"Leaps and Boundaries" in the New York Times

Last week's NYT article on children's playgrounds features the West 110th Street Playground at the north end of Central Park, above. Except for the strikingly beautiful setting, and the circular forms that echo it, I find this a rather barren construct...why so much empty space around that lonely single tire swing?

The article reviews a new book, " Designing Modern Childhoods: History, Space, and the Material Culture of Children", which is a compilation of essays, tracing how various "specialized architectures (schools, hospitals, playgrounds, houses) and objects (cellphones, snowboards, the McDonald’s Happy Meal) have molded the landscape of children’s private lives. " [Rutgers University Press, edited by Gutman and Coninck-Smith].

I haven't read it...let me know if you have and what you think.