Meet Adam
Adam’s a product of a true Minnesota childhood. He grew up playing neighborhood games after dark, building rafts that sort-of floated, and spent his summers building forts in the woods.
His love for design and construction started at an early age. With scrap wood from a fence company and nails from a local hardware store, Adam, his brothers, and neighborhood friends constructed a massive fort. It was filled with trap doors, a somewhat working toilet, secret passageways, a three-story tower, and bunks that slept four. Any kid’s dream!
This drove Adam to get a degree in Architecture from the University of Minnesota, where he studied cabin design and fell in love with unique, fun-loving design and untraditional construction methods.
After college, Adam worked at a few architecture firms completing both residential and commercial projects. In 2013, Adam started his own residential architecture studio. Almost ten years later and 2022 brought another adventure- Fortz!
Education and Certifications
Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the University of Minnesota
School and Community Outdoor Playground Inspector #NCI3885
Minnesota Residential Building Contractor #BC807554
Meet Fortz
We started Fortz to do play differently, by designing and building unique, fun, high-quality play structures with the play features and modern appearance you desire. We bring adventure to kids of all ages and incorporate surprises like hidden storage compartments and secret entrances, so kids feel like it’s their space. We strive to build play structures that encourage creativity, exploration, and play for kids of all abilities.
Fortz wants our play structures to endure generations with minimal maintenance. That’s why we use commercial quality components and quality lumber. Built with strong connections and protected with colorful kid-friendly stains.
Fortz takes play seriously, and safety is always at the forefront. We follow the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's Home Playground Guidelines, so you can just let them play and don’t have to worry about your child's safety. We enhance the safety by rounding the corners of the lumber and sanding high contact areas. We want you to know we take play seriously, so we have a one-year warranty on all hardware and wood components.
Our Story
The early 2020s were an adventurous couple years, especially for families with young kids - to say the least. With distance learning, ever-changing schedules, and social distancing, Adam and his wife, Marcy, knew it would be important to give their son a place away from screens to play and continue to develop in the convenience and safety of their backyard.
Adam grabbed his tools and spent nights and weekends building a play structure that would give his son a place to just be a kid.
It wasn’t until family and friends mentioned other families would benefit from having a treehouse of their own, that it clicked for Adam. He absolutely, positively, must merge his love for design and construction and build play structures for other families - giving them their very own backyard adventure!
Fortz creates custom play structures that are creatively designed, adaptable, endure generations, and spark curiosity in kids of all abilities.
We can't wait to share
the excitement
and adventure
with your family!
Press
Building a Backyard Full of Adventure
Lake Minnetonka Lifestyle Magazine | April 2023
Imagine this: you’re the captain aboard a pirate ship sailing the ocean in search of buried treasure. The seas are getting choppy, and you’ve got a cell full of traitors below deck. On the horizon, you see the island where X marks the spot, but as you dock the ship, the traitors break free, and it’s now a race to see who gets the treasure first. Adventures like this are exactly what Adam Rasmussen, founder of Fortz, wants to create for kids with his hand-crafted, custom play structures.
Founded during the COVID-19 pandemic out of a necessity for his son, Adam used his love of design and construction to create Fortz and build one-of-a-kind play structures for kids of all abilities and ages. From zip lines and rope bridges to trap doors and tunnels, the forts are custom tailored to each family. “We like to build them so everyone can play, even adults. We also try to encourage creativity and exploration in all our play structures,” Adam says.
During the design process, Adam meets with families to discuss everything from their children’s ages and interests to the location of the fort. Once the basics are covered, the fun part begins — developing ideas and selecting play features.
The whole family is encouraged to provide input for the forts. In fact, some of the best and most creative forts are inspired by kids! Adam recalls receiving a sketch of a particular play structure designed by a young girl that resembled a cat with ears and all. While parents get the final say, allowing kids' input into their own fort encourages them to use their imagination and ensures they’ll love each feature.
“Getting the kids involved and letting their imaginations run wild is the best part. Each family is so unique that the play structure they need is unique to them. It’s fun to be able to design that for them,” Adam says.
When considering a Fortz play structure, it’s easy to understand why the kids will love it. With endless design possibilities, kids will find themselves exploring what it means to be a child. But even more so, they’ll have a place to call their own that isn’t a bedroom or playroom. After all, kids don’t necessarily get the same freedom in the house as they do outside in nature, and they definitely don’t get to add secret entrances or a climbing wall to their bedroom. A Fortz play structure allows kids the potential to bring their dreams to life and “lets them be creative thinkers and explorers at heart.”
One unique feature Fortz offers is the ability for the play structures to grow alongside the kids who play on them. If a child is four-years-old now, they may enjoy slides and swings, but as they grow older, they may come to enjoy rock walls and trap doors. Adam takes this into account as he’s designing and makes it easy to swap out these features as they get older. Additionally, Adam says he loves to construct the forts in a way that allows kids, when old enough, to add to it themselves.“I want it to be a place they can build on to and make their own. I want them to ask for saws and wood for Christmas so they can add something exciting and new. I want them to take over the build process. That’s something I’m passionate about, giving kids the curiosity to build themselves.”
Kids can beg and plead, but one surefire way to sell parents on a Fortz play structure is to give them something to enjoy as well. Adam says he likes to build forts that are as entertaining for the adults as they are for the kids. That may mean including hammocks for relaxing or including a bar with rope swing seats. It also means ensuring each fort is low maintenance and safe.
Safety is a top priority for Adam. He follows the Consumer Product Safety Commission's recommendation for play structures and is a certified playground inspector. “I want [the forts] to be super safe so parents feel like they can let their kids play and not have to worry about them getting injured,” Adam says.
When it’s all said and done, Fortz play structures are intended to be fun for the whole family. With endless customization and adaptability, kids and parents alike are encouraged to explore together and create lasting memories right in the backyard.
“Kids' imaginations are so incredible and fun to work with. We can design and build anything. I don’t like to put any restrictions on it. The sky is the limit for what we create.”