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Summer Wrap Up: Brooklyn Bridge Park Attracts Record Number of Visitors and Public Programs Attract Over 70,000 Attendees

Summer Wrap Up: Brooklyn Bridge Park Attracts Record Number of Visitors and Public Programs Attract over 70, 000 attendees

Open House on Thursday, November 17th, 6:30pm-8pm to welcome community to new Park Offices at 334 Furman Street and Premiere New BRIC Documentary on Brooklyn Bridge Park

Brooklyn Bridge Park (BBP) celebrates the conclusion of a successful summer programming season that included new sand volleyball clinics on the recently opened courts at Pier 6, multiple exercise classes with the Dodge YMCA, a wildly popular walk-up kayaking program, astronomy nights, and new learn to ride classes for children and adults sponsored by Bike NY. Several key new partnerships catalyzed exciting programs, including one with BRIC Arts | Media | Bklyn, which presented three Celebrate Brooklyn! Dance Parties in May, a signature Jazzmobile concert, an Etsy craft night, a kite festival and chess instruction series on Pier 1. The SyFy Movies With A View series attracted over 35,000 viewers alone.

Brooklyn Bridge Park, with the help of many volunteers, also conducted an unprecedented park-wide visitor count over several days in July. The counts established that over 60,000 visitors came to the park on an average summer weekend and that weekday attendance was approximately 11,500 per day.

“Brooklyn Bridge Park exceeds expectations as a destination for relaxation, recreation and culture,” said BBP President Regina Myer. “The terrific free programming with the Conservancy and other partners has expanded our audiences and made the park a place to return to again and again.

"We had another fantastic summer of public and educational programming in Brooklyn Bridge Park," remarked Nancy Webster, Executive Director of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy. "From Syfy Movies With A View, to fitness classes, chess lessons, volleyball workshops, concerts, theater, children's events, and more, there were free events and activities that appealed to a broad range of visitors almost every day in the park. Thank you to Brooklyn Bridge Park and all our programming partners for a dynamic and fun-filled season."

To celebrate this successful season, and to mark the opening of the park’s new administrative offices at 334 Furman Street, Brooklyn Bridge Park is premiering Brooklyn Independent Television’s (BIT) 25-minute documentary, “New York’s Next Great Park” as part of an open house to welcome and talk with community members about the park and its ongoing construction. The documentary chronicles the design and construction of the first phases of Brooklyn Bridge Park, offering insights on its sustainability features as well as featuring interviews with some of the key figures in the design, planning and programming of the park. BIT, a community media program of BRIC Arts | Media | Bklyn, has produced this documentary in partnership with Brooklyn Bridge Park, as well as a series of webisodes that can be found on the official park website: www.brooklynbridgeparknyc.org/news/videos.

Leslie G. Schultz, Executive Director of BRIC | Arts | Media | Bklyn said: “BRIC was honored to work with Brooklyn Bridge Park on two successful projects this year. I believe our innovative partnership allowed both of our organizations to advance our missions effectively and creatively. Consistent with BRIC’s aim to make the great stories of Brooklyn accessible to all, our Brooklyn Independent Television-produced documentary about the Park’s construction provides a rich narrative about this amazing new waterfront Park. And by bringing Celebrate Brooklyn! to the Park, we were also able to bring extraordinary, free performing arts programming to new audiences, which is at the heart of BRIC’s mission.”

Brooklyn Bridge Park has received a number of awards in 2011 including the Silver Medal of the Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence, the 2011 Holly Whyte Award from the American Planning Association’s NY Metro Chapter, and the American Institute for Architects’ NY Chapter Urban Design Honor Award and Time Out NY’s Best of 2011 Award for Best Waterfront. Travel + Leisure Magazine called Brooklyn Bridge Park one of the World’s Coolest New Tourist Attractions for 2011.

Capital investment continues at Brooklyn Bridge Park with construction contracts in process for Pier 5 and the Squibb Park Pedestrian Bridge. On Pier 5, the next major segment of Brooklyn Bridge Park, amenities include three recreational fields and a “Picnic Peninsula” with barbeque pits, picnic tables, and play areas. Repair work is nearly completed on Pier 5’s 1,100 piles to prepare for pier construction to start in early 2012. Pier 5 is expected to be opened by Fall 2012.

Download a pdf of the press release here.