Chelsea Waterside Playground Re-Opens With $3.4M Makeover

CHELSEA, NY — A new playground with a massive wooden jungle gym snaking through the grounds has re-opened in Chelsea Waterside Park after a $3.4 million makeover.

The 11-month renovation transformed the 18-year-old playground at 23rd Street and 11th Avenue into a vibrant play area equip with several water features, a sand area with oyster shells and centers on a giant multi-colored pipefish, which are native to the Hudson River.

It's an overhaul aimed at reimagine what a New York City playground can be, said the head of the Hudson River Park Trust, which spearheaded the revamp.

"I think kids are just going to want to come here because it’s not like anything else," Madelyn Wils, the president and CEO of the Hudson River Park Trust, told Patch. "You don’t see this in New York City parks, so we’re doing something a little different here."

Landscape architecture firm Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates designed the 17,000-square-foot playground, which was originally envisioned as a massive eel wrapping around a fire hydrant, according to Greg Wasserman, a capital campaign co-chair for the Chelsea Waterside Park's committee with the Hudson River Park Trust.

The park's focal point is a hulking yellow, blue and orange pipefish, with a seahorse head and serpent body, that was designed and built by Danish company Monstrum. In the center of the playground, the fish is wrapped around a tower with a spiral staircase and a slide wide enough for two to go down side-by-side.

It seems like something out a fairytale, according to one six-year-old who was clambering up the pipefish on opening day in a hot-pink bathing suit after running through the sprinklers.

"It's amazing," shouted Lily Beckinsale, who lives in Chelsea and was visiting the playground with her mother, from inside the wooden sea creature. "It's like a magic place with giant fish!"

Aside from creating a child's wonderland, the park provides sorely needed recreational space for the booming neighborhood, said the co-chairman for Community Board 4's Waterfront, Parks and Environment committee.

“The old park was loved to death and as we have more and more families in Chelsea we need to have a space for them," Lowell Kern told Patch. "Historically, we had the least amount of green space in the city in this neighborhood and we’ve made great progress in changing that."

The space also boasts remnants from the neighborhood, such as a pair of limestone bovine busts that were originally mounted on the New York Butchers' Dressed Meat Company building on 11th Avenue between 39th and 40th streets. The structure was razed in 1991 to make way for an office building.

Granite seating blocks were also re-purposed from an arch at the nearby Pier 54, which was most notably the arrival point for the Titanic's survivors aboard the RMS Carpathia.

Now that the playground is complete, local parks leaders have set their sights set on revamping the dog run and picnic area on the southern portion of the Chelsea Waterside Park. The Hudson River Park Trust aims to put out a project request for proposal this fall and begin the design process early 2019, Wils told Patch.

Funds for the project were raised by the Hudson River Park Friends Playground Committee and also with help from a slew of elected officials, including City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, State Senator Brad Hoylman, State Assemblyman Richard Gottfried and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer.

Visitors can enjoy the playground seven days a week from 6 a.m. to dusk.

Photos courtesy of Caroline Spivack/Patch