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LeFrak Center at Lakeside

Brooklyn, NY
  • The new skating facility retains the site’s role as a gathering place as originally envisioned by Olmsted & Vaux.

This new LEED Gold certified recreation center is part of Lakeside, an ambitious project to restore and revitalize 26 acres of Prospect Park, which was designed in the 19th century by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux.

The center’s two rinks, an uncovered ellipse and a canopied hockey rink, are both open for public skating in the winter; the hockey rink hosts roller-skating in the summer. Ten granite-clad structural steel columns support the canopy and are irregularly spaced to leave corners open, giving skaters unobstructed sightlines to the lake.

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Two single-story rectangular buildings topped by roof terraces bound the rinks in an L-shaped plan. One building contains an ice-making plant, mechanical facilities, a cafe, and storage areas; the other houses skate rental, lockers, a shop, and offices.

The new center is respectful of its park environment: vegetated berms conceal the structures from the park’s main path, and the hockey rink’s 25,000 sf canopy is planted with sedum.

Two single-story rectangular buildings topped by roof terraces bound the rinks in an L-shaped plan. One building contains an ice-making plant, mechanical facilities, a cafe, and storage areas; the other houses skate rental, lockers, a shop, and offices.

The new center is respectful of its park environment: vegetated berms conceal the structures from the park’s main path, and the hockey rink’s 25,000 sf canopy is planted with sedum.

Silman also participated in the reconstruction of the Concert Grove, a project that restored the lakeshore to its original Olmsted-Vaux beauty, recreating a cove, Music Island, and the waterfront esplanade, which features original pieces of the park that were found in the fill beneath Wollman Rink.

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