URBAN RECREATION.

New York City's parks are revamped and rehabilitated

For all the millions of words that have been written about New York City, one interesting point has gone almost unnoticed--New York is probably the most abused city in the world. Where else, for example, would a visitor (often enough, the questioner's own host) feel no qualms about asking a citizen, "How can you possibly live in such a noisy, filthy, dangerous place?"

The answer, of course, is that New York offers a multitude of delights that few visitors are apt to see, and one of the most interesting these days is a citywide program of improvements specifically targeted at neighborhood playgrounds. Since 1995, the city's Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) has replaced or refurbished more than 378 playgrounds, and the capital budget has included more funding each year.

"Under Mayor Giuliani, our funding has more than tripled, from $51 million to $165 million," explains Parks Commissioner Henry Stern, "and that translates into hundreds of new and renovated playgrounds for the city's children in every neighborhood." Taken all together, this program amounts to a virtual renaissance in neighborhood amenities. Oddly, though, this work has gotten little publicity or attention in the media, and it seems to have gone largely unnoticed by New Yorkers themselves.

Curious to see how the city has managed to pull off this "invisible" renewal, I recently arranged a short multi-borough visit to recently completed and in-progress playground rehab projects with an engineer friend, Kirti Gandhi, P.E., Ph.D., founder and president of Gandhi Engineering, Inc. Dr. Gandhi's firm is one of several professional consulting organizations with which DPR has established "requirements contracts." An innovative form of agency-consultant alliance, these contracts enable DPR to speed park and playground reconstruction by handling several sites under a single contract, with each designated consultant providing a variety of engineering, design, and construction inspection services for the improvements.

Blending Imagination and Utility

Our first stop was the J. Hood Wright Park and Playground in the Washington Heights neighborhood of upper Manhattan. There's a fantastic view from here that takes in the mile-wide Hudson River and the George Washington Bridge, once the world's longest suspension bridge. From a child's-eye point of view, the most exciting feature of the rebuilt playground must be the 14-foot-tall child-sized replica of the bridge, a climbing toy complete with an array of realistic-looking structural "girders." Other imaginative touches include a pair of bright red lamps at the playground entrance and a delightful frieze of animal silhouettes--raccoons, mice, beavers, quail, etc.--incorporated into the safety fencing around a children's spray fountain. In a welcome nod to Mother Nature, DPR guidelines now require some form of "animal art" in such projects--a requirement that seems to have an invigorating effect on the designers. In this case, the design was by Sen Architects, New York, working under the DPR's direction.

"At one level, a project like this is a civil engineering and construction project that has to be completed on-schedule and within budget," notes Dr. Gandhi. "At the same time, the end result has to be something that's fun and safe, encourages the children to play, and engages their imaginations. DPR has been very creative about finding processes to accomplish both of these goals efficiently and in a way that is adapted to the unique needs and style of each community."

The Wright Playground reconstruction, for instance, also included the extensive rehabilitation of three small, slate-roofed stone buildings dating from the 1930s to the 1950s, including an octagonal weathervane-crowned playroom and a "Golden Age Center" that includes a large open recreation room, offices, and restrooms. This is one of 33 indoor recreation centers and senior centers maintained by DPR throughout the city. The Golden Age Centers hold activities and events specifically for seniors; facilities and instruction are also available for a wide range of activities, from sports and fitness classes to preschool and afterschool programs, fine arts and dance classes, and many others. Most recreation centers have rooms available for community meetings and for special events and performances.

"Like the parks themselves, the recreation centers give people a place to gather and help them to stay active and fit year-round," Dr. Gandhi explained.

"The reconstruction of this recreation center now provides area residents with a safe, aesthetically appealing facility for active and passive recreation. The project also helps to foster a sense of community unity and enhance the beauty and cleanliness of the area."

Our next stop was across the East River in the High Bridge section of the Bronx, where the 1.148-acre Nelson Playground reopened last fall following a 12-month, $1.17-million upgrade and expansion. The 46-year-old facility, located on West 166th Street between Nelson and Woodycrest Avenues, provides residents with improved recreational and park facilities and modern, safer play equipment for children.

Here the renovation included extensive new play equipment, including kindergarten and play swings, climbing bars, slides, full-size handball and basketball courts, bleachers, picnic and game tables, benches, and drinking fountains. New detailing includes curved pastel pathways, inlaid paving, and a nautical-style flagpole with a decorative yardarm. Animal art was added in the form of a spray shower and compass rosette decorated with ten sculptured frogs, and a weathervane atop the comfort station in the shape of a squirrel. Safety improvements include renovated lighting and drainage systems, pavement, curbs, and gates, new fencing, and safety surfacing.

The project also added another quarter-acre or so of grove and lawn area to the original playground, with new plantings of maple hedges, ruby horse-chestnuts, English ivy, shamrock inkberry holly, pin oaks, and skyrocket English oaks. The project was designed by landscape firm Saratoga Associates under DPR's direction, with Dr. Gandhi's firm again responsible for overall site management.

