The thing about Adventure Alley is that it wasn't trying to look like a playground. Jordana Leventhal came to us with a project that wanted to be something else — a proper space that happened to have a 16-foot tree in the middle of it. We build furniture for early childhood classrooms. We also build things that don't exist yet. This was the second kind.
The Project
Adventure Alley opened in September 2025 at 140 Galleria Rd in Toronto's Dufferin and Dupont neighbourhood — a part of the city that, until then, didn't have much for young families. Owners Amanda Neves and Sebastian Kennedy wanted an indoor playground that was also a genuine gathering space: somewhere parents could work or talk while children were properly absorbed in something.
They brought in Jordana Leventhal of LV Interior Design Studio to design the space. Leventhal lives five minutes from the site and became one of Adventure Alley's first regular visitors — professionally and personally, as a parent. Her brief called for a 16-foot custom tree at the centre of the space, a loft at the top, a slide coming down, and nothing that looked like it came from a catalogue.
That's where Fern Studio came in.
What Fern Kids Built
Fern Studio's scope covered the centrepiece tree structure and all custom furniture throughout the space:
- 16-foot custom tree — sculptural trunk form in solid hardwood, engineered for commercial use, with organic branching hand-shaped to Leventhal's design
- Loft platform — elevated structure at the top of the tree, engineered for load, with safety elements integrated into the design language
- Slide — custom-integrated into the tree structure, returning children to ground level
- Pegboard activity wall — modular format, designed for reconfiguration as programming changes
- Busy boards — tactile activity panels for younger children
- Kinetic sand table — custom format for group sensory play
- Custom tables and chairs — child-scale, solid hardwood, sized for Adventure Alley's mixed age range
Everything was fabricated at Fern Kids' workshop in Moorefield, Ontario — the same facility that produces Fern Kids' classroom furniture line — and installed on-site by the Fern Studio team.
The design challenge
The tree demanded three things that don't naturally sit together: structural soundness for daily commercial use with children aged one to twelve, a visual warmth and organic quality that reads as genuinely natural rather than manufactured, and a finish level that holds up across long operational days.
The fabrication used solid hardwood and Baltic birch — Fern Kids' standard materials for institutional pieces. The loft was engineered for load. The organic branching form of the trunk was hand-shaped. It was built in Moorefield, assembled, finished, and transported to site as a complete unit.
Press and recognition
Adventure Alley was featured in Designlines Magazine in November 2025 — recognised as a project that functions as a community hub for families as much as a commercial venue. Leventhal's design was named to Interior Design magazine's Hot Shots 2026 list, which annually highlights the most significant emerging design talent in North America.
For Fern Studio, the recognition reflects something specific: when designers working at the highest level need custom fabrication for children's spaces, they need a builder who understands both structural requirements and child-scale design. That's a short list to be on.
- Location: 140 Galleria Rd, Unit 2, Toronto, Ontario (Dufferin & Dupont)
- Opened: September 2025
- Interior design: Jordana Leventhal, LV Interior Design Studio
- Fern Studio scope: 16-ft custom tree, loft & slide, pegboard wall, busy boards, kinetic sand table, custom tables & chairs
- Fabricated: Moorefield, Ontario
- Press: Designlines November 2025 · Interior Design Hot Shots 2026