- National Register of Historic Places property
- Oldest Publicly Funded Park
- Designed by Jacob Weidenmann
- 50 Acres
- Playground winner of 2019 Connecticut Building Congress Teaming Merit Award
Project Details
Bushnell Park is the oldest publicly funded park in the U.S. It was conceived by Reverend Horace Bushnell in the mid-1850s and designed by Jacob Weidenmann, a swiss-born landscape architect.
To Design has been completing landscape architectural projects at the park for over 10 years. We started with repairs to the playground in 2007. In 2017, we were engaged in its redesign, which opened the following year. Our site design provides accessibility throughout with new concrete walks, resilient play surfacing, and play equipment. The playground can now be accessed from the carousel by way of new concrete steps. The unique, one-of-a-kind play equipment features Hartford-specific architectural elements of the park such as the State Capitol dome and the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch.
In collaboration with the Bushnell Park Foundation, City of Hartford, and iQuilt Foundation, To Design provided a design manual to guide future selection of site amenities such as lighting, paving, and site furniture. Since then, new site lighting has been installed at various entrances around the park. In addition, we created a circulation study to address current walkways and made recommendations for improvements.