Fort Greene

Workers Busy Revamping Fort Greene’s Long-Shuttered BAM Park After Years of Delay

The 14,000-square-foot triangular park bordered by Fulton Street, Lafayette Avenue and St. Felix Street has been padlocked since 2005.

by Craig Hubert

05/30/2019 3 minute 0

In recent weeks, crews have been digging up the entire piece of land that comprises Fort Greene’s BAM Park.

The 14,000-square-foot triangular park bordered by Fulton Street, Lafayette Avenue and St. Felix Street is dangerously unstable, according to the city, and has been padlocked since 2005.

Plans to revamp the park have been in the works for years. The park is owned by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development and is being developed by the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership. In 2014, the city issued a request for proposals to fix up the park and selected landscape architect Quennell Rothschild & Partners.

Renderings for the project show more open space, sans the gate that currently surrounds the park. It adds more seating and an elevated stage for performances, located at the tip of the park where Fulton and Lafayette meet.

Renovation work began, after a long delay, at the end of 2018, the city announced at the time.

The park was completed in the fall of 1984, according to the New Times. In 1978, a building on the site, whose address was 634 Fulton Street, was cited by the city as “unsafe.”

In June 2018, the park was cleaned up for a scene in “She’s Gotta Have It,” the Netflix television series produced by Spike Lee and based on his 1986 film of the same name. After shooting, the park was mistakenly left open, which led residents to start using the park before it was shut down once again.