Sustaining downtown sports

Battery Park City Sustainable Synthetic Turf Ball Fields

Sitting between Warren and Murray Streets, the Battery Park City Ball Fields were built in 2003 as an urban recreation haven where the community could play in the shadow of Lower Manhattan’s skyscrapers. But new construction meant this public-access recreational spot was losing daylight hours, and those remaining hours had heavy demand—a big problem for natural grass. Our challenge was to rebuild the fields in the most sustainable way possible and to reorient them for maximum space. Every extra square foot of green counted as one more child who could play.

Synthetic turf was our answer. But it wasn’t just any market-brand turf. Our landscape architects and civil engineers struck up a conversation with our sustainability analysts and toxicologists. Together, they created a combined turf system not available in the marketplace. This custom system will be 100 percent recyclable at the end of its useful life.

That turf, plus our stormwater design (with a storage tank and diversely planted bioswale), upgraded the Battery Park City ball fields into a great addition for public sports in New York City. The park now features two little league fields designed back-to-back, with enough space to allow for a soccer field to be overlaid. These improvements give the park great flexibility and a brighter future.