• Has elements that engage all five senses (seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, tasting),
• Offers opportunities for children to observe environmental change, and
• Offers opportunities for children to design and build their own environments.

Cultural Expression

• Projects a strong and unique community image,
• Sends a message through the environment that children are valued,
• Promotes environmental awareness,
• Considers possibilities for communicating the history of the city, its ecology and inhabitants, and
• Creates visual and social connections within the city.

Safety

• Provides for adequate supervision of the activities programmed,
• Minimizes potential harm from injuries, and
• Provides adequate lighting.

Accessibility

• Provides access for those with disabilities,
• Considers distance, topography, parking, and bicycle and pedestrian amenities en route to the site from the schools and residential areas,
• Minimizes the need to cross busy streets,
• Provides traffic control where needed, and
• Provides activities that serve different users at various times and days.

Organizational Clarity

• Uses signs, landmarks, and other design features to clearly designate spaces for particular age groups, and
• If necessary, identifies the intended use of the facility.

Sustainability

• Minimizes the personnel needed for operating programs and maintaining the site,
• Minimizes the installation of services (water, electricity, waste),
• Considers the life span of the project in terms of equipment durability and on-going maintenance needs,
• Uses durable, attractive, low-maintenance materials that are environmentally sound, and
• Provides an appropriate place for graffiti or uses graffiti-resistant materials.

Urban Design

• Has an entry that is clearly visible from the street,
• Has an entry that accommodates pedestrians, bicyclists, and disabled persons in a convenient, attractive, and protected manner, and
• Links the entry to pedestrian crossings, traffic lights, or bridges so that only minor streets must be crossed.

Landscape Design

• Reinforces existing and reclaims lost site characteristics where possible,
• Reinforces the existing landscape character of neighborhood, and
• Uses landscape design to take advantage of special site conditions.

Architecture Design

• Minimizes intrusions into privacy on adjacent sites,
• Maximizes open space on the site,
• Responds to nearby historic structures, and
• Considers human scale, including the scale of children of different ages.