The new natural playground surrounding Colene Hoose Elementary School in Normal is nearing completion and is now open for use. A public grand opening event is set for October.
There are still some “aesthetic items” being installed at the 16-acre playground, said Unit 5 spokesperson Dayna Brown. And after Unit 5 students started using the playground last spring, planners “realized that we needed a fence on the boundary of the property, just to delineate for students and the public where the playground begins and ends,” Brown said, so that work is also underway.
There are some rules the public know should know about.
The privately funded $5 million natural playground is technically a school playground. That means it’s only open to the public outside of school hours and school events – generally after 5:30 p.m. on school days and on the weekends, Brown said. There may be some instances where Unit 5 will have school or district events outside of traditional hours and it will not be open at that time, she said.
No dogs or other animals are allowed on the playground. Drinking and smoking, including e-cigarettes, are also prohibited, which is the case for any Unit 5 property, Brown said.
The playground was made possible by the $5 million gift from Charlie Jobson, a hedge fund founder and investor who grew up in Normal and went to Hoose as a kid. It was designed by famous Danish landscape architect Helle Nebelong. It includes at least 20 separate elements, such as an alphabet labyrinth, a snail-shaped mound, a river garden, an amphitheater and more to bring elements of nature to the schoolyard.
It’s taken longer than expected to reach opening day. When initially announced, it was projected to be largely finished in fall 2021. Groundbreaking didn’t happen until May 2022.
A public grand opening is now set for Oct. 7.
