Central Park

The Daily Plant : Monday, December 3, 2001

IN REC. CENTER 54 1911 MEETS 2001

Recreation Center 54, a magnificent neo-classical bathhouse, provides the context for 21^st century sporting. In it, Nike sneakers meet Gustavino tiles and wrought-iron spiral stairways link basketball courts to a jogging track. For ninety years New Yorkers have filled this elegant frame with their energy and athleticism. In step with the times, the use of the building has changed, from a bathhouse in 1911 to a recreation center in 2001. On Tuesday, November 27 as a result of the active participation of Community Board 6 and the financial support of Council Member A. Gifford (Junior) Miller, Parks began a $4.1 million renovation to improve the facility, highlighting historic architecture and modernizing individual features.

Every year, 150,000 people visit Recreation Center 54. Next year, handicap accessible, the center will welcome a greater number of visitors to the pool and gymnasium. The lobby will be entirely renovated and a picture window added. There will be new lights, new finishing, new electrical, plumbing, and ventilation systems. Parks will add an entrance to the gym and reconstruct the entire set of showers and lockers. Skylights will let in light from above. And, under the same vaulted ceilings of old, 150,000 more visitors will pass through the front doors. Together, Council Member Miller, Carol (Sandpiper) Pieper and all the members of Community Board 6, and Parkies are ensuring that this unique building remains one of the best of Parks’ 36 recreation centers.

The flagship of our City’s system, Central Park provides a home for bookworms and earthworms, lovebirds and hummingbirds. It receives visits from 20 million people each year, and more than 230 species of birds have been sighted in its upper reaches. The birds are an essential element of Central Park’s ecosystem. They also contribute substantially to visitors’ enjoyment. Central Park is one of many New York locations to be named an Important Bird Area by Birdlife International and the National Audubon Society. This was announced at Belvedere Castle on Thursday, November 29. The event provided the opportunity for the Urban Park Rangers to promote their guided nature walks. Commissioner Henry J. (StarQuest) Stern told visitors, "from dawn to dusk, every day of the week, our Rangers provide the unique opportunity for New Yorkers and visitors to view the very birds this program aims to protect."

(Monday, December 5, 1988)

The Hundred Years Association bestowed one of its highest honors on Queens Chief of Staff Julie Mark, who claimed second prize in the 1988 Career Civil Service Awards last Tuesday, November 29 in the Board of Estimate chambers in City Hall.

New York City Personnel Director Judith A. Levitt and Hundred Year Association President Richard A. Cook presented Mark with her $3,000 award as part of the thirty-first annual presentation of the New York City Career Civil Service awards.

"The present falls, the present falls away;
How pure the motion of the rising day,
The white sea widening on a father shore.
The bird, the beating bird, extending wings—
Thus I endure this last pure stretch of joy,
The dire dimension of a final thing."

Theodore Roethke (1908-1963)

Know Before You Go

Harlem Meer Center (formerly Lasker Rink)

Harlem Meer Center