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| Synthtic Turf Track And Field In Sara D. Roosevelt Park is opened Parks & Recreation Commissioner Adrian Benepe, Lower Manhattan Development Corporation President Stefan Pryor, Community Board 3 Chair David McWater, and I.S. 131 students and principal Jane Lehrac cut the ribbon on Hester & Canal Street Field in Sara D. Roosevelt Park. The $2.1 million project was funded through a Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) grant. Parks & Recreation landscape designer Nancy Prince and resident engineer William Leong created the design, which features a synthetic turf field and three-lane track that replaces the park's previous patched asphalt field. The Park's Canal and Chrystie Street entrance was also reconstructed, and new paths, benches, lighting, and decorative pavement were added. The site's perimeter fence and wall was also reconstructed. The landscape was updated with an expanded lawn, and new tree, shrub and perennial plantings to compliment the existing large plane trees. In May 2003, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Governor George Pataki announced the LMDC's allocation of $25 million to rejuvenate and create new green spaces throughout Lower Manhattan. Sara D. Roosevelt's reconstruction is one of thirteen Lower Manhattan sites Parks & Recreation has or intends to create or improve though this grant. The 7.85-acre park was named in 1934 after Sara Delano Roosevelt, mother of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The parkland was acquired by the City in 1929 for the purpose of widening Chrystie and Forsyth Streets and building low-cost housing, but was later set aside for “playgrounds and resting places for mothers and children.” The construction of the park in 1934 was the largest park project on the Lower East Side since the acquisition of Tompkins Square Park a century earlier. write your comments about the article :: © 2005 Construction News :: home page |