QUEENS — Part of a Forest Hills playground, which locals said has been neglected for years, will soon undergo a $2 million renovation that will bring two new sports fields to the neighborhood.
The Parks Department is planning an upgrade for World’s Fair Playground, located along the Grand Central Parkway, near 62nd Road, which was built in 1939 for the fair held at Flushing Meadows Corona Park.
The agency is planning to use the funds, provided by the Queens Borough President's office, to repave 1 acre of the playground which is currently an empty asphalt field and turn the space into a softball and youth soccer fields as well as a volleyball court, according to Lee Ann Beauchamp, city landscape architect with the Parks Department, who presented the plans to Community Board 6 last week.
The planned renovations will also bring a running track with distance markers, additional benches, a drinking fountain and new greenery that will help block noise from the nearby highway.
“The design is currently going through approvals and we expect to finalize design by this spring,” Meghan Lalor, a Parks spokeswoman, said in an email Friday. “Construction is expected to begin spring of 2018.”
The upgrade will also reconstruct drainage systems, renovate the fence and secure the slope along the Grand Central Parkway Service Road to prevent further erosion in the area, the agency said.
The playground has not undergone any substantial renovation since 1995, according to the Parks Department’s website.
“This park is very heavily used and it’s been neglected so this a start,” said Community Board 6 member Barbara Struchinski, who also serves as the president of the Forest Hills Civic Association.
Struchinski also pointed out that the revamp will only fix one portion of the playground.
“We have two more portions that have to be upgraded," she said.
The remaining portions of the playground feature a comfort station, swings for tots and kids as well as tennis and basketball courts.
Check out the entire renovation plan for World's Fair Playground here:
World's Fair Playground by DNAinfoNewYork on Scribd
