STARLIGHT PARK COMFORT STATION

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Collaborating with Gray Organschi Architecture

Project Architect - concept design through design development

Bronx, NY 

Starlight Park, once the site of an amusement park featuring the world’s largest saltwater pool, is now a vibrant public park straddled by the Sheridan Parkway to the west and the Bronx River to the East. The park benefits from its adjacency to the 23 mile Bronx River Greenway – a bike and pedestrian-friendly linear park. Gray Organschi was tasked with designing a comfort station to serve this linear park system, housing restrooms, a garage for storage of park maintenance equipment, and an office for park system employees.  The given site was physically overpowered by a vast soccer field and the imposing Sheridan Parkway. Our response was to increase the apparent scale of the humble building by giving it a visibly prominent massing and profile.  The building features two tall, canted, roof forms that serve to increase visibility when viewed from across the fields. From the interior, each truncated cone terminates in a generous skylight. This allows for reduced artificial lighting loads and brings in ample natural light - an oft-overlooked feature in public restroom design.  The comfort station’s exciting sectional qualities are contrasted by its simple rectangular plan – a conscious constructability and cost decision.  Rainwater collects between the light wells and feeds into an adjacent rain garden below; the garden, planted with native vegetation, reduces run-off and filters storm water back into the ground.  The building features a monochrome material palette – low maintenance zinc roof panels and glazed brick – which clarify and simplify the form of the building.