Playground designer likes seeing finished product

BY AMY OLSON, Journal Times, 5/21/03

Wednesday, May 21, 2003 11:00 AM CDT

RACINE -- The designer sketched feverishly on the old lunchroom table, seemingly unaffected by the swarm of children watching as they looked on.

Working with pencils, the form of a swing and fence took shape on paper as hoards of youngsters looked over his shoulder and across the table, making suggestions.

The artist and designer is Dennis Wille, a native of Racine. You're not likely to see his more recent work at a museum, but go over to Kids Connection in Franksville, and you'll see children playing on the creations Wille designed with input from kids themselves.

Wille is a designer from Robert Leathers and Associates, an Ithaca, N.Y., firm that specializes in community-built playgrounds.

Wille graduated from Park High School in 1967, and went on to undergraduate and graduate studies at the Art Institute of Chicago. While working for a non-profit multi-family housing group, he met Robert Leathers at a conference.

"I realized the playground people were having more fun than I was having," Wille said. After finishing the project he was working on, he sent a letter to Leathers, expressing interest in working for the firm. A month later, he had the job.

Ten years after that, the job continues to intrigue him.

"I had no idea that people did this at all," he said.

Stephen Smiley, one of the organizers, said he thinks it's great that Wille got to come back to Racine to design the North Beach playground.

Juliet Edmands said she got to know Wille while working on the Kids Connection playground in Franksville. With his background, Edmands said he was the perfect designer for the project because he understands how the committee wants to tie in with the lake.

"He's very creative," she said.

At Tuesday's design day at Red Apple and Janes schools, Wille elicited feedback from children about what they wanted in their ultimate playground.

"They kids are really sharing their dreams," he said.

"You hear things you'd never imagine, like walking through a brain," he said, referring to one child's suggestion.

Though Wille has designed more than 300 playgrounds in the United States, New Zealand, Australia and Canada, he's rarely taken part in the actual building. During cross-country driving trips with his son and daughter, Wille said he and his family would often stop for breaks at one a playground along the way, getting to see the fruits of his work. Coming into town on Monday, Wille stopped by the Kids Connection playground in Franksville, which he designed a few years ago.

"I do enjoy seeing it built," he said.

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