In 1969, Abby Rockefeller Mauze founded the Greenacre Foundation. Two years later, the foundation built Greenacre Park, a vest-pocket park following the model of nearby Paley Park. These small, efficiently-planned parks became popular because they could fit into tiny, dense urban spaces where a larger park might not be affordable. Designed by Hideo Sasaki, former chairman of Harvard's Landscape Architecture Department, Greenacre is only 60 feet by 120 feet.
The design maximizes use of the small space through a series of terraces, seating walls, trellises, and lush plantings. The canopy of honey locust trees allows sunlight in, but provides a sheltered feeling. An overlook terrace is topped with acrylic domes and provides lighting and radiant heating for the garden below. One wall of the park is a granite relief sculpture and water feature, and the focal point of the park is a 25-foot waterfall, which mutes the noise of traffic.