McLaughlin Park

The Daily Plant : Wednesday, October 31, 2007

McLaughlin Team Honored At Best Of Parks

Photo by Daniel Avila

At the Best of Parks Awards Ceremony at Snug Harbor in Staten Island, the team for McLaughlin Park in Brooklyn was honored with the Capital Team Award.

The $3 million reconstruction of McLaughlin Park in the Vinegar Hill section of Brooklyn symbolizes what we strive for in a capital project. It epitomizes good design, a smooth procurement process, and quality construction for every city park. This project completely and efficiently transformed a barren asphalt patch of land into a vibrant green space. Thanks to some unusually warm weather, this project was completed ahead of schedule, and it was within the allocated budget.

Designer Dennis Flynn created a first-class baseball and basketball facility for an extremely active athletic community, and Resident Engineer Francisco Velez made sure our contractor built it right. Supporting it all were the Brooklyn team leaders and the citywide units at Capital. At McLaughlin, the original asphalt ballfield was replaced with a new synthetic turf field and the basketball court area now offers larger courts, recreational lighting and bleachers. The park’s wading pool, which was dormant for many years, was restored in the image of a steamboat to honor some of the first settlers of the area who worked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Flowering Dogwoods, Viburnums, Inkberry Hollies and various other perennials also helped to create a greener park for this athletic community.

Dennis Flynn has now started to develop Phase II of McLaughlin Park. Phase II will renovate the children’s playground with new play equipment and other added conveniences for McLaughlin Park.

David Martin (Brooklyn Team Leader)
Kevin Quinn (Brooklyn Deputy Team Leader)
Portia Cook-Dyrenforth (Director, Capital Projects)
Matthias Augustin (Deputy Director, Brooklyn Construction)
Susan Coker (Deputy Director)
Lorenzo Calabrese (Assistant Director, Brooklyn Construction)
Dennis Flynn (Designer)
Han Lee (Senior Engineer)
Francisco Velez (Project Resident Engineer)
Michael Enitan (Assistant Electrical Engineer)
Patricia Doyle (Procurement Analyst)
Alexander Mezzatesta (Community Associate)
Robert Rieves (Assistant Landscape Architect)

QUOTATION FOR THE DAY

“Oh no, not in springtime. Summer, winter, or fall.
No, never could I leave you. At all.”

Robert Goulet
(1933 – 2007)