WORKSHOPS
Monday, June 23
Round Two: 3:00-4:30pm
This round includes both indoor workshops (listed first) and outdoor walking workshops.
Planning for Historic Parks:
A How-To Session
The preparation of a good master plan is essential to the successful restoration and management of an historic park. Developing a thoughtful plan and building public support for the vision it represents is indispensable to responsible stewardship; it can also be an important tool for raising private support, as well as ensuring that future public investment in the park complements, rather than detracts from that vision. The first hour of this session will outline the key ingredients of a good plan and provide an overview of the planning process and how you go from conducting historic research, engaging community input, and analyzing park infrastructure and natural systems, to formulating a vision and an approach to realizing it. In the second hour, we will move into the park for a walking workshop on cultural landscape management. Note: This workshop is scheduled for 3:00-5:00pm.
Beyond Baseball:
Innovative Recreational Programming
In the last 10 years, the term "recreation" in urban parks has exploded, and the new range of activities and sports in parks is exciting for more reasons than just entertainment. Yes, the new varieties of programs are fun, but they can also be more compatible for historic parks and appeal to whole new user groups. So if your basketball courts are deserted or if your historic park can't bear the brunt of soccer fields, visit the creative, flexible and sustainable new programs in Central Park that target new generations. Many of these innovative programs incorporate health and education programs in inventive ways and many reach out to the private sector. Examples you will hear about include extreme sports, climbing and challenge courses, basketball clinics, summer camps, and team-building exercises for professionals.
Selling a Park Without Selling Out
Central Park's assets have been used to create one-of-a-kind funding-raising opportunities. Their Adopt-A-Bench and daffodil programs creatively answer the question, "What do you give for what you get?" Similarly, events like Taste of Summer and the annual Frederick Law Olmsted luncheon provide a range of opportunities for people to enjoy the park in unique ways while simultaneously supporting it. This session will explore the Conservancy's central fundraising strategies, as well as other, unique strategies from around the country.
Cafes, Canoes, and Carousels:
Income and Attractions Through Concessions
SOLD OUT!
Concessions can make or break the park experience for many users. They can provide an anchor or necessary amenity that is the key attraction (i.e. a carousel or skating rink), or reason why people stay all day (i.e. good food). However, because concessions are commercial operations, they have the potential to detract from the principle civic experience of the park—enjoying the city and its people without its streets and stores. This session will explore questions such as: When does a concession make sense? What kind of concession is appropriate? How does one balance the commercialization of a park with the need for economic generators?
GIS as a Park Management Tool:
Endless Opportunities, Real Applications
SOLD OUT!
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology has been promoted as a means of revolutionizing the way we plan and manage cities, park systems, and natural resources. Indeed, through mapping of environmental, demographic, economic, and other data, there are countless ways that city and park planners can use the analytical potential of GIS to guide their management strategies and facilitate day-to-day operations. But where do you start, and what does it take? What are the most relevant applications for parks? This session will examine the work that the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation has contributed to the development of a GIS for the City, and on practical applications in Central and Prospect Parks. Participants at all levels of sophistication using GIS are encouraged to contribute their knowledge and questions to a discussion about the opportunities presented by this technology and practical considerations in taking advantage of them.
WALKING WORKSHOPS
49 Easy Pieces:
Zone Management in Central Park
Perhaps the single biggest innovation pioneered by the Central Park Conservancy, Zone Management applies the principles of accountability, stewardship and specialization to the maintenance of the park. Central Park is broken down into 49 bite-size pieces (zones), each of which is assigned a specific gardener responsible for its day-to-day management. Gardeners come to know their distinct landscapes intimately and, as the Conservancy's "ambassadors," build relationships with the area's volunteers and regular users. In combination with the use of specialized crews for seasonal and park-wide maintenance tasks, zone management is being copied across the country as a strategy to better-maintained and safer parks.
Plants, Parks and People:
The Conservatory Garden Story
SOLD OUT!
The story of the Conservatory Garden, a richly-planted oasis adjacent to a low-income neighborhood, details how plants helped reestablish community relations, brought people back into the park and created a year-round enhancement of public space. This walking tour of the Conservatory Garden and some of Central Park's other horticultural gems, will be led by the Conservatory's Director, Lynden Miller, nationally recognized horticulturist and urban landscape designer whose work can be experienced in parks and places throughout the city. Lists of good plants will be distributed.
Into the Woods:
Woodland Management in Central Park
Woodland environments are often viewed with the mistaken impression that they simply take care of themselves. In reality, well-maintained woodland landscapes are difficult to achieve, presenting a unique combination of management challenges, including overgrown understory, invasive species, trash, safety issues, etc. This walking workshop will look at how Central Park woodlands teams have dealt successfully with these issues.
Olmsted and Vaux's Park
The plan by which the Conservancy restored and manages Central Park was based on the historic vision of its creators: Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. Beginning at Bow Bridge, which connects the Ramble to Cherry Hill, and continuing via Bethesda Terrace and the Mall, past the Sheep Meadow, and to the Dairy, this walking workshop will examine the elements of Olmsted and Vaux's Greensward Plan through a tour of its major landscape types.
Learn about the history, restoration, management, flora and fauna in two of Central Park's most diverse landscapes. Central Park's Teen Docents will guide you in a walking tour around the Pond, the newly restored landscape that greets most of Central Park's 25 million visitors annually, and into the Hallett Nature Sanctuary, the area of the park that has been closed to the public and set aside for wildlife since 1934. The Teen Docent Program, one of the Youth Leadership Programs of the Central Park Conservancy, trains young people in park history and design, ecology and conservation, public speaking, tour writing, marketing and outreach.
Keeping Central Park's famous meadows green requires careful management. As important as proper irrigation, seeding, fertilization, and mowing is giving the grass time to grow and recover from concentrated activities such as large events and sports usage. The Conservancy's systems for regulating and rotating use are therefore an important part of its turf management strategy. Central Park's approach will be contrasted with methods used by smaller parks that experience more demand for a single lawn. New turf technology, such as Field Turf, will also be discussed.
Central Park's Teen Docent Tour
Cricket, Cleats and Concerts
Maintaining Turf for Heavy Use
