By Scott Etkin
Riverside Park is one step closer to having a renovated River Run Playground, located in the park near West 82nd Street, with its namesake river intact.
On Monday afternoon, the city’s Public Design Commission (PDC) unanimously gave preliminary approval for the $9.8 million project, which upgrades the playground’s infrastructure, play equipment, and accessibility, without changing many of the elements that make it unique.
Last summer, Upper West Siders pushed back against the NYC Parks Department’s initial plans to remove the distinctive river – or “runnel,” in the park’s terminology – that’s in the center of the playground.
“We reached out to the community to get extensive feedback from the local community, from [Community Board 7], and from Riverside Park Conservancy, to look at reincorporating these wonderful…playful features that were very much a component of the original 1990s design,” said Margaret Bracken, project manager for NYC Parks, during this week’s PDC meeting.
Other notable elements of the playground will be preserved, including the Robert Moses-era decorative steel gate at the entrance and the sculptural sandbox by local artist Gerry Lynas. Lynas is not involved in the renovation, but he spoke as a member of the public during the meeting.
“I want to commend the group for what appears to be a very sensitive renovation of a beautiful playground where all of my children grew up and where I’ve gone many, many times to enjoy watching children playing in my sculpture,” Lynas said.
Lynas’ only question was about the addition of a small footbridge for children over the runnel, which he thought was unnecessary and might block toys floating in the water, leading to an overflow. The project’s architect said the elevation of the bridge wasn’t determined and is something that would be looked into.
River Run Playground, located between West 81st and 83rd streets, dates back to the 1930s and was last renovated in 1999. Its aging infrastructure has led to flooding from drainage problems. There are also tripping hazards where the roots of mature trees have lifted up the pavement.
The new designs aim to mitigate flooding by increasing the permeability of the playground’s ground surfaces from 2.5% to 17.3%. The renovation will also improve drainage under the sandbox, which currently does not have an underdrain.
In response to input from the community, the designs call for two picnic areas, as well as an emphasis on climbing structures in the new play equipment. In a reversal from the original plans, the renovated playground will have two seesaws – updated models that are considered safer than River Run’s current ones.
The playground’s bathrooms are not part of the scope of work for the renovation, though the entrance to the bathroom building will be brought into compliance with ADA accessibility standards.
In addition to PDC’s approval, the preliminary designs have already received approval from the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission. The project is still in the design phase, meaning it is still likely more than a year away from breaking ground.
Read more: UWS River Run Playground May Keep Its River After All
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Great progress on the design, it is exciting! It’s great to hear such good listening to the feedback on the initial design.
But also such a disappointment at 10 million doesn’t even get new bathrooms for the space.
I’m all in favor, and maybe I don’t have a complete understanding of modern construction costs, but $9.8 million seems a bit high. Am I wrong, or is that what things cost now, and is the burden of working with the city is what drives up costs?
At this pace, $127 billion is not going to be enough.
Glad they are keeping the river however.
This playground is fine…$10 million??? Surely this city has more pressing needs
It does. But then $10 million + (in reality, multiples and multiples of that) is wasted through fraud, graft, “overtime” and “sick pay”, “mental health” fraud schemes, etc. etc. So that’s where we should start, not by neglecting or cutting playground funding.
What’s your data showing those figures on waste?
LOL.
Great article – thank you for the update. One question that isn’t answered – will this be done in stages or will the whole playground be closed while they are doing this?
I greatly appreciate that they sought public feedback and implemented it. This is how these things should work. You’re never going to make everyone happy but this seems like a big step in the right direction.
I spent countless happy hours in this playground. My kids have now aged out but I think it is a treasure and I’m glad future generations will be able to enjoy it.
This playground is a great example of how broken this city is. How could a brief for this project and then the resulting initial design not have a river which is a defining feature of the playground? Incompetence. When/if the Dino playground gets redone will there be no dinosaurs? There is also no creativity in the design or the features in the play areas. It is prefab play equipment! How all of this gets to $10M is a mystery. Have these people ever been to Jardin du Luxembourg or Princess Diana playgrounds? For this amount of money we should be getting something with at least a bit of creativity.
For this money, we should be getting SEVERAL playgrounds.
10 Million and they can’t find space in the budget to update the bathrooms?? Well then.
Why aren’t there open bids for these projects. I am sure someone could d this work for a few hundred thousand.
Good question & great idea.
$9,800,000.00 ($ ten million by the time it is finished), and doesn’t even include the bathrooms! In whose pockets is this going? Renovation and redesign, okay, but the outrageous pricetag must be reduced.
I’m guessing Robert Moses spent less than that to build all of the playgrounds on the UWS from scratch.
At least put toilet seats over the toilet bowls. It’s hard to toilet train children if they have to squat. I am referring to the girls’ side.
expected construction start = spring 2027
expected completion date = fall 2029
actual completion date = spring 2035
it saddens me to think that my son will likely never remember playing in this playground.
too pessimistic?
Although it may be true that “too many cooks spoil the both” in many cases, sometimes having multiple voices leads to good design and redesign.
I grew up in this playground (long before it had all the new elements), and watched as it morphed into its current design. (Full Disclosure: I have known Mr. Lynas for over 55 years.) I am so glad to hear that the vast majority of stakeholders are satisfied with the redesign, and that the DOP actually “did the right thing” here.
“ We reached out to the community to get extensive feedback from the local community, from [Community Board 7], and from Riverside Park Conservancy, to look at reincorporating these wonderful…playful features that were very much a component of the original 1990s design,”
This isn’t exactly. True. It was public pushback over the original plans to eliminate virtually every great thing about river run that forced them to redraw the plans. I’m glad I made those signs and helped get dozens of people to write letters…. In the end I’m grateful they listened to the feedback they received but I’m dumbfounded about the cost. And the fact they can’t even renovate the bathrooms…
I hope it won’t be closed long. For 10 million they should be able to do it in a month.