How We Build Parks

NYC Parks designs and builds the best parks in the world. Focusing on equity, accessibility, and sustainability, we offer public spaces and facilities for all New Yorkers and visitors to use and enjoy. One of the ways we achieve this goal is through the development of capital projects.

A capital project relies on capital funding, and to be eligible it must include an infrastructure investment greater than $50,000 that will be in place for more than five years. Examples of capital projects include the construction or reconstruction of parks, playgrounds, ballfields, public restroom buildings, recreation centers, greenways, waterfronts, and natural areas, as well as street and park tree planting and the purchase of vehicles and computer equipment.

Through its Capital Division, Parks oversees and manages hundreds of active capital projects with its staff of landscape architects, architects, surveyors, engineers, attorneys, city planners, construction project managers, and administrative professionals. Parks is the largest employer of landscape architects in one location, and our work often receives awards for design excellence and creativity.

The Capital Process

There are several steps in the process before a project can officially begin. First, a need is identified for a park or park facility, in what Parks call the needs assessment phase. In this phase, Parks creates a cost estimate for the need and requests funding for the project. Each year in June, City Council Members and Borough Presidents allocate funding to potential projects when the City adopts its annual budget. Once funding is secured, Parks begins the project initiation phase. Parks assigns an in-house staff member or procures a design consultant for fully funded projects; collects information about the site, including conducting a survey, tree inventory, and environmental testing; and holds a pre-scope meeting with stakeholders from Parks and other City agencies to discuss any issues at the site.

The City’s capital process has three main phases: design, procurement, and construction. A short description of the primary milestones in each phase and corresponding percent completions is below. These milestones and percentages relate to what is shown on the capital tracker.

Design Phase

Community Input Meeting (5%)
Schematic Design Development (30%)
External Schematic Design Approval (35%)
Construction Document Development (50%)
Construction Document Review (80%)
Final Document Review (90%)
Design Completion (100%)

Community Input Meeting (5%)

After the pre-scope meeting, NYC Parks will schedule a community input meeting with community stakeholders (e.g., elected officials, community board members, neighborhood user-groups, members of the public) to determine the priorities and park elements for a project site.

If a project is a replacement-in-kind (in other words, if the capital project is replacing what existed before), Parks may decide not to hold a community input meeting. In this case, the pre-scope meeting marks the official start date of a project.

Following the start of the project, Parks reviews community feedback, the proposed scope of work, site testing data, and any potential permitting requirements to develop a schedule for the project.

Schematic Design Development (30%)

After the community input meeting, NYC Parks creates a conceptual design for the site, incorporating survey, tree assessment and site testing data. The conceptual design is developed further into a schematic design. Once the schematic design is approved internally, it is ready to be presented to the community and regulatory agencies.

External Schematic Design Approval (35%)

When required, NYC Parks presents the schematic design to the Community Board, and then the Landmarks Preservation Commission and/or Public Design Commission for review and approval. External schematic review is usually not required if a project is an in-kind replacement.

Construction Document Development (50%)

After external schematic design approvals are received, NYC Parks begins to develop contract documents, which provide contractors with detailed information about how to build a project.

Construction Document Review (80%)

When contract documents are developed to about 80 percent, NYC Parks’ internal construction staff and Maintenance & Operations staff review the project to ensure it can be built and maintained as designed. Parks also applies for any requisite permits from additional regulatory agencies.

Final Document Review (90%)

At 90 percent contract document development, NYC Parks obtains final signoffs from internal units and permit application approvals from external agencies, which ensure the project complies with City, State, and Federal regulations.

Design Complete (100%)

When contract documents are completed, the project undergoes a legal review and permits are secured before moving to the procurement phase.

The typical time to complete the design phase is 10-15 months, depending on project size, complexity, and required external approvals.

Procurement Phase

Pre-Solicitation (5%)
Contractor Bid Solicitation (40%)
Bid Opening & Review/Vendor Review (60%)
Contract Awarded & Pending Registration (85%)
Contract Registered with Comptroller’s Office (100%)

Pre-Solicitation (5%)

After the project is completed in design, the construction contract is reviewed by the Agency Chief Contracting Officer and then sent to the New York City Law Department for approval.

Contractor Bid Solicitation (40%)

NYC Parks then advertises the project for contractors to bid on the work. After the bid solicitation period ends, Parks reviews the bids received.

Bid Opening & Review/Vendor Review (60%)

Working with other City agencies to conduct due diligence, NYC Parks awards the contract to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder.

Contract Awarded & Pending Registration (85%)

The awarded contractor provides additional information to NYC Parks. Parks submits a package to the New York City Comptroller’s Office for registration of the contract. At this time, Parks also sets up a pre-construction meeting with the contractor to discuss the construction process, determine a start date (Order to Work), and order long-lead items needed to build the project.

Contract Registered with Comptroller’s Office (100%)

Once a contract is registered with the Comptroller’s Office, the procurement process is complete.

