On Tuesday, demolition of the 40-year-old Longfellow Playground equipment began. The demolition was the start of a remodeling project spearheaded by Government and Land Use Specialist Catherine Ferdinand and Senior Vice President for Finance and Administration & Treasurer Matt Orlando in collaboration with the town of Brunswick. Bowdoin’s $450,000 investment in the renovation, which is on College-owned property, will support the construction of a new playground that will be leased to the town over 20 years for a total of $5000. Site work and landscaping are set to begin on September 16, and the project is expected to wrap up by the end of October.

In 2012, the College purchased the land the playground was built on and leased the equipment to Brunswick. Planning for the renovation began in 2021 after the ten-year lease expired.

“The town was interested in keeping a playground there,… but the administration was also interested in us keeping that space available to the public, in addition to our own communities,” Ferdinand said.

Director of the Brunswick Parks and Recreation Department Tom Farrell, who has been involved in the playground’s maintenance since its construction in 1986, collaborated with Ferdinand and Orlando on the new playground.

“The thing that’s been really wonderful is [paying] for this particular playground and [making] it open not only to Bowdoin but to the greater Brunswick Community,” Farrell said.

The new playground will primarily be composed of wooden structures, paying homage to its predecessor. It was designed by architect Sashie Misner and will comply with current safety and accessibility guidelines the former space did not meet. It will also feature naturally rot and insect-resistant wood and separate play areas for children of various ages.

The new lease will offer the town a lower rate on the new playground equipment—$250 per year in comparison to $1200. The town will own and maintain the equipment and keep up with regular inspections.

Orlando said that the project’s $450,000 price tag is higher than what he initially thought the College would have to allocate, which is largely a result of the cost of retaining design elements of the original playground.

The playground has been a cornerstone of the Brunswick community since its construction in the 1980s, and the new design was created taking the survey responses from over 600 Brunswick community members into account.

“What we heard really loud and clear was that people liked the natural elements, the wood. They liked the shade,” Ferdinand said. “We heard some concerns about accessibility. We also had those concerns internally that we wanted to improve the accessibility of those structures.”

Ferdinand added that many survey respondents helped with the construction of the original playground—a community-built project completed with volunteer work from community members and parents of children who attended former Longfellow Elementary School, which is now the Edwards Center for Art and Dance.

“There’s a lot of history there, and we knew we couldn’t replicate it, but we’re trying to honor the concept,” she said.

Farrell agreed that the playground’s history makes the project all the more important.

“A tremendous number of parents of children in the town of Brunswick back in the early 80s really worked together to raise funds and also actually build that playground, and it has served this community,” Farrell said. “Our goal all along, I think, has been to build a replacement playground that will resonate as strongly as the one that we just had to remove did for the last 40 years for the town and the College.”

While the College is managing the new build, the town’s lease outlines that it will be responsible for demolishing the old playground equipment.

“There’s been a number of public conversations about it through the Rec Commission, and we’ve worked closely because Public Works, which is another town department, is doing the demolition,” Ferdinand said.

Ferdinand and Orlando are excited to see the last three years of collaboration come to fruition in October and hope the playground will continue to serve as an integral part of the Brunswick community.

“In spite of it being a three-year process … and taking longer, costing a bit more, it’s really been a labor of love and a great partnership with the town and the neighbors on this,” Orlando said. “We’re excited to see next generations of Brunswick families enjoying time together there and spending long afternoons at the playground.”