Brooklyn Bridge Park begins construction on more parkland, bouldering wall, community space

January 6, 2014 By Mary Frost Brooklyn Daily Eagle

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Brooklyn Bridge Park is growing again. Work is starting this week on new parkland, a bouldering wall, an education center and more. The work will take about a year, according to park officials.

At the northern end of the park in DUMBO, new parkland and amenities are being added at Main Street, John Street and Jay Street. At the southern end, at the foot of Atlantic Avenue, additional parkland is being constructed at Pier 6.

This work is in addition to a new beach at Pier 4 and a roller rink at Pier 2, already under construction and opening this spring. The Pier 2 project will also include bocce, handball, shuffleboard and basketball courts.

At Main Street, the latest expansion includes the 10–12-foot bouldering wall, which will look like a series of little hills nestled beneath the Manhattan Bridge at Plymouth and Washington streets. In bouldering, climbers without protective ropes or harnesses move from hold to hold, protected by a crash mat.

The Main Street addition will also include an expanded lawn, a new dog run, new pedestrian and bicycle paths, and an upgraded entry plaza at Washington Street. (The existing Main Street dog run and lawn will be closed.) The former NYC DEP building at Plymouth Street will be transformed into a glass-covered, 1,700 square foot community meeting space and environmental education center, with restrooms.

North of the Manhattan Bridge, new waterfront parkland will include pedestrian bridges over a tidal salt marsh at Adams Street, Pearl Street and Jay Street. The John and Jay Street additions include tree-lined pathways and a 13,000 square-foot “gathering lawn.”

At Pier 6, at the southern end of the park, 3.4 acres of landscape and lawn areas are being added. Park officials describe the addition as “a seasonally vibrant perennial flower garden, a network of lawns bordered by shade plantings and seating, and the extension of the pier’s 30-foot wide exterior promenade.”

These new projects are expected to be completed by the winter of 2014/ 2015, BBP said.

Private developers are also building in the park. Projects include a hotel, residences, restaurant and retail at Pier 1, a re-developed Empire Stores, a theater at the Tobacco Warehouse site, a marina and two parcels at Pier 6 which will be developed into residential and retail.