Barbara Butler Artist-Builder Inc.

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Ava’s Bridge … Coming Soon!

Looking as fresh as a new box of crayons, these colorful posts are lined up in our studio ready to be installed on Ava’s Bridge in the Magical Bridge Playground. Located in Palo Alto, California, and tentatively slated to open to the public on March 21, 2015, the Magical Bridge is the nation’s first completely inclusive park welcoming children of all abilities.

Before the posts show up on site, Barbara and Rudi confer over the exact placement of each color at the end of the day. An avid bicyclist, Rudi is already suited up for his twenty-five-mile ride home.

Named for the daughter of the park’s founder, Olenka Villareal, Ava’s bridge forms a colorful pathway to the stage seating and picnic area. The stained posts are now in place; the only thing missing is the wooden deck and rope railings.

Magical Bridge’s donor wall highlights the many members of the community who have contributed to make this vision a reality. We are proud to be included on it for our donation of 160 design hours, the entire Magical Treehouse and $5,000 in play accessories.  Designed by Kris Loew, the wall is based on our color palette and is part of the view from Ava’s Bridge.

Marco DeLeon, our excellent lead builder who just completed 11 years with the company, applies the last few bits of natural tung oil stain on site.  To read more about the Magical Bridge project, see our previous posts Do You Believe in Magic? and Magical Bridge Studio Tour.