Battery Playscape

Complete, opened 2021 NYC Parks and The Battery Conservancy The Battery, southwest corner

A 1.5-acre flood-resilient playground replacing the one wrecked by Hurricane Sandy's floodwaters, at triple the size, with five ecological zones designed to absorb and withstand flooding. Included here as the tracked project that landed on the budget set at its groundbreaking, though it opened about nine months after the March 2021 completion NYC Parks projected.

$18M
first public estimate, Mar 2020
$18M
reported cost, Dec 2021
Mar 2021
completion promised at announcement
Dec 16, 2021
actual completion, 1 year late

Before the Playscape

The old playground in July 2019, and its site fenced for construction that August.

The old Battery playground in July 2019, empty, its rubber surface puddled around a dark climbing structure, benches along an iron fence and construction trailers under the trees behind
The playground the Playscape replaced, July 2019.
Black-screened construction fence around the playground site at the Battery in August 2019, The Battery's map sign hung on it, an empty sidewalk and curb ramp in front
Fenced, August 2019.

The schedule

2019202020212022AnnouncedActualAnnounced: Dec 2019 to Mar 2021Dec 2019Mar 2021Actual: Dec 2019 to Dec 16, 2021Dec 2019Dec 16, 20212019202020212022AnnouncedActualAnnounced: Dec 2019 to Mar 2021Dec 2019Mar 2021Actual: Dec 2019 to Dec 16, 2021Dec 2019Dec 16, 20212019202020212022Announced Dec 2019 to Mar 2021Announced: Dec 2019 to Mar 2021Actual Dec 2019 to Dec 16, 2021Actual: Dec 2019 to Dec 16, 2021

The construction window announced when the project was unveiled, against what actually happened.

Promised versus delivered

What was promised

  • A flood-resilient replacement for the Sandy-damaged playground
  • Triple the size of the playground it replaced
  • Five ecological play zones, from granite slides on the Bluff to salt-tolerant gardens in the Marsh

What happened

  • keptOpened December 16, 2021, at the promised $18.3M
  • keptDelivered at triple the previous playground's size, with all five ecological zones built
  • changedOpened about nine months after the March 2021 completion NYC Parks projected when construction began in December 2019; the agency's capital tracker notes that the completion date changed

Sources