Giving the restoring of the Riis Park Bathhouse another expensive shot

Patch 

 Jacob Riis Park, known as “The People’s Beach,” is undergoing an Art Deco comeback as developers plan to restore the historic bathhouse and open the historic site next year.

Over $50 million will be injected into the project, which will include restaurants, a bar, a pool, event spaces, and 28 hotel rooms in the Rockaway site with two octagonal red brick towers. The hub’ phased opening is set to start in 2023.

“This project to revitalize and rejuvenate the Jacob Riis Bathhouse represents a giant step forward for the Rockaway Peninsula as it continues to recover from the battering it received from Hurricane Sandy a decade ago,” said Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. in a statement.

The project is led by CBSK Developers and the architecture firm Beyer Blinder Belle.

The restoration of the bathhouse, built in 1932, will add eateries, a beachfront bar, and retailers stocked with beach supplies. The courtyard will include a pool and lounge areas.

 The New York State Historic Preservation Office reviewed the project.

Didn't they try to make Riis Park a tourist destination before with that glamping bullshit?

Ok, now who's going to tell nature to stop devouring the shore right next to the bathhouse? 

"The People's Beach" has gone to the hipsters

If you want to see what happened to the Riis Park Bathhouse, head on over to Impunity City. But be forewarned: this crap is not for the faint of heart. G.E.N.T.R.I.F.I.C.A.T.I.O.N.

Park Service looking to refurbish Jacob Riis Bathhouse

From CBS 2:

With colder weather and the holidays upon us, you may not be thinking about your summer beach plans.

But as CBS2’s Brian Conybeare reported, the National Park Service is.

In fact, the agency is trying to restore the historic bathhouse on Rockaway Beach with the help of private investors.

The iconic bathhouse at Jacob Riis Park in Queens has been virtually abandoned for decades. Built in 1932, the art deco pavilion was a popular summer destination for New York’s working poor and immigrants – with restaurants, a surf shop, and a mile-long white sand beach.

But time, neglect, and storms took their toll.

The Park Service is now looking for bidders to reopen parts of the bathhouse with dining, concessions, arts, and an event space for next summer. But the second floor, which housed a Howard Johnson’s hotel in the 1960s, will obviously take much longer.

The second floor now looks like modern-day ruins, with crumbling ceilings and rotting bathrooms.

Sad state of Riis Bathhouse

From the NY Times:

With its octagonal brick towers rising above the beach, the sprawling bathhouse at Jacob Riis Park in the Rockaways has, since opening in 1932, served as a monument to Art Deco design, grand public works and populist fun. Lately, however, it has become a symbol of something else: public frustration.

Renovation work began in the 1990s on the bathhouse, which is part of the federal Gateway National Recreation Area. Nearly $20 million was spent on asbestos removal, electrical upgrades, window replacements, new elevators and facade work. Politicians predicted that the bathhouse would be a fitting centerpiece of Jacob Riis Park, which is nicknamed the People’s Beach, while beachgoers envisioned cafes and souvenir shops, hot showers and community space.

But the work was never finished, and today the 40,000-square-foot bathhouse appears all but abandoned. Its large oceanfront bays are boarded up with plywood; its giant courtyard houses piles of sand, weeds and several derelict lifeguard stands, two of them toppled over.

Officials of Gateway, which is part of the National Park Service, say that the bathhouse suffered a one-two punch. First, the money meant for the restoration did not go as far as they had planned. The bathhouse complex actually comprises four buildings; while the entry pavilion on the inland side is finished, the beach pavilion still needs major work. Then came Tropical Storm Irene, which smashed a series of large doors protecting the interior — the ones now covered in plywood — and dumped four feet of sand on the ground floor.