Kensico a Special Place
KENSICO A SPECIAL PLACE
Kensico Dam Plaza in Valhalla is the starting point of the
Bronx River Parkway Reservation. It has also been a focal point for Westchester
and its many communities. Annually a variety of important events take
place in this 98-acre plaza, including a dozen cultural heritage
festivals, the new “Screening Under the Stars” events, which show
major motion pictures on a 50-foot screen, as well as music festivals,
featuring jazz and classical music.
The plaza will soon be the home of “The Rising,” a memorial to the victims of September 11, 2001, which will include the names of the 109 Westchester residents who died, the communities in which they lived and a quote from their loved ones. The words will be engraved along the outside of the memorial’s circular base. Massive steel rods, measuring 80 feet in height, will extend from the base like the spokes of a wheel before reaching up and intertwining. Perennial plantings will surround the base, with the Kensico Dam as the backdrop.
In
2005, as part of the continued improvements at the plaza, important
rehabilitation work was completed on the huge Kensico fountains, which
decorate the base of the 300-foot-tall dam.
A major reforestation project also got underway in 2005, as several older trees that were weakened by disease, old age and urban stresses including air pollution and root compaction were removed from the plaza.
The remainder of the Norway maples surrounding the lawn will be removed in the late fall and in the winter of 2006. Beginning in the spring of 2006, new native trees suitable for Kensico will be planted. The new trees will be selected and planted based on their ability to thrive at the site.
