A rendering of the upcoming park house at Queensbridge Park (NYC Parks)
March 29, 2018 By Nathaly Pesantez
Construction has begun on a $6.25 million field house at the waterfront Queensbridge Park, which will replace the old park house that hasn’t been in use for decades.
A groundbreaking ceremony was held at the park earlier today, which introduced the upcoming building as a green facility with comfort stations, a community center, drinking fountains, and bike racks.
The 1,500 square foot space will also hold offices for Parks Department staff, and storage space for athletic teams.
Councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer (D-Long Island City), who attended the groundbreaking, provided $2.5 million in funds to renovate the park house in 2013.
“This new Park House will bring great new amenities to all who use Queensbridge Park,” said Van Bramer in a statement. “Ensuring that this park has all of the features and amenities needed to serve the seniors, families and children of Queensbridge and Western Queens has always been a priority for me.”
The park’s old field house was built in the 1940s, and will be demolished to make way for the new facility. The upcoming building will also see energy efficient designs in components like heating and cooling, lighting, and ventilation.
“Queensbridge is a picturesque park with astounding views of the skyline, and an active community who loves and cares for it,” said NYC Parks Commissioner Dorothy Lewandowski in a statement. “The new field house we are building will provide storage and office space for Parks staff, an indoor space for community programming, and – best of all – it will finally bring a bathroom facility to the southern end of the park.”
The new park house is expected to open in the summer of 2019.
7 Comments
Watch it cost twice as much with cost overruns, ripping off the tax payers why cant they just rehab the old facility?
Impossible to rehab that facility. It has been a mess for over 40 years. It has to be demolished.
$6.25M for a building size of a tool shed? Gotta be kidding me! City government at its best.
15,000 square feet is hardly a tool shed. Did you read the article?
i think the point is, if you actually went through an RFP process, vs handing the project over to a company that clearly has ties with the city, it could be done for far less of the taxpayers money.
It’s about time someone did something about QB park and the Park House. the fields should be refurbished also. Maybe they will cut the grass more frequently than once every 6-8 months. It grows so high when teams play Softball the ball never makes it to the outfield and slows in the TALL grass.
And they mow too far around trees and other obstacles leaving puffs of tall grass all over the place like a drunk guy trying to cut his own hair.