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Seward Park Building

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Information about this lot

Address: (street address unknown), Manhattan
Area: 0.06 acres (2710 square feet)

Political Boundaries

City Council District 1 represented by Christopher Marte
Community District Manhattan 3 ( info@cb3manhattan.org / 212-533-5300 ), district manager: Susan Stetzer
Find all elected officials for this lot at Who Represents Me? NYC

Why is this lot here?

We think this lot is vacant because:

  • The lot was added manually by site admins.

Government Agency

New York City Department of Parks & Recreation - building (public)
Contact: Sabina Saragoussi, Director, Partnerships For Parks (ssaragoussi@cityparksfoundation.org)

You can use this form to suggest uses that the community actually wants to see as concessions in this building:
https://www.nycgovparks.org/opportunities/concessions/suggest-idea

NYC Parks will consider your fantastic ideas and you should also share them as notes below and become an Organizer so you can connect with others to make the futures we imagine real! Keep in mind that NYC Parks isn't going to do your project for you.

Opening buildings costs money and NYC Parks' has a limited budget. Here is a great guide to how to get money for your NYC Parks building stewardship project, created by the Center for Urban Pedagogy, New Yorkers for Parks and Partnerships for Parks: http://welcometocup.org/file_columns/0000/0613/improve_my_park.pdf. Follow the tips for "Capital Projects."

Getting your Council Member on board is key: they have money to give out every year via their discretionary budget; some Members allocate some of their discretionary money to Participatory Budgeting: https://council.nyc.gov/pb/. You can get involved to get the word out about the need to re-activate the building you want to steward.

The building might be landmarked. If it is, any work will need to comply with these rules: http://www1.nyc.gov/site/lpc/applications/applications.page

News feed

Add a note file photo
July 8, 2016, 1:54 p.m.
paula at 596 acres said

Community Board 3's 2017 District Needs statement (http://www.nyc.gov/html/mancb3/downloads/cb3docs/fy_2017_needs_statement.pdf) included this, on page 11:

Some Parks Department buildings in our community are used as store houses for citywide Parks operations. CB 3 already has so few community facilities, our local park houses should not bear this unfair burden for other neighborhoods.
 The Seward Park building, as detailed in the Hester Street Collaborative report, should be utilized for community programs since it provides an all-weather round program space.
July 7, 2016, 2:38 p.m.
paula at 596 acres uploaded
Study of Adaptive Reuse of Buildings in CD3 From the document, which is linked above: Executive Summary In March 2013, American Asians for Equality (AAFE) and Hester Street Collaborative tasked Pratt Institute’s Fundamentals of Planning Seminar & Studio students with studying potential uses for three underutilized buildings in Manhattan Community District 3 (Manhattan CD 3) Lower East Side and Chinatown communities. The buildings include: the Stanton Street Building at Sara D. Roosevelt Park, Comfort Station on Delancey Street, and the Seward Park building. The clients requested recommendations for potential uses, community partnerships, programming, and implementation to address the needs of the area’s youth. Click above to read the rest of the report.
July 6, 2016, 11:02 p.m.
paula at 596 acres posted
July 6, 2016, 11:02 p.m.
paula at 596 acres posted
July 6, 2016, 11:02 p.m.
paula at 596 acres posted
July 6, 2016, 11:01 p.m.
paula at 596 acres said

The roof is currently being renovated. Here is the tracker for that: https://www.nycgovparks.org/planning-and-building/capital-project-tracker/project/6260

The roof should be done soon but this building has not been open to the public in years and it is not clear that there is any plan to re-open it once the roof work is completed.