Prospect Park Alliance and NYC Parks are breaking ground on a restoration of the Flatbush Avenue perimeter, and unveil a design for the new entrances.
The project will include a $3.2 million construction of two new entrances funded by NYC Parks “Parks Without Borders” Program and a $2.4 million restoration of Flatbush Avenue perimeter funded by Borough President Eric L. Adams and Majority Leader Laurie A. Cumbo.
On April 26, 2018, Prospect Park Alliance President Sue Donoghue, NYC Parks Commissioner Mitchell J. Silver, FAICP, Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams, and NYC Council Majority Leader Laurie A. Cumbo celebrated the start of construction and restoration. The project will sustain and restore the northeast corner of the park, which includes a community outreach initiative to re-envision the park’s former Rose Garden, and restoration of its woodlands.
“I am so excited to have been able to work with Borough President Eric Adams to see our vision to create a world-class entrance way come to fruition,” said New York City Council Majority Leader Laurie A. Cumbo. “The pedestrian-friendly design will encompass increased lighting and enhanced landscaping that is so fitting of Prospect Park and will also create a safer and more accessible perimeter along Flatbush Avenue that will welcome Brooklynites and visitors alike, to one of the most beautiful parks in the nation.”
Currently, (as seen in the three photographs below), the narrow, 20-foot-wide sidewalk has few functioning street lights, heavily cracked pavement, sparse and unhealthy street trees, and an incomplete and deteriorating iron fence along the park.
Following the original design of the park’s creators, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, the sidewalk will be expanded into a 30-feet-wide promenade. The Alliance will remove invasive plants that have overtaken the area, and plant native species of trees to create an allée reflecting Olmsted’s design. The Alliance will also install new decorative fencing, lighting and furnishings to provide a welcoming and inviting pedestrian experience. Construction is expected to be completed by fall 2018.
The entrances will feature new lighting, seating and trees, as well as new landscaping. The major entrance will align with a future DOT traffic signal and pedestrian crosswalk, intersecting a berm retained by a three-foot-high granite wall.
The north end of the wall will open onto two levels of terraced seating that provides views of the surrounding woodlands. Stepping stones will lead to an informal running trail that sits atop the berm. On the opposite side of the entrance, the wall ends in a rock scramble of boulders sourced from the building site of nearby NewYork-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital. Settees will be installed along the paths and between the boulders.
Additional improvements to the area include $2 million in funding from the Office of Mayor Bill de Blasio to enable the Alliance to restore approximately 1,200 linear feet of paths, replace park benches and add more lighting in the park’s northeast corner. Construction is slated to begin in fall 2018 and be completed by fall 2019.