Prospect Park

The Daily Plant : Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Topping Off Prospect Park's New Lakeside

Photo by Malcolm Pinckney

On Wednesday, October 12, Prospect Park held a ceremony to mark the “topping off” of Lakeside’s “green” facility at 28 feet in height. Lakeside is the most significant landscape restoration and construction project ever undertaken in landmark Prospect Park and this event celebrates an important milestone in the construction process.

The $74 million, 26-acre Lakeside project, currently in construction, includes a 25,000-square-foot building designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects that will qualify for LEED certification. It features both indoor and outdoor space with two rinks (30,000-square-feet in total skating surface). By constructing the new facility on the site of the old Wollman Rink parking lot, five acres are being added to the lake as well as three acres of parkland. The rinks will host ice skating and hockey in the winter and roller skating and water play in the summer. It is anticipated Lakeside will accommodate three times the number of year-round visitors when compared to the old rink.

Lakeside is a project of the Prospect Park Alliance, in partnership with the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation and the New York City Economic Development Corporation. Prospect Park Alliance landscape architect, Christian Zimmerman, FASLA, and the staff of the Alliance’s Design and Construction office are responsible for Lakeside’s landscape design and restoration of the original Frederick Law Olmsted design for Prospect Park. Lakeside expects to be opened for ice skating in January 2013.

Lead private funding for Lakeside has been received from the Leon Levy Foundation, JPMorgan Chase Foundation, Brooklyn Community Foundation (formerly the Independence Community Foundation), Birkrem Prospect Park Trust, Tiger Baron Foundation, the Henry and Lucy Moses Foundation and the Prospect Park Alliance Board of Directors. Approximately 85% of funding for the project is now secured from public and private sources. The Prospect Park Alliance continues to seek additional donors to Lakeside.

Lakeside has received strong support from the Park’s elected officials. $40.5 million has been committed to Lakeside by the Office of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the City Council Brooklyn Delegation and Speaker Christine Quinn, and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz. Federal funding has been secured by U.S. Representative Yvette Clarke and former U.S. Representative Anthony Weiner. New York State Senator Eric Adams and Assemblywoman Joan Millman have both obtained State allocations for Lakeside. In addition, former Brooklyn Borough President Howard Golden and former U.S. Representative Major Owens allocated funds for Lakeside prior to retiring from office. The Environmental Protection Fund, as administered by the New York State Office of Parks and Historic Preservation, provided $500,000 for the project.

For project updates please visit www.prospectpark.org/lakeside.

QUOTATION FOR THE DAY

“A desk is a dangerous place from which to watch the world.”

John le Carre
(1931 - )