Olmstead park to get new lease on life.

Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, in conjunction with landscape architect, Christian Zimmerman, recently scored a designer's dream project when they were awarded the contract to build the new Lakeside Center recreation facility, and to restore to its former glory a dormant landscape carved by Fredrick Olmstead when he helped design Prospect Park.

"This is a unique opportunity. There aren't many Olmstead landscapes as intact as this one and the fact that we can reclaim a portion of it that was lost for so many years is extraordinary. Together we are cutting new ground in the preservation world," Zimmerman said.

The project, which is being co-managed by the Prospect Park Alliance calls for the demolition of an ice skating rink built in 1961 out of Lilly Pond where Olmstead originally built a music grove in 1887 for visitors to listen to and hear concerts in the park.

"The existing rink is a scar in the summertime and the building is an eyesore, a large treeless parking lot that kind of undermines the existing park. We are trying to correct the indignity that has been done to the park," said Tod Williams, principal of Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects. "Together we will try to heal the landscape."

The team will then design new ice rinks adjacent to the space. The first will be a covered performance competition rink built according to National Hockey League standards, and another outdoor rink during the winter. The rinks will transform into usable community space during the spring and summer.

"Prospect Park is one of New York City's natural treasures, and by replacing the old rink with a new one, we're ensuring that it can continue to be one of Brooklyn's most popular spots for recreation and family fun," said Marty Markowitz, Brooklyn Borough President. "I am thrilled to support the Lakeside Center project which will keep Brooklynites gliding, sliding and creating their own personal Ice Capades on two rinks all winter long."

Though Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects has done work on other outdoor/indoor recreational facilities such as two natatoriums, competitive swimming pools in upstate New York and Michigan, this is the first time they have tried to work on ice rinks. Superb ice is tricky to manufacture for a structure that is not contained such as Madison Square Garden, Williams said.

The team will also build the Lakeside Center, a 38,000 s/f building that will contain a public atrium, public education, administrative space, a cafe, gift shop, space for renting skates and a locker room. The building will meet the city standards for green building which would be the equivalent of a United States Green Building Council Silver LEED rating.

"We hope to make a place that works both as a sports facility and a place for pleasure, where proficiency and poetry meet," the team said.

Though the design process is still in its initial phases, the team recognizes the challenges in creating a LEED certified project that is neither an office building nor a residential development, and is in a land marked area. They may experiment with geothermal wells, ground coverings that are impervious to water, and covering the columns for the rink covering with trees or shrubs.

Simultaneously the original music grove will be restored, using photographs as models. Landscape architects will salvage as many of the original materials as they can find including bluestone, sandstone, and cast iron that they found in the original rails, walls, and foundation scattered around the sites, and replicate what they can.

The site will also be renovated to meet 21st century realities which includes the creation of a better pond bottom for nesting to encourage some of the fish and 200 species of waterfowl that frequent the park to stick around.

"I think it's an unbelievable honor to work in this space and to be able to reconstruct the former music island and the beginning of the concert grove that has been missing in Prospect Park for 40 something years. It is the cherry on the Sunday to be able to work on Olmstead land," Zimmerman said.