City Planning Facelift for Slope's J.J. Byrne Park

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Within the next few months the city is going to start a second round of community-based planning for a major overhaul to J.J. Byrne Park. The Parks Dept. is going to focus on revamping the main section of J.J. Byrne, near 5th Avenue between 3rd and 4th streets, with a view to starting work on the area by 2010. Listening sessions were held last year about how the space should change, and the result of that community input is rendered above by landscape architecture firm Abel Bainnson Butz. Residents called for the playground to be divided up into three age-specific areas (one for toddlers, one for elementary-age kids and the largest for junior high-ers) and for the entrance on 5th Avenue to come in the form of a tree-lined pathway. Altogether, the current conceptual plan involves a 65 percent increase in the park’s play area. Another idea for the park is to build a food kiosk near its center. Stone Park Cafe has expressed interest in running the concession stand. After the play area and entrance are overhauled, “the big dream,” according to Kim Maier, the executive director of the Old Stone House, is to build an annex for the structure. While planning is occurring for the 5th Avenue end of the park, meanwhile, work will begin to convert asphalt courts on the 4th Avenue side into synthetic ballfields. That part of J.J. Byrne’s redesign is expected to kick off at the end of August, and it’s start date is being timed to coincide with a ribbon-cutting for the new (and very overdue) Terrapin Playground, which is being redone in a private-public pact with the Novo’s developers.
Extreme Makeover for J.J. Byrne Park [Brownstoner]