Pavilion at North Side of Columbus Park
Columbus Park will undergo needed repairs and renovations. The NYC Parks Department presented conceptual designs and scope of work to CB3s Parks Committee Thursday evening at the BRC senior center. The work concentrates on the public restrooms located in the Southern section (children’s playground) and the pavilion on the Northern edge.
Conceptual gates at Pavilion
The Pavilion at the North end of the park which borders Bayard Street will see safety upgrades in the form of roll down gates similar to store gates along the sides of the structure while retractable accordion gates will close off the 2 arches. The gate closing times will be seasonal with later hours in the spring and summer. (currently the outer perimeter gates close at dusk in the late fall and winter and 10pm during the spring and summer).
Other upgrades to the Pavilion will be new fixtures in the restrooms and door replacements. The lower-level former community room will see upgrades but more importantly be returned to the community for use. Bayard Bugle pointed out the cracked steps leading up to the pavilion and they will be included in the work.
Conceptual design of rolling gates
Conceptual art of gates in raised state
Public Restrooms at Southern children’s playground
The restrooms adjacent to the children’s playground area will see all new fixtures with a new water fountain mounted on its southern wall to replace the 2 existing free standing water fountains that are no longer functional. Doors to the structure will be replaced. Two small permanent fences by the restroom entrances will be removed to create a more “open parks” theme the NYC Parks Dept adopted to create borderless public spaces. And finally, perimeter fencing along Mulberry Street and Baxter Street will be installed to replace the current chicken-wire fences.
In all the project is budgeted for the $10m former council member Margaret Chin received as a community concession for her nod on the Borough-based prison.