Colin Greenly. Design for Wishbone House, winning design from the Corcoran Gallery School of Art’s National Playground Sculpture Competition. 1967
Wishbone House, a six-foot-high precast concrete A-shaped frame that encouraged active climbing without and quiet play within, was Greenly’s winning submission to the Corcoran Gallery School of Art’s National Playground Sculpture Competition. For this project Greenly considered multiple angles to the idea of play sculpture, including “playground, sculpture, climb on, climb in, sit on, shade essential, minimum upkeep, maximum shape, minimum cost, reproducibility.” The original Wishbone house was placed in a playground in a wealthy section of Washington, D.C.; after Greenly objected, Lady Bird Johnson arranged for a second installation in an underserved neighborhood. Others followed, and multiple versions still exist today, including at the Potomac School in McLean, Virginia.
Learn more at MoMA.org/centuryofthechild
