The Diana Ross Playground is located in New York City's Central Park, inside the park at West 81st Street and Central Park West.
Diana Ross Playground was built in 1935-36 as one of the park's perimeter playgrounds. It opened as West 81st Street Playground.
In 1969, the playground was renovated. The playground equipment was replaced, and a new water feature designed by Richard Dattner was added. [1] This water feature consisted of four octagonal concrete pillars, each of which sprayed water into similarly shaped wading pools. Two towers sprayed out a flat stream, while the other two poured out water like a waterfall. [2]
The recording artist Diana Ross, who lived across the street in The Beresford, gave two free concerts in Central Park on July 21 and 22, 1983 (attendance estimated to be between 400,000 and 800,000 people), and pledged to rebuild West 81st Street playground in Central Park with proceeds from the television rights. However, when a thunderstorm during the first (and only scheduled) concert destroyed all of its memorabilia/merchandise, the performance did not prove profitable, and Ross used personal resources to fund the project. [3]
Groundbreaking took place in September 1986, with both Ross and then-Mayor Ed Koch present. Ross reportedly called the event "one of the most fulfilling aspects of [her] life and career." [4] The playground reopened in 1987 as Diana Ross Playground. [1]
The playground is equipped with sturdy wood equipment, tire swings, a tube slide, a corkscrew slide, sandboxes, rope bridges, and a mushroom-style water feature. [5] Open daily from 7:30am to dusk, the space is maintained by the Central Park Conservancy's Playground Partners program.
To the north of the playground, the ground rises in a steep slope [6] to Summit Rock, the highest point in Central Park. To the east, secluded in shrub plantings, is Tanner's Spring, one of two natural springs that remain in the park (the other being Montayne's Spring at the Pool). Its name commemorates Dr. Henry S. Tanner, a proponent of therapeutic fasting, who, in the summer of 1880, elected to fast under constant observation for forty days and nights, supplied only by water from this spring. [7] M.M. Graff, in relating the story, observed "The legend quite naturally arose that the water of the spring contained some magically concentrated nutrients". [8] Before the construction of the park, the spring provided water for the community of Seneca Village, located to the north of Summit Hill, which at the time was called "Goat Hill".
In May 2012, after the Diana Ross: For One and For All DVD of the concert was released, DNAinfo called the playground one of the "best playgrounds on the Upper West Side". [9]
Central Park is an urban park between the Upper West Side and Upper East Side neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City that was the first landscaped park in the United States. It is the sixth-largest park in the city, containing 843 acres (341 ha), and the most visited urban park in the United States, with an estimated 42 million visitors annually as of 2016. It is also one of the most filmed locations in the world.
Riverside Park is a scenic public park on the waterfront of the Upper West Side, Morningside Heights, and Hamilton Heights neighborhoods of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The park measures 4 miles (6.4 km) long and 100 to 500 feet wide, running between the Hudson River and Henry Hudson Parkway to the west and the serpentine Riverside Drive to the east.
Hoboken, New Jersey, is home to many parks, historical landmarks, and other places of interest.
Seneca Village was a 19th-century settlement of mostly African American landowners in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, within what would become present-day Central Park. The settlement was located near the current Upper West Side neighborhood, approximately bounded by Central Park West and the axes of 82nd Street, 89th Street, and Seventh Avenue, had they been constructed through the park.
The Central Park Conservancy is an American private, nonprofit park conservancy that manages New York City's Central Park under a contract with the government of New York City and NYC Parks. The conservancy employs most maintenance and operations staff in the park. It effectively oversees the work of both the private and public employees under the authority of the publicly appointed Central Park administrator, who reports to the parks commissioner and the conservancy's president.
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Crotona Park is a public park in the South Bronx in New York City, covering 127.5 acres (51.6 ha). The park is bounded by streets of the same name on its northern, eastern, southern, and western borders, and is adjacent to the Crotona Park East and Morrisania neighborhoods of the Bronx. It is divided into four portions by Claremont Parkway and Crotona Avenue, which run through it.
Sheep Meadow is a 15-acre (61,000 m2) meadow near the southwestern section of Central Park, between West 66th and 69th Streets in Manhattan, New York City. It is adjacent to Central Park Mall to the east, The Ramble and Lake to the north, West Drive to the west, and Heckscher Playground and Ballfields to the south.
Cherry Hill Fountain is a water fountain in New York City's Central Park. It is located just to the west of Bethesda Fountain, enclosed in a circular plaza in Cherry Hill. Designed by Jacob Wrey Mould and dedicated in the 1860s, the ornamental structure was originally designed as a watering trough for horses during the 19th century. The fountain consists of a granite dome and sculpted bluestone basin, measuring 20 feet (6.1 m) in diameter and inset with Minton tiles. The fountain is topped by a finial with eight frosted round glass lamps and a golden spire. Only the stone base was completed as part of the original design; the finial was added in 1981.
3333 Broadway is a group of five apartment buildings ranging from 11 to 35 stories at Broadway between West 133rd and 135th Streets, in Manhattanville, Manhattan, New York City, United States. Completed in 1976, it was the largest residential structure in the United States. Together, the five buildings include 1,193 apartment units. The present manager of the property is the Urban American Management Corporation.
The Pond and Hallett Nature Sanctuary are two connected features at the southeastern corner of Central Park in Manhattan, New York City. It is located near Grand Army Plaza, across Central Park South from the Plaza Hotel, and slightly west of Fifth Avenue. The Pond is one of seven bodies of water in Central Park.
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Live in Central Park is a DVD by Diana Ross released in 2012 that followed from a July 21, 1983 concert in The Great Lawn of New York City's Central Park, which was cut short by a massive lightning storm. The concert was staged as a benefit to raise funds for a children's park, later known as the Diana Ross Playground, located inside the park at West 81st Street and Central Park West.
Linden Park, officially known as Park of the Americas, is a 3.08-acre (1.25 ha) park located in the center of the Corona neighborhood of Queens, New York City. It has stood out as a green square block on maps since the village of West Flushing was first mapped out in 1853, long before the village became the suburb or urban neighborhood known as Corona.
North Woods and North Meadow are two interconnected features in the northern section of Central Park, New York City, close to the neighborhoods of the Upper West Side and Harlem in Manhattan. The 90-acre (36 ha) North Woods, in the northwestern corner of the park, is a rugged woodland that contains a forest called the Ravine, as well as two water features called the Loch and the Pool. The western portion of the North Woods also includes Great Hill, the third highest point in Central Park. North Meadow, a recreation center and sports complex, is immediately southeast of the North Woods. Completed in the 1860s, North Woods and North Meadow were among the last parts of Central Park to be built.
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Heckscher Playground is a play area located in New York City's Central Park, located close to Central Park South between Sixth Avenue and Seventh Avenue. It is the oldest and largest of Central Park's 22 playgrounds.
Tarr Family Playground is a play area in New York City's Central Park at West 100th Street and Central Park West.
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