Built in 1911, the McCarren Parkhouse in McCarren Park, the largest park in north Brooklyn, was originally a locker room serving an adjacent pool. Now, an expansion designed by local firm KTISMA Studio has transformed the building into a stylish, highly functional new public amenity. “The original brief from NYC Parks was to transform the building into a food and beverage concession, as well as space for the park’s operations teams,” explained KTISMA principal Jonathan Chesley. Besides new concession spaces, including a pair of bars fabricated from locally sourced oak, the redesign also added two glazed wings with operable windows that open onto a generous patio space, helping infuse transparency into the building and reconnect it to the park via flexible gathering areas.
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Old and new are elegantly stitched together with original brick arches in the historic structure, restored and enlarged. New insertions take a distinct material palette of wood, glass, and metal. “We wanted a clarity in the difference of new and old, while making an elegant collage of the materials in how they relate to one another,” said Chesley.
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Ultimately, the Parkhouse demonstrates how aging urban infrastructure can be brought back to life via subtle design moves. As Chesley concluded, “This speaks to a new model of restaurant design for the public good.”