PARKS
New Designs for Marsha P. Johnson State Park
Plans for Williamsburg space include commemorative plaques
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
After widespread communal
backlash, state
park honchos are overhauling
their designs
for Williamsburg’s Marsha P. Johnson
State Park and halting their
colorful tribute to the greenspace’s
LGBTQ namesake.
Meanwhile, almost four basketball
courts’ worth of greenery are
being added to the waterfront lawn
on Kent Avenue.
“We’ve had really great conversations
and just really appreciate
everybody’s passion for
joining in the project and this is
your park,” State Parks regional
director for New York City, Leslie
Wright, told Community Board
1’s Parks and Waterfront Committee
during a virtual meeting
May 5.
The new plans for the park between
N. Seventh and N. Ninth
streets follows widespread outcry
earlier this year by locals and
Johnson’s family against the agency’s
original plan, which included a
large colorful mural of the activist
splashed on one of the two signature
concrete slabs.
Residents and relatives at
the time said the Albany agency
was steamrolling its plans
in spite of local opposition,
with some Brooklynites likening
the scheme to little more than a
vanity project for Governor Andrew
Cuomo.
The agency briefl y halted construction
A rendering of the revised plans for Marsha P. Johnson State Park.
A bird’s-eye view of the proposed park design.
before launching a series
of nine in-person and virtual workshops
starting at the end of March
through May 3, along with an online
survey to gather feedback on
how to better the meadow’s look.
The new Marsha P. Johnson
State Park proposal by Manhattan
landscape architects Starr Whitehouse
swaps out the large painting
for a series of commemorative
plaques along the entrance at
North Eighth Street and a mosaic
of a poem written by Johnson leading
to the shoreline.
Parks will add some 18,000
square feet of greenery by shrinking
the concrete slabs. A slice of
space known as the Gantry Plaza,
which was originally supposed
to have large fl oral signs about
STARR WHITEHOUSE LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS AND PLANNERS
STARR WHITEHOUSE LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS AND PLANNERS
the LGTBQ rights struggle, will
become a more passive patch of
grass.
The greenspace gurus will also
install naturalistic elements like
log benches along the waterfront
and plant a series fl ower gardens
around a circular path.
The park remains under construction
and will wrap up in
June, with plans to open up the
space by the end August, according
to Wright.
Offi cials will meet with locals
again in the fall to discuss more
possible ways to commemorate
Johnson, such as a statue or a
public art work at the entrance to
the park.
May 20 - June 2,26 2021 | GayCityNews.com
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