Printers Park Playground

One of the Bronx’s newest additions is also one of its greenest. Built on land that once belonged to Richard Hoe, the inventor of the rotary printing press, the playground boasts a spray shower that recycles runoff water for irrigation of the plant beds, rubber safety flooring made of 90 percent–recycled material, granite blocks fashioned from the remains of the West Side Highway, and tree species like dawn redwood and golden weeping willow chosen for their ability to absorb stormwater. Best of all, however, is the park’s kid magnet: play equipment modeled after Hoe’s invention, from steps that mimic the press’s cylinders to sweeping white curves representing paper as it travels through the printer.