Master Plans
You’ve been dreaming and planning your new nature play area. Now take your project to the next level and let’s put your vision down on paper. The world is excited to see!
Whether you are preparing to build a new playscape or planning to redesign your current one, a Master Plan is a great way to jump start your project. Rusty has worked with groups around the world to create beautiful play and learning environments—every project starts with a dream and a Master Plan.
Master Plan projects start with information gathering and brainstorming conversations, and finish with a set of fun design plans drawn by Rusty Keeler. Drawings include a top-view to-scale layout plan, plus a fun perspective design showing the new playscape in playful use by children and adults.
- Perfect as the first step of a full construction project happening all at once.
- Perfect as a guide if you are building in stages over time.
- Great as a fundraising tool to show grants and donors your special project.
- Great as a PR tool to get the word out about nature play and your project.
- Great as a community engagement tool to get people excited!
Plans can be done remotely or with an site visit.
Click the button below to start the conversation and get a quote for your project.
“Rusty Keeler was a pleasure to work with from first to last. I can’t imagine having done this with anyone else. From beginning to end Rusty Keeler’s skills as facilitator, artist and designer, innovator, and project manager lead us from our first hazy ideas to a finished project that is the joy of kids and families and the pride of our agency.
Our process consisted of an initial site visit by Rusty when he observed the children and the agency at play and work. During that initial time together, we translated our written list of features into a working, diagrammatic plan. From that point on, from opposite ends of the country, we worked by phone and fax to hone our initial plan. Rusty’s excellent communication skills as well as his ability to draw, to get concepts down on paper in a “discussable” visual format made it all possible.”
-Candy Meacham, Occupational Therapist, Whatcom Center for Early Learning
Case Studies
20 Ways to Create
Free Design tips! This free guide is loaded with ideas and inspirations to help you take your outdoor play space to the next level!
Nature Center
What better place to create a nature play area than right in the midst of nature, right? This design is for an accessible playscape on a wooded hill side at a favorite Ann Arbor, MI nature center. Education staff planned to have a space open to the public and also...
Large School Yard
Wow. This is quite a place! The San Antonio Zoo, besides being an amazing zoo, is a true believer and promoter of nature-based play and playwork. They'd been doing it for years in their popular "Nature Spot" with loose parts, sculpture, hills and a river. Their next...
Mini Park
I received an email out of the blue from a husband-wife team in Spain who want to do natural playscapes all over their region and could I help? YES! Working remotely from photos and video I came up with this design for a teeny nature play area behind a sports field at...
Preschool Plan
Here's one of my favorite designs for a preschool in Atlanta, GA. It has quite a mix: hills and hill slides, stepping stone paths, orchards, loose parts messy areas, a looping trike track, playhouses, a boulder scramble, a water trickle creek and yes, sheep!
Large Childcare Center
This plan is for a large childcare center in Ithaca, NY that serves 200+ children infant thru school age—the full range! (One of the great things about natural playscapes is that nature offers something special for children of all abilities and ages.) This group...
Home Day Care
This was a fun project to spruce up the yard at one of my son's childcare centers in Ithaca, NY. The idea was to create a plan that could be chipped away in phases over time with the help of parent volunteers. We've got some fun stuff here. The director had a contact...
