Building Green

The Parks Department is working to make sure its parks are built as green as possible. From using concrete and recycled plastic instead of tropical hardwood on our many boardwalks to developing sustainability guidelines with the Design Trust for Public Space to implementing stormwater management designs, we are constantly reevaluating the materials we use to ensure that we are caring for and building our parks in a sustainable way.

Here you can learn about a few ways in which Parks is building its parks greener.

Boardwalks

The Parks Department manages some of the most iconic boardwalks in the world, including Brooklyn’s Coney Island Boardwalk, Staten Island’s FDR Boardwalk, and the Queens’ Rockaway Beach Boardwalk. In total, there are about nine miles, or two million square feet, of boardwalk in New York City.

Because of the harsh oceanfront environment, constant foot traffic from New Yorkers and tourists, and wear from emergency and maintenance vehicles, the boardwalks require a lot of maintenance. In the past, Parks used lumber harvested from the tropical rainforests in South America to build and repair the boardwalks. However, in an effort to be more environmentally-friendly and reduce the City’s demand for wood from tropical rainforests, Parks is now designing and constructing boardwalks using greener materials such as concrete and recycled plastic lumber.

We are currently conducting pilot projects using these greener materials in the Coney Island, Rockaway Beach, and FDR boardwalks. Work is underway at Coney Island between Stillwell Avenue and West 12th Street and at the Steeplechase Pier. We expect the next phases of this project, including Rockaway Beach between Beach 55th Street and Beach 60th Street, and the FDR Boardwalk near Sand Lane, to begin this summer.

By using concrete and recycled plastic in place of tropical hardwood, we estimate that we can spare approximately 390 square miles of rainforest every 20 years. Also, these new materials may last up to five times longer than traditional wooden boardwalks, with little or no maintenance, saving the City time and money in the long run.

Sustainability Guidelines

The Parks Department's Capital team is partnering with the Design Trust for Public Space to develop guidelines for sustainable park construction. Park Design for the 21st Century: High Performance Landscape Guidelines will serve as our guide for conceiving and building green spaces. The manual will offer instructions on

• assessing sites holistically,
• integrating green construction and maintenance into park design, and
• facilitating the interconnectivity of soil, water, and vegetation to increase the resilience, vigor, and maintainability of parks.

Storm Water

In a natural environment, rainwater infiltrates the soil, replenishes groundwater, and supplies vegetation with water. In an urban area, because of the vast amount of impervious surfaces like cement, asphalt, and concrete, rainwater cannot infiltrate into the soil. When rainwater is not absorbed, it stays on the surface, generating runoff, which can cause erosion, lead to flooding, and overwhelm the storm water collection system.

Parks can play a critical role in alleviating stormwater runoff in New York City. Together with the Mayor’s Office of Long-term Planning and Sustainability, Parks is installing sample stormwater management practices, like building rain gardens, creating larger planting beds, and planting more shade trees.

Parks’ Greenstreets program also plays a critical role in alleviating water runoff. Launched in 1996, Greenstreets is a citywide program to convert paved, vacant traffic islands and medians into green spaces filled with shade trees, flowering trees, shrubs, and groundcover. Greenstreets are a great way to reduce runoff because rainwater is absorbed by the soil and naturally irrigates the plants and trees in the Greenstreet.

Recognizing the benefits of using Greenstreets to help with water runoff, Parks is now designing Greenstreets with channels to accept runoff water from the street. The plants in these Greenstreets are often healthier because they get water directly from the soil.

Related Information

Capital Projects Division