ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — Officials from the City of Rochester and the Healthi Kids Coalition were joined by teens and community members on Wednesday to cut the ribbon on the newest addition to the city’s Play Walk sidewalk trail.
“The Ripple” is an interactive attraction featuring constantly changing colors and pixelated illustrations, leading children and youth into Martin Luther King Jr. Park.
The new extension of the Play Walk will become a landmark for the sidewalk trail along Chestnut and Court Streets between the Strong Museum and the Central Library.
Inspired by the flowing motion of the Genesee River, The Ripple is composed of a series of panels based on the unique shape of a lilac flower.
Visitors can rotate the panels to reveal different pixelated illustrations, and the panels constantly change and adapt to whomever is using it.
Two sides of the units are a dichroic film that reflects and refracts light – changing colors based on the way light hits them – while the colors of the other two sides remain constant.
“With this exciting addition to the Play Walk, we are further realizing our vision of making Rochester a more playable city, which will improve our children’s health, promote more vibrant neighborhoods and foster economic development,” Mayor Lovely Warren said in a statement. “This project shows what we can accomplish when the Downtown neighborhood, businesses, nonprofits, young people and City government come together.”
The Ripple is the result of a partnership between the City, Common Ground Health’s Healthi Kids initiative and The Urban Conga, which designed the extension based on input from city residents and teens at the Teen Center at Central Library about what attractions they wanted at Play Walk.
