We’re Reimagining Play at Falk—And We Need Your Help! | News

November 21st 2025

#FalkExperiences #SupportFalk

Over the past couple of years, we’ve been on a journey to reinvent Falk’s play spaces and build an environment that honors all forms of recreation. Next summer, this mission will culminate in a comprehensive playground renovation, inspired by students’ hopes and dreams for play at Falk.

Building the Vision

“The big vision," Director Jill Sarada shares, “is to ensure that we have spaces for all types of play. We already have spaces for kids who want to play sports or who maybe need a quiet area to just socialize—the new soccer goals, the basketball hoop on the rooftop, the [tables and umbrellas on the third-floor] terrace, we're actually building benches to go outside [so] kids have a place to sit and socialize—so [now] the thought is:

How are we honoring and respecting and giving space to all the different kinds of play that we see kids engage in?”

For students who value imaginative play, Falk has introduced loose parts equipment, like the Imagination Playground blocks on our rooftop playground and Anji Play ladders, mats, and play tubes. This past October, WonderLab teachers Tim Wagner and Derek Werderitch also led a community construction event, where they worked with families and colleagues to build loose parts play pieces.

These creations were made possible by last year’s Pitt Day of Giving and income from the Parents and Caregivers Endowed Fund for Enrichment. They included notched planks perfect for building forts and a large wooden cube that can be used as a slide, hideout, or climbing wall during recess. In keeping with Falk’s child-centered and inquiry-based mission, these materials allow students to design their own play and develop creative thinking skills in a fun, hands-on way.

Despite these recent additions and innovations, however, there’s still one group of students left unaccounted for—the ones who want to spend their recess racing down a slide or swinging from a jungle gym to get out their afternoon wiggles. This is where the need for a major playground renovation—and a humble request for your support—comes in.

Our Ask

Last school year, eleven faculty and staff members came together to form the Falk Playground Committee and establish a vision for the much-needed renovation. With the goal of designing a play space that both optimizes our limited urban space and honors Falk’s unique student body, they surveyed students about their playground likes, dislikes, hopes, and suggestions.

“I went through the data with [Falk's research coordinator], and we came out with the big ideas,” committee head Tim Wagner says. "Then the committee started putting together ideas that [matched] that.”

After thoughtful deliberation and research, the Playground Committee assembled a plan for next summer’s renovation, divided into tiers that indicate priority level and cumulative equipment and installation costs. With each successive tier, we will be one step closer to completely reimagining play at Falk, honoring all students’ recreational interests.

Tier 1: Embankment Slide & Swing Repair

With $88,400 in donations, we will:

Transform the hillside between Allequippa St and the front mulch playground into a racing slide
Install boulders, a rope climber, and a net climber to access the new slide
Refurbish or replace the well-loved Falk swing set

Tier 2: Jungle Dome

With $168,700 in cumulative gifts, we will install a large jungle dome to provide Falk’s most adventurous students with an outlet for their creative energy.

Tier 3: Supernova

With $180,800 in cumulative gifts, we will introduce Falk students to the Kompan Supernova, a rotating structure that offers endless fun and strengthens balance and agility.

To minimize interruptions to the school year and ensure that your contributions have an immediate impact, we hope to start construction shortly after the 2025–26 school year and complete the renovation before school reconvenes next fall. To help us reach our $180,800 fundraising goal and complete all three tiers of renovation, we invite you to make a gift to the Building Renovation Fund.

Give Now

Checks made payable to University of Pittsburgh/Falk Laboratory School can be mailed or brought to Falk Laboratory School, Development and Alumni Relations Office, 4060 Allequippa St., Pittsburgh, PA 15261. Please include the Building Renovation Fund in the memo line or an accompanying note.

With, For, and By the Community

In addition to nurturing children’s growing minds and bodies by giving them the new play space they need, this renovation will also be a testament to Falk’s tight-knit community. Thinking about the many contributions Falk’s WonderLab has already made to the playground, along with the consistent involvement from students, Sarada reflects:

We're trying to do a lot of this internally and with [the] community, through the community builds, with the kids, with the architecture students. We're trying to minimize costs and really make it with and for and by the community.

For the last seven years, Middle School students have spent the spring trimester building wooden climbing structures for Falk’s lower kindergarten playground. This winter, students in the Middle School architecture elective will witness the planning and design process firsthand, hopefully inspiring projects of their own.

The school will also be partnering with Yocca Playgrounds + Outdoor Fitness, a local Pittsburgh company that built Falk’s 2009 playground, elements of which still stand at Falk today.

Delighting Students and Teachers Alike

When students were asked to imagine their dream play space this fall, they eagerly described everything from ziplines and monkey bars to new swing sets and slides. The biggest common thread was a desire for an obstacle course or climbing structure—a wish our new jungle dome will fulfill. “We could have so many fun games on [something like] that,” one fifth grader shared, with another adding that “you could do a lot of parkour, and you [could] just swing around. I think that’d be really cool.”

“So many adults here just delight in watching what kids can do, given the space and the materials,” Sarada says. “When [students] see that they can climb and move and be in a space differently, that just engages them. Kids who don't have those things right now are going to have them, and they're so excited.”

Wagner also looks forward to seeing students enjoy the playground, especially the new slide. “I think every playground should have a slide,” he says. Many alumni and older students remember the days when Falk did, and “they’ll be so excited to have [one] again.” Kindergarten students echo this sentiment, saying they wish they could ride a slide down the playground’s small hillside.

At the end of the day, Sarada shares, “the kids deserve it,” and that’s what really matters.