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Health & Fitness

Stop By the Huntington Station Pedestrian Plaza

The next time you drive past New York Avenue and Olive Street in Huntington Station, you should stop and walk around the new Pedestrian Plaza. Be sure to take a look at – and sit in – the amazing sculpture, Generations, that forms the Plaza’s centerpiece. Notice the Norway spruce at the south end. And look up and down New York Avenue at the streetscaping that has beautified the busy commercial strip What you will be looking at, and experiencing, is Huntington Station revitalization in action. The Plaza dedication, which we held on May 22, culminated years of planning and community input that began when the Town of Huntington Economic Development Corporation sought revitalization ideas. Many people responded that the intersection of New York Avenue and Olive was a blighted area that needed to be addressed. That is when the concept of a pedestrian plaza was raised. Community meetings were held, plans were reviewed and in the end, the final design combined concepts from two of the most favored renditions. Central to the Plaza, and to community enjoyment of it, is the sculpture by artist Madeline Wiener. Wiener was selected in a competition run by the Town’s Public Art Advisory Committee that produced 54 submissions. In unanimously recommending Wiener, who now lives in Denver but who grew up in New York and has Huntington relatives, the artist selection panel was especially enthusiastic about her “bench people” concept: figurative sculptures the public also can sit on. That recommendation that was enthusiastically endorsed by the Town’s Public Art Advisory Committee and the EDC before being approved by the Town Board. Generations is a four-piece limestone sculpture -- guitar player, grandmother & child, guitar case, and drum. It draws upon the importance of music in the community as well as a strong cross-cultural and multi-generational emphasis on families. You really have to walk among its four pieces and sit on or in them to fully appreciate what a magnificent work of art this is. A later addition to the plans came at the request of the Huntington Station Business Improvement District. As the Plaza was under construction, the BID asked for a Norway spruce to be planted. The tree will be used as the official holiday tree for Huntington Station, and will be the site of Huntington Station’s first tree lighting in December. With all of the input from the varied segments of the community, this plaza is a true grassroots project, as exemplified by the diverse representation from among the roughly 100 people who attended the May 22 dedication ceremony. And as we noted during the ceremony, this is the end of a particular project, but only the latest milestone in the community’s continued revitalization. Exciting things are going on in Huntington Station, and the process of seeking community input continues. So pay a visit to the plaza. Sit in or on the sculpture. Imagine what you would like to see next. And let us know. We’re always open to ideas. Just look at what this previous suggestion produced.

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