Replacement of grass will mean year-round use.
The battered 11,500-square-foot lawn in Battery Park City’s West Thames Street Park, along West Street between Albany and Third Place, will finally bare the scars of heavy use no more. This fall, work to replace the lawn with artificial turf will begin, the Battery Park City Authority announced last week.
“The idea behind that is that there would be a play space available year-round in the south neighborhood,” Robin Forst, the authority’s spokeswoman, told Community Board 1’s Battery Park City Committee. “It should be a really great amenity.”
The authority will soon issue a request for proposals seeking a contractor to complete the work, Forst said. The lawn is expected to be closed in October and returned to use by the spring of 2016.
The lawn is part of the 43,000-square-foot, $9.4 million park that opened in May 2010 as a redesign of what formerly was called Tire Swing Park. The park includes a dog run, playground, toddler sand area, water play area, community gardens, and cobblestone seating.