This summer, a group of students from the Design Workshop at the School of Constructed Environments at Parsons The New School for Design are reconstructing and enclosing the lobby at the historic Highbridge Pool and Recreation Center. Every year, the Design Workshop provides pro bono architectural and construction services to nonprofit organizations all the while giving graduate architecture students the rare opportunity to both design and build a community facility.
This year, Parsons DWS has worked with NYC Parks & Recreation and the City Parks Foundation to design and construct Highbridge in_flux. Currently, the recreation center is a open-air structure and in the winter months the children in the afterschool program have to put on their coats to move from one part of the facility to the other. The new space created by this project will unify the Highbridge Pool and Recreation Center, breathing new life into a community that needs a better functioning year-round public recreation center. This new "living room" provides a conditioned programmable space that is to be the heart of the center and the Highbridge community.