Washington Market Park Scores with Colorfully Refurbished Courts

The newly refurbished basketball and tennis courts, part of Washington Market Park. Before these courts were built by the city's Parks Department, in 1982, the first courts were located within the yet-to-be redesigned main park to the east. Photo: Linda Buongermino 

Two Tribeca courts, one basketball, the other tennis, took on new looks and some needed revamping this month, giving an added sheen to the neighborhood’s jewel of public space, Washington Market Park.

The $70,000 renovation and bold repainting of the basketball court surfaces, walls and hoops—plus artwork—got a big ceremonial kickoff on Sept. 8, in part due to the private funding by the Danish menswear company, Le Deux. “This is the global meeting the local. It’s all coming together,” the Parks Department’s Manhattan Borough Commissioner Anthony Perez said at the ribbon cutting.

The court is one of 44 around the city that has been refurbished under the Parks Department’s 7-year-old Creative Courts Initiative, a partnership with organizations to renovate courts with new surfaces and murals. 

Despite all the colorful additions to the court, it was the added three-point line that most impressed Raheem Bhulyan, a Stuyvesant sophomore who tries to get to the court every day after school, if homework allows. “The new paint job looks good,” he added. “The court was a little rundown before so I’m glad that they fixed everything up.”

Will he play any better on it?

“I don’t know,” he said. “We’ll see.”

The tennis court got a long overdue resurfacing, its cracks patched, and now sporting a bright blue finish. Too bright for some players, however, were the newly painted white leaf Parks Department logos, painted within the areas of play that the agency now says it will remove.

“The fact that it’s so big and so white it does reflect into your eyes when you’re playing. “If they put it in the back of the court it wouldn’t be a problem.” said John Jones, a long-time leader in the Tribeca tennis community who complained to the Parks Department. He said he was first told that the city would not take on the cost of a repainting.

In addition, because the leaf logo had a different surface than the rest of the court, the ball “just has a mind of its own” when hitting it, said Rita Morris, who has been playing on the court for 12 years. “Otherwise,” she added, “I love what they did. It’s better than it was.”

After the Trib inquired about the issue, a Parks Deptartment spokeswoman said over the phone last week, “We’re going to repaint the tennis court and do our resurfacing all over again.” On Tuesday, Jones said he received confirmation that the logos will be painted over on Wednesday. Once that begins, the court is expected to be closed until Monday, Sept. 25, he said.