A master plan for Rockefeller Park was prepared in 1979 by the William A. Behnke Associates landscape architecture firm with foundation support. A centennial gift to the city by Cleveland industrialist John D. Rockefeller, the parkway had fallen into disrepair due to lack of maintenance, vandalism and crime. Behnke’s master plan suggested ways to solve traffic, parking and security problems, halt the deterioration of the massive stone bridges spanning the parkway, bring back a now-drained ornamental lagoon and restore the park’s most unique feature: the Cleveland Cultural Gardens, which represented the city’s rich ethnographic diversity. Behnke’s master plan marked the beginning of the reclamation of this magnificent parkway.