The typical time to complete the procurement phase is 9-12 months, depending on required approvals. The procurement process for all City agencies is the same and follows State and Local laws, as well as New York City’s Procurement Policy Board (PPB) rules, implemented by the Mayor’s Office of Contract Services (MOCS). These rules, laws, and policies ensure that agencies competitively bid and award projects to qualified contractors.

Construction Phase

Order to Work Date Set (0%)
Active Construction Progress (variable %)

Since outdoor construction work is weather-dependent, NYC Parks typically schedules the Order to Work date for projects in the spring, summer, or fall, when the weather is favorable.

Order to Work Date Set (0%)

The Order to Work date is the official start date for construction. During construction, the contractor builds the project according to the contract documents developed during the design phase of the process.

Active Construction Progress (variable %)

Construction staff oversee the daily operations of the project to ensure it’s built to NYC Parks’ specifications and to resolve any issues that arise. Construction staff who oversee projects submit weekly progress reports with percent completion, based on the dollar value of work completed to date. This percent completion is shown on the Capital Project Tracker. A site is opened to the public after Parks holds a substantial completion inspection with the contractor.

The typical time to complete construction is 12-18 months. Just like in design, this timeframe depends on project size, complexity, and required external approvals or coordination.

Types of Capital Contracts

There are three types of capital contracts: stand-alone contracts, multi-site contracts, and work order contracts. All three types of contracts can be found on the Capital Project Tracker.

Stand-alone contracts

Most of NYC Parks’ contracts are stand-alone contracts, which is when work takes place at one specific site.

Multi-site contracts

Multi-site contracts bundle work from several sites in one or more boroughs into a single contract. On the Capital Project Tracker, each of these contracts lists the individual sites within the contract and provides information about the timeline and funding for the contract as a whole. Each site within a multi-site contract has the same design and procurement timelines, but they may have different construction start and end dates.

Work Order contracts

Requirements contracts function differently than stand-alone and multi-site contracts. Work at a specific site (called a “work order”) is registered through a parent contract, and are typically for replacement-in-kind work that is required to keep parks in a state of good repair. These contracts may move slightly faster through the capital process because the d design and procurement phases can overlap, and work orders for new sites can be issued while the contract is active in construction. On the Capital Project Tracker, requirements contracts list the individual work orders and provide information about the timeline and funding for each site.

About the Capital Projects Tracker

The Capital Projects Tracker is an online, searchable tool that allows anyone interested in NYC Parks’ capital projects to learn more about our projects in design, procurement, and construction.

Capital projects are organized into four tabs: active projects, proposed projects, partner projects, and completed projects, and are sorted by Borough.

Active Projects

NYC Parks has hundreds of active projects at any given time. The Active Projects tab lists all the active projects by borough and shows what phase of the process each project is in: design, procurement, or construction. There is also a link for each capital project to see the description of work, funding, and timeline.

Proposed Projects

Before a project can begin, it must be fully funded and have an in-house project manager or design consultant assigned to it. Projects that don’t have full funding or designer or design staff assigned are listed in the Proposed Projects tab. If a project is included on this list, NYC Parks is not actively working on this project yet.

Partner Projects

Not all projects on parkland are managed by NYC Parks. Other agencies, such as the NYC Department of Design and Construction, or nonprofit organizations, such as the Prospect Park Alliance, the NYC Economic Development Corporation, or the Wildlife Conservation Society, will manage some projects on Parks’ behalf. We’ve included a list of the active projects managed by our partners and provide a link to their websites for additional information.

Completed Projects

After an NYC Parks-managed project is completed in construction, it moves from the Active Projects tab to the Completed Projects tab on the tracker.

In Fiscal Year 2023, Parks completed 154 projects, which took an average of 3.8 years to complete. This average completion time reflects the types of projects Parks completes each year. For example:

Larger and more complex projects often include a greater number of permits and coordination with other City, State, and Federal agencies, as well as utility companies. Permit applications, approvals, compliance, and coordination can add significant time to the capital process.
Work Order contracts often have multi-year construction durations to allow Parks to respond quickly to more ongoing capital needs.

Schedule Changes

In design, some of the common reasons why a completion date may change are:

Scope or funding are added to a project
Design changes due to comments from other government agencies or the public
Design changes due to field conditions found during site testing
It was in the City's best interest to reject all bids received in procurement and to return the project to design before resoliciting bids.

In procurement, some of the common reasons why a completion date may change are:

The vendor, project or contract documents are under review
The agency is securing additional funding to award the contract
It was in the City’s best interest to extend the bid solicitation period

In construction, some of the common reasons why a completion date may change are:

Design errors or omissions
Unexpected field conditions
Changes in the scope of the project
Change Order Approvals
Coordination with utility companies
Inclement weather

Funding Changes

Some of the common reasons why the amount of funding may change are:

Scope or design changes due to comments from other government agencies or the public
Scope or design changes due to field conditions due found during site testing or unexpected field conditions found in construction
The lowest construction contractor’s bid exceeds the available budget
Change orders or overruns in construction

More information

In addition to the information in the tracker, here is further information on the capital process: