Latest news with #DavisCenter
Bloomberg
10-05-2025
- Sport
- Bloomberg
A New Central Park Amenity, Tailored to Its East Harlem Neighbors
When McKenzie Lewis turned 7 years old, she found her love for figure skating. She took her first skate steps on the Lasker Rink, a run-down skating and pool facility built in the 1960s, located near the northern neck of Central Park's East Harlem entrance. Her neighbors swam and skated there too, even though the facility itself was slightly shady, said Lewis's dad, William. 'It was a little disconnected to get to the park,' he says. 'Like you could take those walks but it's like you were looking over your shoulder a bit.' What replaced Lasker this week — the new Davis Center at the Harlem Meer — is, by William's account, 'a breath of fresh air for the community.' A pool in the summer, a rink in the winter and synthetic turf for a picnic spread in the months between, the Davis Center marries the concept of three buildings into one. Designed with the East Harlem community at its heart, this 34,000-square-foot reinvention of a once-crumbling facility is more than a makeover; it's a restoration of trust.
New York Times
05-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
A Project to Be Proud of at Central Park's Northern Tip
Good morning. It's Monday. Today we'll look at the transformation of the northernmost part of Central Park. And tomorrow, keep an eye on your inbox. The Times will begin a limited-run newsletter focused on the race for mayor in New York City. Our politics team will bring you a weekly digest of news, trends and observations about the Democratic primary next month. Early voting begins in just 40 days. Last month the $160 million Davis Center at the Harlem Meer opened — a new swimming pool, skating rink and community hub on six remade acres at the north end of Central Park. Michael Kimmelman, The Times's architecture critic, says it's a significant change for the park, which is a barometer of New York's shifting fortunes. I asked him to explain. You called this huge project an 'act of civic reparation.' How so? It's in Harlem, at the north end of the park, which had become very decrepit and crime-ridden during the later decades of the last century. So Davis represents the final step in a long-term effort to restore dignity, beauty and order to that area. And it's also an attempt to restore something of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux's original vision, from the mid-19th century, which imagined the northern park as a bucolic retreat. Davis doesn't quite do that. Times change. The park now has to serve many purposes. But it finds a way to return some of the pastoral ambition of the original plan and also meet the needs of a population that depends on having a pool and skating rink. It's a great example of how landscape architecture needs to adapt and reflect a changing city and society, which is why it is also tied up with race and the history of Harlem. These are all inseparable issues when you're talking about critical public spaces like Central Park in a city like New York. You look to 1989 as a crucial year. Why? In mid-April of that year, on the same night that a Black woman was raped and thrown off a roof in Brooklyn, a woman jogging near the Meer was raped and brutally beaten. Five Black and Latino teenagers were arrested, convicted and imprisoned for the crime, which they did not commit. The north part of the park became synonymous with the racial unrest in the city. That year was a nadir. Afterward, attempts began to turn that part of the park around, to clean the Meer, to redo playgrounds and integrate them with the original landscape. The last step, now just completed, was to replace Lasker Pool, a hulking pool that could convert to a skating rink in winter, with Davis, which involves not just a new pool and a pavilion but a relandscaping of several acres. The pavilion is tucked into a hill, so it feels much less like an urban intrusion than Lasker was, more like a part of nature. You talked to Yusef Salaam, one of the teenagers who was convicted in the 1989 attack. He is now a member of the City Council, representing the district that includes the north end of the park. What did he say about how Davis differs from what used to be there? Salaam pointed out that often change is seen as gentrifying — 'exclusionary' was the word he used. But he suggested that when something new and good like Davis comes along, people should 'receive the goodness because when you give yourself the opportunity to participate in something good, you give yourself permission to lead a full life — to find a way forward.' I think that is what a project like Davis means in a larger sense. It is an opportunity for people who use it and for all New Yorkers to see a way forward. That's certainly not what Lasker was. Lasker wasn't maintained. There were many things that brought on the park's decline, and they all worked together in the way that happens when cities are in free fall. With the financial crisis of the '70s, that northern part of the park was virtually abandoned by the city. As a consequence, it also became a center of crime. It's easy to ruin things quickly. It takes ages to fix them. This effort has taken more than a generation. How different is it from what Olmsted and Vaux originally had in mind for that part of the park? Their idea was that this area would be a complex landscape of meandering paths, hills, forests and waterways — a diverse and seemingly