new project coming up: morningside playground

Morningside Park is linear, 13 blocks long and less than a block wide, situated just north of Central Park and next to Columbia University. It was originally designed by Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted, but heavily modified in the '50s by Robert Moses' people to accommodate active recreation. One of those Moses-era "improvements" was to cram a huge concrete slab into what was previously a naturalistic open lawn with large-stature trees. This slab held a playground, spray shower, sandbox, basketball courts, and a bathroom/maintenance building, among other items. Now, over fifty years later, it's fallen into heavy disrepair.
















view of the slab from the street... complete with attractive chainlink fence













shot of the south end of the slab. it extends for about three city blocks north. my site is in the foreground, right about where that little evergreen tree is (it will be transplanted, don't worry).

So it's been my honor and challenge for the past few months to design a new playground that will be lots of fun for the increasing numbers of neighborhood kids, but also fit in with the historic landscape. In the process I get to demolish about half of that evil slab and restore it to lawn with big trees, with my (much smaller) playground tucked in at the south end. The other half of the slab will be addressed in a future phase.

Here's my plan...














view from above. because of large elevation change between street and park, this playground will have several levels. you can also see here the big play equipment thing I designed, some smaller pieces for younger kids on the right, a big spray shower (orangey area) with waterfall off that top level. this playground will also have lots of natural stone -- you can see some of the climbing boulders there in the bottom center which came from the park -- and lots of planting, not shown so much here.














view from the street. behind the playground is a huge cliff, on top of which is Columbia.















inside the playground.


















spray shower... it's changed a bit since this early image but you get the idea.

ok, that's probably too much info on this one... but I've been working on it for awhile. it goes out to bid in a few days, and if we get a good bid -- construction should start in another couple months.