s Cottage, is designed to recreate classic outdoor play experiences for today’s children. SEE PROJECT ››
Nature play for babies and toddlers
The baby-friendly natural play space at this Early Head Start Center offers a gentle invitation to the youngest children to explore and discover large and small spaces, active and quiet spaces, places for outdoor building and creating and spots for imaginary, sensory and physical play. SEE PROJECT ››
The Reading Garden
EarlySpace designed this courtyard to support all facets of literacy learning in a lush, rich and complex natural setting. There are areas for small and large group gatherings as well as intimate spaces for individual reading and quiet activity. Located outside the school library, the space surrounds children with nature in a whimsical, inspiring, print-rich environment. SEE PROJECT ››
The Art Garden
This courtyard is a colorful space designed to support hands-on creativity in the fresh air and sunshine. This is a space where loud, messy, exuberant art is welcome! SEE PROJECT ››
Montessori outside
Earlyspace worked with teachers and administrators, engineers, and local officials to create a whimsical natural playspace design that met the regulatory requirements for this environmentally sensitive space, while offering a range of opportunities to move, explore, play and learn. SEE PROJECT ››
A hillside playspace
EarlySpace worked with Lowell school to transform their hillside into an inviting space for preschoolers to play. There were two main areas– the steep hillside, and the flat space at the top of the hill. On the hill, children can slide down on two different slides, descend on a fallen tree, and climb up or down on a stump scramble, a boulder climb or use an alternating-leg-staircase. SEE PROJECT ››
A naturally built natural playspace
EarlySpace and this parent co-op preschool joined with Arlington County’s Department of Environmental Services to offer a series of green building classes that taught participants natural building techniques and provided labor for a community built playspace. SEE PROJECT ››
The Wetlands Learning Lab
What began as the search for a solution to a muddy problem on the edge of the schoolyard, turned into an exciting opportunity to do something big and really innovative. SEE PROJECT ››
Sustainability at the front door
Students and teachers from the Washington-Lee High School IB Environmental Systems classes put what they had studied in the classroom into action in this hands-on project to manage stormwater and reduce erosion at the front of the school. SEE PROJECT ››
Living Roof and Pond
This is the home and test garden of sustainable landscape designer Nancy Striniste and family. This award-winning garden is where clients visit to see many of the sustainable landscape ideas and native plants in Nancy’s designs. SEE PROJECT ››
