Harlem River Basketball

I have two projects right next to each other that both start construction on September 11. These are both for Parks.

The first is the Harlem River Basketball Courts, an interesting space that borders the Harlem River Drive (a major Manhattan highway) and the 3rd Avenue bridge (between Manhattan and the Bronx). It's mostly surrounded by an offramp linking the bridge to the highway.

















Here are some pictures of the existing situation... total budget $1m.


panoramic








the courts are not in very good shape...













...although people still use them anyway.















the rest of the site is not looking so hot either.












Here is my plan. It's reorganized to better accommodate large full courts, and the perimeter is substantially greened-up. Other site stuff (furniture, fences, etc) will of course be new -- including some new bleachers for watching tournaments.












next time: the baseball/soccer/football field next door

369th monument is in!

The monument itself has at last been installed, after sitting in France for several years and sitting in the Armory basement for several more. Here's how it went...

The monument was in four pieces, and had to be hauled out of the basement by forklift (the 369th allowed us to use their classic old lift).

































Once outside, a crane truck lifted each piece carefully and set it on the truck bed.

































The pieces were then trucked to the site and verrrry slowly offloaded, then stacked up like the towers of blocks that my daughter makes. There's a special kind of grout in between each piece to encourage them to stick together, and sealant between each piece to keep the water out.
















And that's it! It'll remain covered until the grand unveiling this fall. Now we just have to finish the rest of the site -- but the trickiest part is over.

369th concrete base in

Concrete bases for the pavement and curbs are now in. Also the foundation for the monument has been poured... you can only see the top part of it here, with the stainless steel dowels poking out, but underneath is a 5' cube of concrete and rebar.

Very good concrete work here, the contractor is doing a fine job so far. Nice crisp edges for the most part, and good finishes, especially considering nobody will ever see this once the granite pavement is on top. Apparently his laborers used to work on building apartment buildings, so they know a lot about concrete.




With the base in, you can start to get a more concrete idea (ha!) of how the axis will line up with the armory.

































They've also got the forms ready for the colored concrete curb and the steel-faced curb on the perimeter. Next up: installing the monument! We have to do that next so we don't tear up the finished site in the installation process.