Restoration

The Central Park Conservancy is constanly working to enhance, restore, and improve Central Park. Did you know that 85% of the funding needed to care for the Park comes from the generous donations of our supporters? Show your support by donating or becoming a member today, or continue reading to learn more about the Conservancy's most recent restoration projects.

The East 110th Street Playground at the Harlem Meer

Project Timeline: Fall 2012 through Summer 2013

Project details: The project includes a complete reconstruction of the East 110th Street Playground and improvements to enhance and restore the surrounding landscape, aiming to better integrate playground with the Park. This represents the first full reconstruction of the playground since 1979.

The project will:

• Reconstruct the playground as a series of distinct play spaces connected by a winding boardwalk. Play spaces will include a new and expanded water feature, a large wooden climber and both strap swings and bucket swings.
• Incorporate an area without equipment inside the playground, for safe unstructured play.
• Add new plantings inside and surrounding the playground and a low discrete playground fence, to help better integrate the playground with the Park.
• Restore the landscape surrounding the playground, including rebuilding the path along the Meer, rebuilding infrastructure, restoring lawn areas and adding new plantings.
• Expand the shoreline across from the playground, adding boulders and plantings, and created stepped access to the water’s edge.

Site History: The site of the Harlem Meer was added to the Park in 1860, when the original boundary at 106th Street was extended to 110th Street. The low-lying swamp in the northeast corner of the expanded park site was drained to create the Meer, a naturalistic lake surrounded by a planted landscape on its north side and rocky bluffs on its south side. A boathouse was built in 1930, and the first playground on the site was constructed in 1936 as part of Robert Moses's original perimeter playground system. Over the rest of the 20th century, the area was increasingly urbanized: in the 1940s, the Parks Department built a larger boathouse, a concrete edge around the shoreline and a steel picket fence separating the paths, water and lawns. The playground, as well as the Meer, experienced a period of decline and neglect like the rest of the Park. The playground's reconstruction in 1979 was a small improvement in a blighted landscape until the Conservancy began a dramatic restoration of the Harlem Meer in the late 1980s, including the building of the Charles A. Dana Discovery Center in the early 1990s. In 1996, the Conservancy also partially renovated the playground but retained most elements of the 1979 construction.

Rhododendron Mile

Project Timeline: spring 2012 through fall 2012

Project Details: The Rhododendron Mile restoration project aims to improve the landscape and minimize the urban character of the drive. Olmsted and Vaux originally saw this piece of land as one of the greatest challenges in the Park due to the straight line of the Drive, which conflicted with the design of the rest of the Park.

Project details include:

• Reconstruction of the pedestrian path with new porous asphalt paving, curbs, drainage infrastructure, pipe rail fence, and new site furnishings.
• Replacement of the granite block margin between the pedestrian path and the Drive with a planting bed containing evergreen ground cover and low shrubs.
• New canopy trees to reestablish the allée effect of the original sycamore maples.
• Installation of structural soil mix to enlarge the root zone of new tree and shrub plantings.
• Soil improvement with the addition of organic matter and fill to change the grade of the slope next to the Fifth Avenue wall, increasing the sense of separation from the urban grid.
• The recreation “Rhododendron Mile,” by planting different varieties of rhododendrons and azaleas in undulating drifts with deciduous and evergreen shrubs interspersed to provide backdrop and contrast.
• Plant new canopy trees closer to the Drive to fill gaps, provide shade, and restore the historic character of the landscape.
• Installation of additional irrigation infrastructure to serve areas between the bridle trail and the Drive, and between the Drive and the perimeter wall.

Site History: The thin stretch of Central Park between 86th and 96th Streets east of the Reservoir has concerned Park designers as early as Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. They worried that the mandated Reservoir might divide the Park in two and turn the eastern stretch into “a mere passage-way for connection”. The solution was a line of sycamore maple trees planted along the carriage drive, a parallel bridle path to the west, and the addition, in 1903, of an elevated pedestrian path with plenty of benches. In 1908, one of New York City’s most prominent philanthropists, Mrs. Russell Sage, offered a large gift of rhododendrons to the Park, allowing for the expansive planting that gave Rhododendron Mile its name. Samuel Parsons Jr., the landscape architect who supervised the project, described the white, pink, red, and purple blossoms as having “a billowing effect,” giving the area a pastoral effect. Since then, piecemeal alterations have favored automobile traffic flow over other improvements, turning the stretch into the hurried “mere passage-way” that Olmsted and Vaux feared. In the following decades, the Rhododendron Mile began to deteriorate like much of Central Park due to mismanagement. While improvements have been made, this area hasn’t been comprehensively reconstructed since the early 20th century and doesn’t resemble what it once was. 

