Augmented Reality Brings a Gables Park to Life

There’s Magic in the Air at the Coral Gables Youth Center

After months of the city’s parks being closed due to coronavirus, they are all finally open again. And one public space in particular, the War Memorial Youth Center Athletic Field, comes with an added bonus: Magical Park.

Magical Park is an augmented reality experience, transforming the Youth Center field into a digital playground. The City of Coral Gables has partnered with New Zealand-based AR Games to be the first U.S. city to launch the program. “As we started opening our parks a little bit, we wanted to see how we could create an environment where children could go play … and still be safe and have fun,” says Community Recreation Director Fred Couceyro. 

To play, kids download the Magical Park app – free of charge on any smartphone or tablet. The app offers a number of games like collecting dinosaur eggs, saving aliens or cleaning coral reefs. “This was the time to launch something like this,” says Couceyro. “It’s something you can play independently, but you can still be out in nature. You can get out instead of being holed up at home.”

Before Magical Park became available to the public on Oct. 1, students from Crystal Academy, a special education school in Coral Gables, were invited to try out the mobile game. Mary Palacio-Pike, the founder of Crystal Academy, said that even the less athletic children enjoyed the games. “You never know how they’re going to surprise you,” she says. “They were engaged, they liked it – and they were running.” 

The students already want to return to Magical Park. “We had a lot of smiling faces that day, it was great,” added Couceyro. Designed for children ages 6 to 11, Magical Park will currently be available at the Youth Center Athletic Field through the end of the year. If the community’s response to the program is strong and the game stays in high demand, it will be expanded to other locations in the city.