Photo Flash: NYC Parks Breaks Ground on Imagination Playground in Brownsville
By: BWW News Desk Oct. 28, 2014
NYC Parks Commissioner Mitchell J. Silver, FAICP, today joined City Council Member Darlene Mealy, NYC Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner Vicki Been, Founder and President of Rockwell Group David Rockwell, Community Board 16 District Manager Viola Greene-Walker, and students from P.S. / I.S. 323 to break ground on Imagination Playground at Betsy Head Park in Brownsville. Scroll down for photos!
It will be the first permanent Imagination Playground play space in Brooklyn and the second to be built worldwide and will inspire kids' imaginations through fantasy and cooperative play. The ground breaking also represents a major accomplishment of the Administration's Hundred Days to Progress Initiative, a collaborative effort between City, State, and community partners to bring about positive change in Brownsville, Brooklyn.
"Imagination Playground has become a model for innovative play spaces worldwide, and we are excited to bring one to Brownsville, a community that needs and deserves high-quality parks," said NYC Parks Commissioner Mitchell J. Silver. "I'd like to thank Rockwell Group for recognizing the vital role that playtime takes in the lives of our city's young people, as well as Borough President Adams and Council Member Mealy for supporting this endeavor."
"Playgrounds are the laboratories for a child's imagination, fueling their creativity and actively developing their young personhood. Therefore, it could not be more fitting to celebrate the groundbreaking of the Imagination Playground at Betsy Head Park in Brownsville, the first-such permanent play space in our borough," said Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams. "I thank all those who are working to ensure that Brownsville's future is full of endless potential, truly tapped into the best that our imaginations can dream for it."
"This innovative new playground in Betsy Head Park will be not just a place for children to play, but a place for parents and caretakers to meet new friends, start conversations and collaborations, and form networks. All of these things help to build and strengthen a community," said HPD Commissioner Vicki Been. "And strengthening, building and stabilizing communities is what our combined efforts with and on behalf of this community and other neighborhoods across the City are all about. Mayor de Blasio recognizes - and we all agree - that as critical as affordable housing is, it takes more than housing to complete a neighborhood. It takes schools, jobs, retail, business development, public safety, community effort and engagement, and yes, parks, to make us feel as if we are truly home."
"We''re thrilled to be celebrating the groundbreaking of Brooklyn''s first Imagination Playground today with our partners at the Parks Department," said David Rockwell, Founder and President of Rockwell Group. "The park will provide a dynamic, multi-generational environment that allows children to play, collaborate and build, and we hope it will ultimately serve as a focal point for the community."
The concept behind Imagination Playground is to encourage creative and child-directed, unstructured free play. Inspired by tree houses, Imagination Playground at Betsy Head Park will include a lush, plant-filled multi-level space with water, sand, and loose part play areas surrounded by a long, curving play ramp that weaves through the trees, bridged by permanent play equipment; renovated basketball and handball courts; an exercise area for adults; and a variety of seating areas. A trained staff of Play Associates will be on site to maintain and manage the loose parts during the summer.
The project was designed pro-bono by Rockwell Group to encourage creative and child-directed, unstructured free play. MKW + Associates, LLC is the landscape architect for the project. The $5.05 million project received capital allocations of $3.1 million from Council Member Mealy, $750,000 from the Brooklyn Borough President and $1.2 million in Mayoral funding.
This past spring, Rockwell Group also donated a set of Imagination Playground Blocks to the Brownsville Recreation Center, to enable children to experience this engaging, open-ended form of play in advance of the playground''s completion.
Launched in September 2014 by City and State agencies along with community partners in Brownsville, the Hundred Days to Progress Initiative was established to accomplish or set into action projects to address the neighborhood''s immediate needs and to begin to collaborate around meaningful and long-term improvements. The goal of the Initiative is not just to see positive change within 100 days, but also to lay a solid foundation for long-term partnerships among agencies, community organizations, and other partners dedicated to helping Brownsville residents achieve their goals.
As part of the Hundred Days effort, NYC Parks has also pledged to expand the Friends of Betsy Head Park through volunteer opportunities, and programming. On Saturday, October 25th, Partnerships for Parks, a joint program between NYC Parks and City Parks Foundation, hosted It's My Park Day project at Betsy Head Park. Community members come together to revitalize two horticulture areas in the park adjacent to the track. The event was supported by the Brownsville Community Justice Center and the Brownsville Partnership, as well as Ocean Hill Brownsville Coalition of Young Professionals, the Pitkin Avenue BID, and Community Board 16.
Photo by Daniel Avila / NYC Parks; Rendering by Rockwell Group.
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