Playground design

The latest renderings for Pearl St. Playground show the active and passive recreation space the expanded park will add. The Parks Dept. will finish the design by the middle of the next month and close the park to start construction in the third quarter of this year. The park is scheduled to open in the fall of 2010. The city once wanted to turn the playground, which was not zoned as parkland, into an apartment tower, but after community objections the city agreed to expand the park with money from the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. as part of the redesign of Fulton St. Three other new or renovated parks in the neighborhood are planned to open over the next year and a half as well: DeLury Square Park in winter 2010, Titanic Park in spring 2010 and Burling Slip in summer 2010.