Friends of Stewart Park received a Susan Blumenthal Pride of Ownership Award from the Rotary Club and City of Ithaca for the Stewart Park Inclusive Playground.
Thank you for helping to make this playground a reality. FSP shares award committee's belief that beautiful, high-quality building and landscape projects matter, and we are thankful for the recognition. We believe our partnership with Wharton Studio Museum and the City of Ithaca, as well as with so many of you who support the work we do to enhance Stewart Park and the Waterfront Trail, has many tangible benefits for our community and all who live here.
We’re pleased the award has now been named in honor of Susan Blumenthal who created the Pride of Ownership Awards with the first ones presented in 1998. A long-time Common Council member, Susan has a passion for planning and design and was instrumental in the City's financial support of a 2000 Cayuga Waterfront Trail Feasibility Study, which included preparation of a NYS grant application for the first phase of the project in Cass Park in 2003. Early in the trail design process, Susan was very involved in the development and review of designs for benches, bike racks, engraved stepping stones, signage and the trail route. So please thank Susan on your next walk or bike ride along Ithaca's beautiful waterfront.
Thank you to the City of Ithaca, the Rotary Club of Ithaca and the Pride of Ownership Committee for this award.
Friends of Stewart Park would like to thank the design team, project partners, all the staff and build volunteers, New York State, Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton, the Park Foundation and hundreds of other large and small donors. This Susan Blumenthal Pride of Ownership Award means a lot.
Project Title: Stewart Park Inclusive Playground
Design Team: Parkitects, Play by Design, Earthplay, TG Miller Engineers and the Friends of Stewart Park.
Project Partners and Advisors: City of Ithaca, Friends of Stewart Park, Racker, Ithaca College and Finger Lakes Independence Center
Project Donors: The project was made possible by a $1 million New York State grant to the City of Ithaca arranged for by Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton, the support of the Park Foundation, and hundreds of other large and small donors.
Nominations for awards are made by members of the public, the Rotary Club of Ithaca and the Pride of Ownership Committee. All nominated properties lie within the boundaries of the City of Ithaca and are referenced from a public road or street without regard to interior workings. Criteria for the award are the project’s contributions to the betterment of the community by its addition to the cityscape. Over the years a wide variety of projects have been recognized.
Pride of Ownership Award Committee:
Frost Travis, developer, Travis Hyde Properties and current Chair, Scott Whitham, Whitham Planning & Design; John Barradas, architect; Brett Bossard, Executive director/Cinemapolis; Margaret Hobbie, realtor and historian/ Howard Hanna Real Estate Services.
Sponsors: The City of Ithaca and The Rotary Club of Ithaca
The first plans for this new and inclusive playground in Stewart Park were designed to be accessible for children and their caregivers of all ages and abilities. The design team worked closely with physical and occupational therapists from our partner organizations to develop final plans that were approved by the City of Ithaca early in 2018. Friends of Stewart Park and Play by Design organized a one week community build in September 2018 where more than 900 volunteers participated to build the first phase of the playground, with a play structure for pre-school children, a sand play garden, swings and a boulder net climber. Construction of the second phase took place from the Fall of 2019 through Summer of 2020. It features a large and highly accessible school-age play structure designed by Parkitects along with a curved berm with an accessible pathway that provides access to multiple entries to the playground at varying elevations. In addition, a cover for the historic carousel was installed that will protect this iconic park gem for years to come. The playground was carefully knit into the fabric of mature trees to provide shade and character to the playground. Future phases include the development of a new splash pad and an adjacent, accessible bathroom building.
