The shore of Conservatory Water contains the Kerbs Memorial Boathouse, where patrons can rent and navigate radio-controlled model boats, as well as bronze sculptures.

The two principal designers of the Greensward Plan, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, instead suggested building a conservatory on the site of the proposed formal garden, with a "hard-edged" reflecting pool in the middle.

Samuel Parsons, Calvert Vaux's assistant and partner, who was named Superintendent of Plantings, described the effect in his Landscape Gardening (1891): The general shape of this pond was oval, with winding, irregular shores, bounded by a high bank on the east side and a great willow drooping over the north end.

The bottom, scarcely three feet deep, was cemented tight as a cup, and the water flowed gently in at one end, and out at the other, and so through a basin and into the sewer.

[10][11] The eastern shore of Conservatory Water contains the Kerbs Memorial Boathouse, designed by architect Aymar Embury II, where patrons can rent and navigate radio-controlled and wind-powered model boats.

In the sculptured Beaux-Arts pediment of an upper-floor window of 927 Fifth Avenue, overlooking Conservatory Water, the red-tailed hawk named "Pale Male" set up a nest, under the binocular watch of the Park's numerous bird-watchers.

Pilgrim Hill lies to the southwest of Conservatory Water, just inside the park entrance at 5th Avenue and on the north side of 72nd Street.

[17][18][19][20] Its slopes are popular among locals for sledding in the winter when Central Park receives 6 inches of snow, for groves of pale flowering Yoshino cherry trees as they burst into bloom in the spring, and for picnics and lounging in warmer months.

[18][19] The slopes are dotted by Prunus serrulata and other specimen trees, notably a globose European Hornbeam and nine species of oak, all set in rolling lawn.

[27][28][29][30] It was created in 1959 by sculptor José de Creeft, patterned on illustrations drawn by John Tenniel, commissioned by philanthropist George Delacorte in honor of his wife, and forged in the Modern Art Foundry in Queens, New York.

[31] Another sculptural group, to the west of the Conservatory Water, commemorates Danish fable author Hans Christian Andersen and the Ugly Duckling (1955), sculpted by Georg John Lober.

[52][50][51][48][49] The sundial features a small Art Deco bronze gnomon sculpture of a female dancer trailed by a wind-blown gown and flowing scarves at its center.

[52][50][51][48][49] The gnomon sculpture was crafted by sculptor Paul Manship, who created the 18-foot (5.5 m)-tall bronze gilded Prometheus statue at Rockefeller Center.