Our third and last stop was at Paerdegat Park in the East Flatbush section of Brooklyn, where a 12-month reconstruction is due to be completed this coming October. Hicham Osman, Gandhi Enginering's resident engineer, was full of enthusiasm about a project that, in his words, "is giving a greatly improved new park facility to a community that needs and deserves it." Like many smaller recreational areas, the city acquired this 3.5-acre park, which fills the block between Albany Avenue and East 40th Street, from a private owner (in this case, a water company) shortly before World War II, and since then, it has seen both heavy use and significant deterioration. To neighborhood residents, Paerdegat Park is best known for its famous paddleball tournaments, which have been held regularly in the park's twin racquetball/paddleball courts since the 1960s. By 1997, however, the scene had become a fairly depressing one, with cracked asphalt and curbs, dead plants, and evidence of vandalism.

"The reconstruction will create an essentially new facility here," Osman explained. "Besides restoring the handball court and children's play equipment, the contractor is putting in a new basketball court with blue color-sealed topping and a new fenced-in, grass-surfaced baseball field." Besides the new ball field, which measures 270 by 167 feet, other new amenities at Paerdegat Park will include a decorative 100-foot-diameter spray fountain with color paving, drinking fountains, toddler and children's swings, extensive landscaping and tree plantings, and a new community garden, to be laid out in collaboration with neighborhood gardening enthusiasts. Eager neighbors often stop by to ask when the new playground--especially the handball courts--will be ready for use, and are happily surprised to learn it will be ready for use next fall. The joint venture of JMB/Marra is the contractor for the Paerdegat Park improvements, which were designed by Vollmer Associates, Inc., of Manhattan.

Alliances to Serve the Public

"In all these projects, and others, the Parks Department is focusing on new ways to serve the public more effectively," Dr. Gandhi explains. "These alliances also make it easier for DPR to use streamlined operating procedures and management systems, and make more effective use of advanced technologies." The Gandhi firm alone has been involved in nearly 20 playground fixes and other projects, providing construction inspection services in many cases (in effect, serving as the DPR's "eyes and ears") and sometimes having overall responsibility for design, utilities, and construction supervision.

About two-thirds of these creative, kid-friendly designs come out of DPR's own Design Division, but many of the city's best design firms also participate in the program as designers or as subconsultants for specific tasks. Specific improvements under the program have ranged from new play equipment and safety-surfaced basketball courts in Harlem's St. Nicholas Park to upgrades at the Crotona Park playground and pool in the Bronx to installation of state-of-the-art modular jungle gyms at the Christopher J. Prescott playground on Staten Island. (Prescott, the first city EMS worker killed in the line of duty, was struck by a drunk driver while aiding an auto accident victim.)

Nor is it only playgrounds that are looking better these days. For instance:

* On the Queens side of the East River, DPR is completing a range of improvements at Socrates Sculpture Park, a unique park environment that provides a setting for the construction and exhibition of large-scale modern sculptures and also serves as a performance and exhibition space for musicians, dancers, and artists.

* Another one-of-a-kind project, also in Queens, is providing long-needed repairs for the venerable Forest Park Bandshell and Carousel, the latter being a beloved masterpiece of American carousel manufacturing that still boasts its original band organ, handcarved horses, wild beasts, and chariots. Gandhi Engineering will provide construction/inspection services for these two projects.

* In Brooklyn, DPR is creating extensive new park and playground facilities through the Bushwick Renaissance Mixed Use Initiative, a comprehensive strategy to develop the last large concentration of vacant land in Brooklyn and turn an under-utilized industrial area into a vibrant neighborhood.

Throughout the city, in locations from Greenwich Village to the farthest reaches of the so-called "outer boroughs," neglected paved areas are being redesigned to passive green parks, with bluestone walks, comfortable seating, lighting, and garden areas (many with decorative--but distinctly functional--steel picket fencing), that are greatly enhancing the "greening" of the city's streets and avenues. Even venerable City Hall Park itself is getting a thorough refurbishing, due for completion next fall.

According Joseph Sdao, who recently took the helm as DPR's consultant project manager, the "requirements contract" approach has been a key factor in getting results quickly and cost-effectively. "We now have the freedom to retain the most highly experienced and capable consultants in the city, under an open-ended arrangement that lets us utilize their services rapidly and flexibly," Mr. Sdao explains. "This lets us reduce the construction time for capital projects from years to months or even weeks in some cases. Under more traditional funding and contracting procedures, playground reconstructions could easily drag on for one or two years. Now, new benches, fences, safety surfacing, play equipment, lighting, security features, and handicapped accessibility ramps can all be replaced more simply and quickly."

Peter Salwen takes us through the parks of New York City in "Urban Recreation" with the help of engineer friend, Kirti Gandhi, P.E., Ph.D. "New York offers a multitude of delights that few visitors are apt to see, and one of the most interesting these days is a citywide program of improvements specifically targeted at neighborhood playgrounds," Salwen writes.