natural creation, although everything in Central Park is constructed and designed. Many people don't realize that now. They think the park, or bucolic parts of it, like the north end, with its lake and woods, are the remains of untouched Mannahatta, from precolonial days. But every one of those streams and forests and meadows and lakes was created. It was part of a democratic vision of Olmsted and Vaux to make it seem naturalistic. Central Park was a retreat from the hardships of the urban grid. It was a place for everyone. And they planned the north end of the park to be rustic. Right. They conceived it around the Harlem Meer, which linked to a loch and a ravine, which they constructed through the north woods, which they planted. All of this was a sequence of nature that approximated the Adirondacks or some rural stretch of the Hudson Valley. But as the city grew, pressures on the park increased to serve more people and purposes. And when Robert Moses became head of the parks department in the 1930s, the push was toward adding recreational spaces, so the pastoral idea was replaced by a variety of playgrounds, ball fields and hardscaping. The lake was surrounded by a concrete border. That end of the park became increasingly urbanized. The culmination in the 1960s was the building of the Lasker Pool, a behemoth tucked into the ravine, which plugged up the waterway. It was very popular in the neighborhood because kids could go there and cool off or, in the winter, learn to skate. But Lasker was not well built. It leaked. The upshot was it was always a place in need of repair, rundown and poorly maintained. It was important to the community in Harlem, but not really worthy and forbidding, done on the cheap, which sent a message about how the city feels about the people who depend on it. Davis is an attempt to send an opposite message. Can the city maintain Davis? Works of architecture are always subject to the vagaries of fate and politics. We'll see what the economic situation for the city is in the coming years. Lasker wasn't built in the '60s to anticipate the near-bankruptcy of the '70s. That said, it makes a difference when something is well done and people who use it feel respected and dignified by association with it. These places tend to be more cared for. It's not a guarantee. But investing the kind of money and care that has gone into Davis often translates into civic pride and ownership. That's an important message today, when the city needs signs of progress and hope. And there's no place more central to the soul of New York than Central Park. Expect a rainy Monday with the possibility of a thunderstorm and a high temperature around 64. The rain will continue tonight, when the low will be around 58. In effect until May 26 (Memorial Day). The latest Metro news Unacceptable Dear Diary: I went to a new bagel store in Brooklyn Heights with my son. When it was my turn to order, I asked for a cinnamon raisin bagel with whitefish salad and a slice of red onion. The man behind the counter looked up at me. 'I'm sorry,' he said. 'I can't do that.' — Richie Powers Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and read more Metropolitan Diary here. Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B. P.S. Here's today's Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here. Stefano Montali and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at nytoday@ Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox.
Yahoo
27-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Central Park welcomes new pool and ice-skating rink as part of major renovation
NEW YORK (PIX11) — When was the last time you heard about a spanking new facility in Central Park? And this time it is happening in Harlem. New Yorkers will now have a new pool to swim in and a new rink to ice skate on. More Local News And lots of other activities for every different season. It's been called the intersection of nature and community here in Central Park's north end. It was opening day at the Davis Center at the Harlem Meer. In celebration of this $160 million renovation project, there was a community celebration featuring live music and family activities. The Central Park Conservancy called this its most significant and complex project since it opened in 1980. 'We have a whole mix of programs for the month of May,' Leah Van Horn, the senior vice president of the Central Park Conservancy, told PIX11 News. 'We have yoga, family movie nights,' she added. The festivities took place on what is being called the Harlem Oval, which has artificial turf in the Spring and Fall. Underneath the turf will be the Gottesman pool in the summer, free and able to serve 1,000 swimmers at a time. In the winter, there'll be a free ice-skating rink. 'When the Central Park Conservancy proposed this idea, we wanted to make sure it was in lockstep with the Harlem community,' Darline Lalanne, the director of public programming and general manager of the Davis Center, told PIX11 News. And even though it was a slightly cloudy, sometimes drizzling day, there were rave reviews from the thousands who attended. 'I am glad it is finally open,' Laura Allen, a Harlem resident, told PIX11 News. 'It's been a struggle for a few years since the Lasker rink closed,' she added. Another parent, Greg McDonald, said: 'It's pretty awesome.' The next big event here at the Davis Center will be the opening of the brand new swimming pool in late June. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
