What’s the Deal With Giant Games in Parks and Plazas?

A toddler, gripping a ring nearly the size of his face, stands next to a Connect Four board that’s almost twice his height. Two women reach toward a giant Jenga tower as park-goers lounge on blankets nearby.

These scenes, captured in photos from the Bryant Park picnic program in New York City, illustrate a trend in urban public spaces in the United States: life-sized games. Whether it’s supersized chess and checkers in Buffalo or giant Scrabble at The Wharf in Washington, D.C., the games appeal to children and the young adults who have flooded into cities in recent years, and whom developers and businesses are eager to court. They’re part of a larger push for “playable” cities, and for urban public spaces to be active rather than contemplative.