Thomas Walker Luckey (January 6, 1940 – August 19, 2012) was an American architect and sculptor, best known for inventing abstract playgrounds called Luckey Climbers. Luckey also created furniture, merry-go-rounds, and interiors.

Life and career

After graduating from the

Yale School of Architecture The Yale School of Architecture (YSOA) is one of the constituent professional schools of Yale University, and is generally considered to be one of the best architecture schools in the United States. The School awards the degrees of Master of Arc ...

in the late 1960s, Luckey began remodeling friends' houses and doing experimental projects, including one described as transforming: In addition to interiors and furniture, he also designed merry-go-rounds; one, inspired by

square dance A square dance is a dance for four couples, or eight dancers in total, arranged in a square, with one couple on each side, facing the middle of the square. Square dances contain elements from numerous traditional dances and were first documente ...

s, moves riders from one seat to another as they go around. A mutual friend introduced Luckey to

Agnes Gund Agnes Gund (born 1938) is an American philanthropist and arts patron, collector of modern and contemporary art, and arts education and social justice advocate. She is President Emerita and Life Trustee of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and Chair ...

, who insisted he contact the

Boston Children's Museum Boston Children's Museum is a children's museum in Boston, Massachusetts, dedicated to the education of children. Located on Children's Wharf along the Fort Point Channel, Boston Children's Museum is the second oldest children's museum in the Unit ...

. After he persuaded officials to let him build his first Luckey Climber, the structure turned out to be one of the museum's most popular exhibits, and has now been replaced with a new version. Luckey died on August 19, 2012, at

Yale–New Haven Hospital Yale New Haven Hospital (YNHH) is a 1,541-bed hospital located in New Haven, Connecticut. It is owned and operated by the Yale New Haven Health System. YNHH includes the 168-bed Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale New Haven, the 201-bed Yale New Haven ...

due to complications from pneumonia. He was 72.

Luckey Climbers

Luckey Climbers are multi-story climbing structures crossed with

maze A maze is a path or collection of paths, typically from an entrance to a goal. The word is used to refer both to branching tour puzzles through which the solver must find a route, and to simpler non-branching ("unicursal") patterns that lea ...

s and

jungle gym A jungle gym (called a climbing frame in British English) is a piece of playground equipment made of many pieces of material, such as metal pipes or ropes, on which participants can climb, hang, sit, and—in some configurations—slide. Monkey ...

s. In appearance, they have been compared to "a Calder mobile fashioned from Monet's lily pads". They have been installed in locations across North America that include:

No major injuries have occurred on Luckey Climbers, and they have a clean safety record—which is one of the reasons why they are so desired by children's museums.

''Luckey'' (documentary)

In 2005, Luckey fell out of a second-story bathroom window and landed on his head. As a result of a fractured cervical vertebra, Luckey was paralyzed from the neck down. He continued to design Luckey Climbers, at first with the assistance of his son, Spencer; the one at the Delaware Children's Museum was his first to be fully accessible. Filmmaker Laura Longsworth made a 2008 documentary, ''Luckey'', about the personal and professional repercussions of the accident. The film appeared at a number of festivals, including

SxSW South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Te ...

and the

Independent Film Festival of Boston The Independent Film Festival Boston is a not for profit film festival in Boston, Massachusetts. History The Independent Film Festival Boston (also known as IFFBoston or IFFB) was created in 2003 by the non-profit organization the Independent ...

, and garnered the Special Jury Award for Artistic Portrait at the

Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival The Sidewalk Film Festival is an annual film festival taking place during the last weekend in August in the Theatre District of Birmingham, Alabama, since 1999. The festival typically screens at seven venues located within downtown Birmingham, fea ...

and Best Documentary Feature at the

Indie Memphis Film Festival Indie Memphis, located in Memphis, TN, is an arts organization that runs year-round programs that "inspire, encourage and promote independent films and filmmaking in Memphis."

. The film has also been shown on the

Sundance Channel Sundance Channel can refer to: * Sundance TV, formerly known as Sundance Channel (United States). * Sundance Channel (Canada) * Sundance Channel (Netherlands) * Sundance Channel (Europe) * Sundance Channel (Iberia) * Sundance Channel (Asia) Sundanc ...

References

External links

* * * (photo gallery) {{DEFAULTSORT:Luckey, Thomas Walker 1940 births 2012 deaths 20th-century American architects 20th-century American male artists American architectural sculptors American male sculptors American people with disabilities People from Quantico, Virginia People with tetraplegia Sculptors from Connecticut Yale School of Architecture alumni