Improving Neighborhood Parks: Epiphany Playground

NYC Parks and the Prospect Park Alliance have unveiled the design for the $2.9 million renovation of Epiphany Playground in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The Alliance provided pro-bono design services for the project, which is being funded through NYC Parks’ Community Parks Initiative (CPI) as well as through the support of Council Member Stephen Levin.

Epiphany Playground is the Alliance’s second design for NYC Parks’ Community Parks Initiative, a multi-faceted investment in smaller public parks located in dense and growing neighborhoods with higher-than-average concentrations of poverty.
The Alliance’s design renovates the space by adding new play equipment for children of all ages, a gentle water feature, a multipurpose free-play area and sport courts, including a junior-sized basketball court with an additional hoop for shooting practice and one handball court.

In order to make the Park more open and inviting, the design removes high shrubs along the fence line and replaces them with small trees, lower shrubs and perennials and adds a new entrance at Berry and South Tenth Streets. Bench seating and café-style tables will be placed throughout the playground, as well as two bottle-filler drinking fountains and new trash receptacles.

Street trees will be added on all three sides of the site to provide shade and create a green, inviting border. Additionally, security lighting will be added to improve site visibility and enhance safety throughout the evening hours. In collaboration with the NYC Department of Environmental Preservation, green infrastructure will also be installed to help capture stormwater runoff.

The project is scheduled to begin construction in 2017.