NYC Parks recently revealed the eight showcase parks selected for reconstruction using Parks Without Borders design principles. Launched in November 2015, supported by $50 million in Mayoral OneNYC funding, the new design concept better connects parks and communities and improves access by opening sight lines, beautifying edges, and adding furnishings to underutilized spaces. The announcement was made today during the agency’s PARKS WITHOUT BORDERS summit at The New School.
Parks Without Borders launched in November 2015 with a call for community involvement. NYC Parks asked New Yorkers to nominate the best sites. Utilizing an online survey and 37 conferences with citizens at Community Board Meetings, NYC Parks Computer Resource Centers, and public libraries, Parks received more than 6,000 nominations for 691 parks, or over 30% of our park.
Drawing from this community input, NYC Parks chose eight parks based on criteria including community support, park access, and current physical conditions and context. The eight parks selected are:
Staten Island
• Faber Park
Brooklyn
• Prospect Park
• Fort Greene Park
Bronx
• Van Cortlandt Park
• Hugh Grant Circle / Virginia Park and Playground
Manhattan
• Jackie Robinson Park
• Seward Park
Queens
• Flushing Meadows Corona Park
“Parks Without Borders represents a giant step forward in our vision for the role green spaces play in New York’s communities. This innovative approach to integrating our parks more seamlessly into the fabric of the city will help New Yorkers feel even more at home in their neighborhood parks – or as we like to call them, NYC’s backyard,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio.
The eight showcase parks will share a $40 million in capital funds to improve the current layout, condition, and relationship to their surroundings. The Parks Without Borders design approach focuses on park entrances, edges and adjacent spaces. In selecting the eight showcase parks, NYC Parks considered community support; park access, in line with NYC Parks and OneNYC’s goal to have 85 percent of New Yorkers live within a walk to a park; and the parks’ physical conditions and context—the park’s current layout, condition, and relation to its surroundings.
In addition to these eight showcase sites, NYC Parks has already succeeded in incorporating Parks Without Borders design concepts to 51 projects. Thirty-two of these are FY2015 Community Parks Initiative launched reconstructions. NYC Parks expects to impact hundreds of more parks by advancing Parks Without Borders concepts within existing project scopes and budgets.
Image Credit Flickr – Brad Clinesmith