The story behind this beautiful addition to the Westchester Medical Center is bittersweet. After John Fareri and his wife, Brenda, lost their thirteen-year-old daughter, Maria, to rabies, the couple discovered she had made a wish in her last school project for “the health and well-being of all the children of the world.” Fareri resolved to develop a children’s hospital that would not only honor Maria’s wish but would be designed and operated to emphasize the essential role families play in every step of a child’s treatment. Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital certainly met the families expectations, and Maria’s vision.
Craig Studer of Studer Design Associates was engaged to develop an outdoor courtyard. It would be a special place where families with ailing children could gather and engage in the normal things of life that hospitalization denies them.
Kara Oneglia, Vice President of O&G’s Masonry Division, was more than willing to come alongside the cause. “As a family-oriented business,” said Oneglia, “we were honored to support a project that will make someone’s day a little brighter as they deal with a child’s illness.” O&G either donated or aggressively discounted the granite and paver materials Studer specified. “There were never any issues or delays, from getting just the right blend of materials we wanted from O&G to their support of the installation in the field,” says Studer.
Studer Design Associates of Ridgefield, Connecticut, is an award-winning landscape architect and site planner whose breadth of experience spans hospitality, luxury residential, community, athletic and commercial design and planning.
