Gehry Donates Designs for Downtown Playground

Frank Gehry is giving back.

The famed architect of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, and the Walt Disney Concert Hall in L.A. (not to mention the would-be Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn) is donating designs for a play space in Battery Park.

The design will be unveiled at the end of the year and is expected to be completed by early 2009, according to Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe.

“Mr. Gehry approached Warrie Price, the president of the Battery Conservancy, about a year ago and said he wanted to design the play space,” Mr. Benepe told The Observer. “We loved the idea.”

Redesigning downtown recreation spaces is almost a trend. Earlier this year, architect David Rockwell announced that he would design a community playground at Burling Slip near the South Street Seaport.

The Gehry play space will replace an existing playground at the southeast corner of Battery Park. It will cover about an acre and feature a new playground building. Beyond that, it will be up to Mr. Gehry’s imagination.

“We have no idea what Mr. Gehry will come up with,” Mr. Benepe said. “But I am sure it will be great.”