COMPLETED: Bridge 24

Project Timeline: March 2012 through April 2012

Project Details: On June 9, 2010, a vehicle accidentally struck the crown of the bridge, causing the cast iron structure to shift out of alignment and compromise its structural integrity. Initial inspection following the incident revealed that the structural connections had been significantly impacted. Shoring was installed to stabilize the bridge and enable it to be used while a comprehensive repair and restoration was designed. In addition to repairing the structure, the restoration includes replacing the existing decking as well as ornamental elements that have been damaged or are missing, and painting the entirety of the ornamental cast iron.

Site History: Completed in 1866, Bridge 24 is one of twenty-eight original ornamental bridges in Central Park. These bridges were designed to contribute to the scenic quality of the landscape.

You can read more about Bridge 24 here.

COMPLETED: Cherry Hill

Project Timeline: The Cherry Hill Concourse will close for restoration the week of November 21, and is anticipated to reopen in summer 2012.  We’ll continue to provide updates on our progress.

Project Details: The reconstruction of the Cherry Hill Concourse is one of the last phases of the comprehensive, multi-year restoration of the Lake in Central Park. In reconstructing the concourse as part of the larger restoration of the Lake this project aims to:

• Reconstruct infrastructure, including drainage, irrigation, and lighting.
• Restore and enhance plantings tree and shrub plantings. These horticultural improvements will increase the sense of enclosure by greenery, and will frame views of the Lake from the north end of the circle, where the plantings open up and the lawn slopes down to the shoreline.
• Restore the Concourse as an extension of the recreational carriage drive system and an overlook for appreciating the surrounding landscape scenery.
• Re-grade and reconstruct the concourse and access drives, allowing storm water to be retained on site and percolate directly into the subsoil rather than being directed to storm drainage infrastructure. Channeling storm water from the Concourse containing petroleum-based pollutants and excess nutrients from horse manure will prevent the deterioration of Wagner Cove.
  
  

  The fountain at the center of the Concourse was used to water horses, as seen here circa 1870.

  Robert N. Dennis Collection of Stereoscopic Views, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations

You can read more about Cherry Hill here.

East 69^th Street Entrance Landscape

Project Timeline: This project is in construction and is anticipated to be complete in spring 2012.

Project Details: This project will address the entrance landscape, including the paths and infrastructure extending from Fifth Avenue to the East Drive, in a comprehensive way. The goal is to create a more inviting park entrance through new infrastructure improvements, reconstruction of the paths, new and consistent site furnishings, and significant horticultural improvements to enrich the landscape character of this well-used entrance to the Park.

Site History: The East 69th Street entrance is not one of the Park’s original entrances. It was added in the early 1900s, at a time when the Parks Department created openings in the perimeter wall and additional paths to accommodate increased use. The benches and flagpole were added over time. The site today is a product of these piecemeal developments. In addition, drainage issues have begun to impact the paths as well as the landscape.

COMPLETED: East 102^nd Street Entrance

Project Timeline: This project has been completed.

Project Details: This project is part of the larger restoration of east side landscapes between the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Harlem Meer (the “Met to the Meer”) through the Campaign for Central Park, which also includes the recently completed restoration of the East Meadow.

Project Details: This project will deemphasize the vehicular character of the entrance and make it more inviting to Park users. Over the last two decades, the Conservancy has undertaken similar projects to redesign permanently closed vehicular entrances to the Park Drive. Specifically, the project will establish a pedestrian crossing equipped with new traffic signals. In addition, we will rebuild storm drainage infrastructure, and adjust grades to improve accessibility for wheelchairs, bicycles and strollers.

The entrance at East 102nd Street was part of the Park's carriage drive system. This photo was taken in 1914.

Site History: The East 102nd Street Entrance is a former vehicular entrance to the Drive, seen here in 1914. The NYC Department of Transportation permanently closed this entrance to vehicular traffic in 2004, and it is now used primarily by pedestrians and cyclists. Constructed as part of the Park’s carriage drive system, the configuration of the entrance drive has changed little since the Park’s initial period of construction.