Renovation Begins At Washington Heights Park

WASHINGTON HEIGHTS-INWOOD, NY — City officials broke ground Tuesday morning on a $3 million renovation project for Jacob K. Javits Playground in Washington Heights' Forty Tryon Park.

The playground — located above West 190th Street between Fort Washington Avenue and Cabrini Boulevard — will receive upgrades such as new basketball courts, fitness equipment for both youths and adults, a table games area, new play structures and two new swing sets, officials said Tuesday.

"With $3.1 million in funding we will totally revamp this entire play space, bringing new amenities requested directly by the community," Parks Commissioner Mitchell Silver said Tuesday.

"When complete you'll be amazed at how beautiful the Jacob K. Javits Playground will be, so I' m very excited as we're able to transform older — whether its a Robert Moses-era older playground — into modern play spaces for all generations."

Funding for the park's renovation was allocated by City Councilman Ydanis Rodrigue ($2.1 million), Borough President Gale Brewer ($600,000) and the Fort Tryon Park Trust ($350,000), Silver said. The new park is expected to debut in July of 2019, the commissioner said Tuesday.

The City Parks Department first revealed plans to revamp the Jacob K. Javits Playground in August of 2016 during a presentation to Community Board 12. The playground was identified in the department's Northern Manhattan master plan — created in 2010 — as lacking funding, parks officials said in 2016.

But even before the master plan was created in 2010, the community had been calling for an upgrade, Jeff Bauml of the Fort Tryon Park Trust said Tuesday.

"This project has been a long time in the making. The community has been advocating for Javits to be upgraded and made more effective for close to a decade. People of all ages and abilities need places to get fit — I for one cold definitely use it — and we need safe places to gather and connect."

The Fort Tryon Park Trust will order a "playground in a box" and move some of the programs held at Jacob K Javits Playground to a green space across the street currently used for ping pong, Bauml said Tuesday.

Photos by Brendan Krisel/Patch