We also hoped to create such a spectacular destination in the northern end of the Park that visitors from around the city would be drawn into the area, thus creating the social mix of users which the Park was designed to create, Lastly, we believed that if the project succeeded in all these objectives, then it would also stimulate development in the economically struggling adjacent areas. Describe the financing of the project. The project used a mix of public and private funding. Initially the Conservancy received a grant from the Cissy Patterson Trust for planning and design which supported work through the construction design phase. The city paid for dredging the Meer and reconstructing the shoreline and landscape infrastructure, while private money paid for the Charles A. Dana Discovery Center, the Lila Wallace-Readers Digest Plaza and Esplanade, the Bernard Family Playground, and all the trees, shrubs, and waterside plantings.
Private funding continues to staff and program the building.
Currently maintenance is funded by both partners. Further, the Conservancy arranged with the New York City Office of Management and Budget for the right to act as a private contractor, which allows the organization to oversee city-funded construction. This strategy, though unique, ought to be replicable. For example, the Louisville Olmsted Parks Conservancy in Kentucky is currently following the Central Park model, working with the local parks department to draw up a masterplan and establish a system for implementing capital projects to be based on that masterplan. The project restored a seriously degraded natural habitat in a section of Manhattan where citizens are deprived of nature.