Making an Oasis of Normalcy

Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital

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.