Changing the landscape of play.
APE Studio Inc. is the sole North American representative of the international playground equipment manufacturer Richter Spielgeräte GmbH. APE Studio was founded in 2018 by a team of colleagues with over a decade of experience working with Richter products and projects. Our company builds on the work of Jane Clark Chermayeff, a museum educator and visitor advocate, who first brought Richter equipment to the United States for the New York Hall of Science Playground in Queens. Today, APE Studio helps landscape architects and other planners create play spaces that embody the playful spirit expressed in one of Jane’s favorite quotes, “Life without a swing is a misunderstanding.”
Richter Spielgeräte is an award-winning playground equipment design and manufacturing company, known for its original products and commitment to play value and safety. The company began in 1967, when Hilde Richter, a social worker in Hamburg, was asked to plan playgrounds for children living in urban housing developments. She in turn asked her son, a trained cabinet maker, to produce play equipment that could bring a feeling of freedom and nature into the children’s restrictive concrete-and-steel environment. Julian Richter responded with simple wooden constructions that sparked children’s imaginations and give them contact with natural materials. For 50 years, the family-owned and operated company has continued working in the same way, both in Germany and with some 25 partners worldwide.
Together, Richter and the APE Studio team have helped shape some of the most highly acclaimed play spaces in North America. We have contributed to learning landscapes such as Beauvoir Outdoors at the National Cathedral Elementary School, the Brainasium at Telus Spark in Calgary, DoSeum in San Antonio, and David S. Bolger Play Space at the Ringling Museum in Sarasota. We have developed destination play spaces at celebrated public parks including Brooklyn Bridge Park and Governors Island in New York City, Smale Riverfront Park in Cincinnati, Shelby Farms Park outside Memphis, and most recently, Tulsa’s Gathering Place.