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From the
Daily NewsThe historic Forest Park Greenhouse, which grows plants and flowers that liven up concrete stretches in Queens and Brooklyn, is moving beyond its early 20th century roots.
A section of the greenhouse has just undergone a $3.8 million reconstruction that will increase its capacity and make it more environmentally-friendly.
The first stage of the renovation focused on two of the houses that were built in 1905 and designed by greenhouse experts of the time, Lord and Burnham.
“In those days it was a state-of-the-art facility and we lived with that system for over 100 years,” said Queens Parks Commissioner Dorothy Lewandowski. “It was a really old system, all with hand-operated window cranks and it was difficult to regulate the temperature.”
Those buildings were replaced with new structures boasting a computerized system that controls the heating and automatic window shades.
From
Lost in the Ozone:
Almost three years ago the Parks Dept started to renovate the Forest Park Greenhouse. Since that time time the glass panes were removed and the steel structure was left to rust by being left exposed to the elements. Recently, when I walked past the greenhouses I saw that the Parks Dept has wasted the original $200,000 that then-Council Member Joe Addabbo had allocated to the project and the remains of the original building has been torn down and a new structure has been financed by Council Member Elizabeth Crowley...
From
Lost in the Ozone:
There has been little visible progress on the Forest Park greenhouses - nearly one year - since the glass has been removed. This seems to be quite normal for the Parks Department under Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe and Mayor Michael Bloomberg. See photos below taken July 16th, 2009. One would think a building over one hundred years old would treated with more care.
