1972 Heckscher Playground Reconstructed

In 1972, the wading pool is replaced with an adventure-style water playground designed by Richard Dattner. This is the seventh playground to be reconstructed with adventure-style elements in Central Park.

“The aim is a multifaceted environment, existing on physical, social, and educational levels and suited to the children who can develop, through play, on all these levels at once. (Do we want the kind of children who are content with the asphalt-dreary playground and its standard swings and slides?)”

M. Paul Friedberg, 1970