Restoration
Diana Ross (West 81st Street) Playground Reconstruction
This project will fully reconstruct the Diana Ross (West 81st Street) Playground to modernize aging play features, install new utility infrastructure, comply with current safety and accessibility standards, and enhance the playground's relationship to the surrounding landscape with improved plantings. The project will also reconstruct surrounding paths to improve accessibility to the playground.
Diana Ross Playground is located near a major Central Park entrance at West 81st Street. Originally constructed in the 1930s as one of nineteen playgrounds built through the Works Progress Administration, it was part of NYC Parks Commissioner Robert Moses’s effort to create play spaces for children while preserving Central Park’s natural landscape.
The rocky slopes and surrounding trees provide a verdant and shaded backdrop, creating a unique setting that has helped draw families from across the city. The playground features a large timber climbing structure composed of multiple levels of decks connected by ladders, slides, and swings, all set within a broad sand play area. It also includes toddler swings and a concrete water-spray feature, offering a variety of experiences for children, especially those in the 5 to 12 age range. The playground is named in honor of singer Diana Ross, who funded its restoration following her 1983 concert on the Great Lawn. This project, completed in 1987, included the installation of the current TimberForm play structure designed to engage children in active, imaginative, and social play.
Scope of Work
Playground Reconstruction
- Install new play equipment for children in the 5 to 12 age group (central composite structure with climbers, tire swings)
- Install new play equipment for the 2 to 5 age group (bucket swings, climbers)
- Add new user-activated accessible water feature
- Construct improved accessible sand play area
- Build new fence and ADA-compliant gate, install new ADA-compliant drinking fountain, add new benches
- Replace all pavements with accessible surfaces
Infrastructure
- Install new protected water service
- Reconstruct sanitary system
- Install new manual irrigation system
- Improve lighting
Path Reconstruction
- Create an accessible route from Central Park West to the playground entrance
- Improve other existing paths in project area (new curbs, pavement)
- Install new benches or refurbish existing benches at paths and playground entrance
- Install new ADA-compliant drinking fountain
Landscape Improvements
- Remove existing weedy/invasive shrubs and ground cover material. Establish new plantings in adjacent landscape