Inside the new Central Park precinct station house. (Robert Miller)
Inside the new Central Park precinct station house. (Robert Miller)
It may be worth getting arrested just to see the spanking new $61.7million state-of-the art facelift on the landmark, 19th century Central Park precinct.
Gone are the boarded up windows to keep the squirrels out, or the leaking slate roof that damaged wood structures or crumbling brick walls. Roll call will no longer will have to be held in an adjacent shed.
The two-story station house has upgraded technology, security, and communications. It has a new lobby with a partially bullet-proof glass atrium; arrest processing and interview rooms and central air-conditioning and 2,300 more square feet of additional space than before.
At the ribbon-cutting ceremony today at the 86th Street transverse stationhouse, Police Commissioner Kelly boasted, “The city’s oldest precinct is now wired for the latest computer and communications technology, with new phones and computers and better heating, ventilation and air conditioning. It brings a 19th century station house into the 21st century.”
Mayor Bloomberg said, “With the opening today of the beautifully restored Central Park Precinct Station, we have updated a police station that dates back to 1936. The newly restored precinct gives officers in Central Park an expanded and modernized working environment and conserves many beautiful architectural elements that distinguish this 19th century building.
“Central Park is safer than ever – with crime down by more than 20 percent since 2001 – and the enhancement to the station will help police officers build on this record of success.”
Originally, the stationhouse was a complex of horse stables and sheds when it was constructed in 1871 by Jacob Wrey Mould.
It was built in the High Victorian Gothic Cottage style and was originally planned as a park administrative complex. But in 1936 it was converted into the 22nd precinct, and in 1968 it was officially renamed the Central Park Precinct.
When the dilapidated precinct building was closed in 2001, cops moved to a temporary precinct that was built on the adjacent parking lot. They moved back into the reconstructed precinct in June 2011. The temporary precinct was then torn down. A new parking facility was built in its place for police scooters.
The initial cost of the 2009 project was $46 million, but during construction they discovered contaminated soil that had to be remediated and old trolley tracks under the transverse that had to be removed.
The final tap came to $61.7 million.
NYPD Detective Steven McDonald, who was paralyzed in 1986 after he was shot by three thugs in the park was on hand for the ceremony.
Central Park Precinct Commanding Officer, Capt. Jessica Corey, summed it up. “Wow is how we all feel. I’ve got a lot of people who outrank me who are seeing the place for the first time today and they’re talking about taking my office,” she joked.
When the building opened in 1871 there were about 4.5 million visitors to the park. Now there are 40 million a year.