Construction is finished on Aesop Park and Greencroft Playground, a pair of jointly operated playgrounds in Tottenville and Bay Terrace, Staten Island. Designed in-house by NYC Parks landscape architects, Jordan Weber for Aesop Park and Jennifer Lauzon for Greencroft Playground, the $15 million capital program spans approximately 2.85 acres and yields new play equipment for children ages 2 to 5 and 5 to 12, accessibility ramps, spray showers, and shade trees. The Greencroft reconstruction carries an $8.4 million budget funded by the New York City Council and the Mayor’s Office, while the $6.64 million Aesop Park project was funded by the Staten Island Borough President and the City Council.
At Greencroft Playground, the 3.23-acre site opened in 1970 after its selection by the city’s Site Selection Board in 1963. The reconstruction, which passed Public Design Commission conceptual review in May 2022, rebuilt roughly 1.9 acres with distinct play areas for ages 2 to 5 and 5 to 12, a new swing area, and an informal open play space replacing a former ballfield. Ramps ring the perimeter and interior, joined by a spray shower, shade trees, a drinking fountain and bottle filler, path lighting, fencing, and seating.
Greencroft Playground, via Google Maps.
In Tottenville, the 1-acre Aesop Park functions as an urban forest with some 200 trees and a 200-person amphitheater, and serves P.S. 6 as an outdoor classroom. The reconstruction organizes the grounds into plaza, play, and performance zones off a central boardwalk, a scheme that earned a 2024 Excellence in Design Award from the Public Design Commission following preliminary and final review in September 2023. The age 2-to-5 area emphasizes sensory and cooperative play with two bays of swings, while the 5-to-12 area splits between dynamic motion play with swings, climbers, and spinners, and a ramped play structure with multiple sensory components and a treehouse experience. The spray shower was relocated to an open, sunny area surrounded by bench seating, and perimeter fencing was lowered along street edges to highlight the existing decorative entry gate.
The park is named for the ancient Greek storyteller Aesop (620–564 BCE), and features sculptures drawn from his fables: a fox, hare, tortoise, gnat, and bull. The property was forestland until the original playground opened in 2001 to serve the newly renovated P.S. 6. Greencroft’s funding was first announced in August 2021 by then-Borough President James Oddo and former Council Member Joseph Borelli.
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