Building of the Day: Battery Playscape

The Battery Playscape sits at the tip of Manhattan where land meets sea, locals meet tourists, and the bustle of the city yields to the presence of nature. Conceived after Hurricane Sandy, the 1.5-acre playscape responds to the site's ecology by telling the story of resilience interwoven with play. It is the last piece of the Battery Conservancy’s master plan, which envisioned a verdant future for the then-dilapidated park. The playscape realizes that vision through accessible, full-body play immersed in plantings, natural landforms, and visible water management. It is built to flood and recover—part of its embedded climate change narrative.

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Architects: BKSK Architects and Starr Whitehouse Landscape Architecture and Planning with SITU Fabrication