Parks Without Borders

Making our parks more open and welcoming

Through Parks Without Borders, we're reimagining the role of parks in communities by redesigning where they meet the streets and sidewalks. As part of OneNYC, Mayor Bill de Blasio has dedicated $50 million to the program to:

Make parks more accessible and welcoming to everyone

Improve neighborhoods by extending the beauty of parks out into communities

Create vibrant public spaces by transforming underused areas

How it Works

With the Parks Without Borders approach, we are making parks more open, welcoming, and beautiful by improving entrances, edges, and park-adjacent spaces. We'll make entrances easier to find, the edges of our parks greener, add furnishing, programming, and amenities, and improve sight lines to make our parks safer. Visit our How It Works page to learn more.

Showcase Projects

In winter 2015-16, we asked park goers to help us choose the eight parks that would benefit most from the Parks Without Borders approach to design. New Yorkers across the city commented on parks in every borough, sharing insights on their local parks. We collected more than 6,100 suggestions for improving 692 parks, which is more than a third of the parks and playgrounds in the city!

We listened to your feedback and ideas for improving the edges of your community’s parks, and selected eight parks across the city that all received significant community support. We will make each of these parks more vibrant and connected to the community.

The winning parks are:

Van Cortlandt Park, Bronx
Hugh Grant Circle / Virginia Park and Playground, Bronx
Fort Greene Park, Brooklyn
Prospect Park, Brooklyn
Jackie Robinson Park, Manhattan
Seward Park, Manhattan
Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens
Faber Park, Staten Island

Visit our Parks Without Borders Showcase Projects page to find out more about the winning projects, and to learn more about the park selection process.

Integrating Parks Without Borders

The design principles behind Parks Without Borders are also being incorporated into our other projects where opportunities arise. Find out how we're Integrating Parks Without Borders into capital projects across the city.