Events October 2026

Cover and interior page from graphic memoir "Playground of My Mind," Julia Jacquette (2017).
Ancient Playground, Richard Dattner, 1973, Central Park. Photo: Central Park Conservancy.
Tarr Family Playground, Ross, Ryan, Jacquette, 1973, Central Park. Photo: Central Park Conservancy.
Tarr-Coyne Wild West Playground, Richard Dattner, 1988, Central Park. Photo: Central Park Conservancy/Timothy Schenck.
Interior spread from graphic memoir "Playground of My Mind," Julia Jacquette (2017).
DOCOMOMO NY/TRITour

Modern Playgrounds Tour: Central Park

October 11, 2026

Join DOCOMOMO US/New York Tri-State for an exciting and unique tour visiting three Modern playgrounds in Central Park. New playgrounds constructed in the tumultuous setting of 1960s and 1970s New York City encouraged constructive, imaginative play. Learn about these playgrounds, their modern architecture, and their relationship with the city.

Our guide, artist and FIT Fine Arts professor Julia Jacquette, is the author of Playground of My Mind (2017), a graphic memoir focusing on the modernist “adventure” playgrounds built in New York City in the 1970s, emphasizing the playgrounds she interacted with the most as a child, and considering their influence on the generations of children who played in them. It examines playgrounds designed by architect Richard Dattner, landscape architect M. Paul Friedberg, and the architectural partnership Ross Ryan Jacquette in New York City, and others by Aldo van Eyck in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Playground of My Mind was published with the Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College in association with the exhibition, Julia Jacquette: Unrequited and Acts of Play.

This tour will begin at the playground Julia’s father designed with the firm Ross, Ryan, Jacquette, the Tarr Family Playground (1973), at West 100th Street near Central Park West. After that we will walk south to The Tarr-Coyne Wild West Playground (1988) designed by Richard Dattner, near the West 93rd Street entrance. After a stroll across the Park, the tour will conclude at Dattner’s Ancient Playground (1973) near Fifth Avenue and East 85th Street.

Note: the tour will include about one and a half miles of walking through Central Park. We encourage families to bring their children.

Sunday October 11, 10:00am – noon
Central Park
New York City

Tickets: DOCOMOMO members $10; general Admission $20. Children: free
Capacity limited. Advance registration required.

REGISTER

This tour is part of DOCOMOMO US Tour Day 2026, a nationwide initiative exploring this year’s annual theme of Recreation and Play. Tours and events hosted by Docomomo US chapters, partners, and friends, will occur on Saturday, October 10th, and throughout the month of October.