SIGHTLINES | Game On: Keeping Playgrounds Alive After Sunset
Joshua Spitzig
WE READILY ACCEPT THAT ADULT recreation deserves quality illumination. Municipal softball leagues play under lights, public volleyball courts in New York City stay bright until 11 p.m., and high school football games are typically played long after sunset. And just beyond those fences and fields, playgrounds stay dark. That made sense when families were eating dinner together at 5:30 p.m. and a parent was home all day, but it no longer reflects how most families live.
“When a playground is too popular at night, it tells you something about latent demand.”
Years ago, when I was first asked to illuminate a playground for use after dark at Gene Leahy Mall in Omaha, NE, (LD+A, September 2023) my first thought was: that’s a lawsuit waiting to happen. We performed the work anyway—analyzed what would make it feel safe and inviting and designed without many precedents. We used layered light to eliminate dark pockets and focused on visual comfort so parents could see their kids and kids could see the equipment. That playground is now one of the most popular parts of the project, and it changed how I think about play at night.
Several years after that project opened, the park operator told me the playgrounds stay busy right up until their 11 p.m. closing. On summer evenings, there are lines for the slides and clusters of grandparents on the benches. This wasn’t what I expected, but it’s consistent with what I have started to see in other projects.
Cities are getting hotter. During a recent presentation in New Orleans, I ran a thermal comfort analysis on local weather data using the Universal Thermal Climate Index. I compared a playground only open during daylight hours to another open from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Lighting for use after dark unlocked 800+ thermally comfortable hours, about 50% more than the full-sun daytime baseline. Those are comfortable hours when families could use the playground if it was lit.
Cultures that developed in hot climates figured this out long ago. The evening paseo, dinner at 9 p.m., kids in strollers at midnight—these are climate adaptations. Many communities in U.S. cities already live this pattern. As cities get hotter, our parks should be designed to support local residents.
In Greece and Spain, I’ve seen families playing at 11:45 p.m. on a Saturday night. Kids climbing, parents talking, everyone acting in a completely normal manner; because for them, it is. In Singapore and Dubai, where heat has always shaped outdoor life, many playgrounds are illuminated late into the night.
Then, there’s Joya Playground in Farmers Branch, TX, just outside Dallas. Billed as the U.S.’s first glow-in-the-dark playground, it has RGB LED strips integrated into much of the equipment and structures. The city worked with DarkSky International and follows Lights Out Texas guidelines, so the playground glows without blasting light into bedrooms or disrupting migratory birds. Opening night brought overwhelming crowds (a team member estimated over 7,000 people) despite freezing weather. The people kept coming; after several weeks they had to temporarily close to install crowd control. When a playground is too popular at night, it tells you something about latent demand.
Many working parents can’t get to a playground before sunset. I know my family often can’t. In hot climates, evenings are often the only time outdoor play is comfortable. For families in apartments without yards, it may be the only chance for kids to burn off energy outside. For communities with traditions of evening gathering, it’s typical. Keeping playgrounds dark doesn’t protect kids. It just decides which ones get to play.
Lighting alone does not create safety. The projects that work best after dark pair good light with programming and presence. Los Angeles County’s Parks After Dark program is the clearest example I know. The county extends evening hours at dozens of parks each summer, layers in free programming, and puts staff and law enforcement on site. The University of California, Los Angeles’s long-running evaluation found modest but measurable reductions in violent and non-violent crime compared with similar neighborhoods. When asked why they felt safe, participants pointed to people looking out for each other as well as visible, friendly staff. With hundreds of people in the park, the crowd and staff together become the security system.
Technical choices matter, too. Operations staff and clients often assume brighter means safer. It doesn’t. Moderate, even illumination works better than scattered hot spots with dark areas between them. Prioritizing vertical illuminance helps parents read faces across the play area. Controlling glare matters for visual comfort. Full-cutoff fixtures and warm color temperatures limit impact on neighbors, wildlife, and the night sky.
Good lighting still needs support: sightlines, maintenance, restrooms, and clear wayfinding back to transit or parking. This is basic Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design strategy. When those pieces are missing, no realistic amount of light will make a playground feel safe.
Does it cost more? Yes. But the question shouldn’t be whether you can afford to light a playground. It should be, what do you get for the money? The National Study of Playgrounds, research led by play consultants Studio Ludo, observed 60 playgrounds across 10 U.S. cities and found that innovative playground design doubles usage compared to conventional equipment.1 In heat-exposed communities, every family hour shifted from an air-conditioned living room to a well-lit park is a public health win.
Not every playground should be lit for evening use. Some sites have sensitive habitat nearby while others are too close to neighboring homes. Some operators don’t have the capacity to staff evening hours. But those should be conscious decisions, not defaults. The question should be “Why not here?” rather than “Why at all?”
Liability concerns aren’t unreasonable, but they are more manageable than I first thought. When I illuminated that first playground, there was no IES guidance to lead the way. Now, designers and operators can use ANSI/IES RP-43-22: Recommended Practice: Lighting Exterior Applications as a defensible standard for illuminance and contrast standards for playgrounds. Beyond guidelines, good lighting reduces risk. In my experience, a dark playground, or one lit with sparse, glary security lighting, is more dangerous when someone decides to use it anyway.
The objection I hear most often is that an illuminated playground will attract people looking to camp out or break rules. In my experience, the opposite happens. Dark, empty, unsupervised spaces attract those uses. A well-lit playground full of families is exactly what people seeking cover avoid. The presence of families is the deterrent.
Rowdy kids are another concern that often comes up. Parks are one of the last public spaces where you can spend time without spending money. Teenagers show up, and they should. Sometimes they get rowdy, even with families around. But that’s an operational challenge, not a lighting problem. Parks that handle it well have security staff who engage and build relationships rather than just patrol. Lighting gives the staff the environment to do that work. It doesn’t replace them.
Years ago, I worried about liability when lighting that first playground in Omaha. Instead, it became one of the most popular parts of the park. In many communities, the conversation is no longer about whether to light playgrounds for evening use; it’s about how quickly we can catch up to what many families already know they need.
Joshua Spitzig, Member IES, CLD, IALD, affiliate member ASLA, is U.S. lighting lead at Buro Happold in New York. He serves on the IES Outdoor Nighttime Environment Committee.
1 Studio Ludo. National Study of Playgrounds. Summer 2023. Available: https://issuu.com/studioludoorg/docs/nsopbooklet?fr=sM2I5NzM0OTA4MjQ
