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Expanded Hunters Point South Park to Include Kayak Launch and Overlook

 The expansion will complete the space, the first portion of which opened in the summer of 2013.
Hunters Point South Park Plans
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HUNTERS POINT — The city will soon start construction on an expansion of Hunters Point South Park, which will include a kayak launch and a platform overlooking the East River, officials said this week.

Work on the park will start in late summer or early fall, according to officials from the city's Economic Development Corporation, which presented its plans at a meeting of the Hunters Point Parks Conservancy Monday.

The park will be expanded to run along the East River and Newtown Creek south of 54th Avenue, and will feature a 40-foot wide overlook that's elevated 35 feet above the water and offers a "dramatic vista."

"We predict [it's] going to be the most sought-after wedding photo location in all of New York," quipped one of the park's designer, Thomas Balsley, during the EDC's presentation.

Thomas Balsley Associates is designing the park with Weiss/Manfredi and ARUP. The expansion will complete Hunters Point South Park, the first portion of which opened in the summer of 2013.

While that part of the park was designed to be more active — with playgrounds, basketball courts and a dog run — the second phase is meant to be a quieter, contemplative space, officials said.

"It provides places where you can really kind of get away from the city," Balsley said.

The expanded park will also include a small tree-filled space, called "the peninsula," where a piece of permanent public art will be on display. The piece will be made up of seven concrete domes in a semi-circle that are meant to represent the phases of the moon.

Park-goers will be able to sit on the domes, which will be covered in a phosphorescent material "so in the evening they will have a subtle glow to them," Balsley said.

Other features include a kayak launch, an area with adult fitness equipment, a lawn for picnics and various walking paths, including ones that lead to the waterfront.

The park is part of the city's Hunters Point South affordable housing project, a mixed-use development that will eventually include up to 5,000 apartments and retail space on the Long Island City waterfront.

The project also includes building green space within the apartment complex, running perpendicular to the water on 55th Avenue, and will feature lawns and a play area for toddlers, according to the plans.

"There are a lot of experiences that we've programmed into this and designed into this park," Balsley said.

The EDC is also building with past experiences like Hurricane Sandy in mind, he said.

"We purposely set it at elevations and graded it, sloped it, so it would self-drain itself, so it wouldn’t catch water and stay flooded," Balsley said, when questioned by someone in the crowd about the park's resiliency. "It really was designed to be a buffer for the community."

The plans were met by mostly positive feedback from members of the park advocacy group at Monday night's meeting. Some suggestions from the group included a request for space where dogs could run off-leash, play equipment for older children and storage at the kayak launch where people could stash their boats.

Representatives from the EDC said they would take the community's input into account as well as relay the requests to the Parks Department, which will take over control of the park once it's built.

"I think it's really nice that it's been brought to the community again," said Mark Christie, vice president of the Hunters Point Parks Conservancy, who said he was involved in the original public discussions for the park that took place back in 2008.

"I'm particularly excited about the promontory," he said, referring to a piece of the park at its southern end that will include a knoll and a lawn overlooking the water.

"We know the raw space right now and it's really fabulous," he said. "It's going to be spectacular."

The park is expected to be completed by the end of 2018, officials said.