After vandals caused nearly $2,500 in damage to it last fall, the NIU Child Development Lab’s playground is back, with a number of improvements.

Twenty-eight thousand dollars has been spent transforming the once-devastated playground into a modern, 3,100 square foot facility for infants, toddlers and 2-year-olds, said Guadalupe Valdivia, master teacher with the lab.

“We have more space and the structure is more effective for kids to play on,” Valdivia said.

To better deter potential vandals, fences around the facility, which is located at Gabel Hall, have doubled in height, according to an NIU press release.

The playground has been upgraded to feature a paved patio for tricycle traffic, an larger sandbox and a modern piece of large, elongated playground equipment sturdy enough for adults to climb through with the children. A pizza-shaped planter has been installed so children can plant vegetables or flowers.

The new playground was planned over a period of months by the entire lab staff and Sara Kreiss, design consultant for Grounds for Play, a Texas-based playground design company, according to the release.

When employees arrived to the lab Sept. 18 last year, they first thought wind had wrecked the playground over the weekend.

“Someone took everything apart, which had to have taken quite a bit of time and effort,” said Linda Anderson, associate director of the lab in a Northern Star article last fall. “We are very upset that someone would come in and bother our things.”

The top of a “Discovery Tot tree” playhouse was later found drifting in the Kishwaukee River.

Although a police report was filed, no charges were filed, according to the release.