Groundbreaking ceremony for new playground at P.S. 84Q (Council Member Costa Constantinides Twitter)
Dec. 18, 2019 By Allie Griffin
Queens community leaders broke ground on a new $1.5 million student-designed playground at P.S. 84Q in Astoria Monday.
The new green playground, scheduled to open in the fall of 2020, has been designed by students who have learned skills like budgeting, negotiation and planning in the process.
At the groundbreaking ceremony Monday morning, Queens Borough President Melinda Katz, Council Member Costa Constantinides and Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner Vincent Sapienza joined the school community and representatives of the Trust for Public Land, which initiated the building of the new green playground.
The playground will include a running track, turf field, two play equipment areas, basketball hoops, game tables, benches, an amphitheater, an outdoor classroom and green infrastructure elements like permeable pavers and specifically chosen plantings and trees.
The new playground at P.S. 84Q, located at 22-45 41st St, will also be open to the public during select after school hours.
It is being built through The Trust for Public Land’s New York City Playgrounds Program — which has designed and/or built more than 200 school and community playgrounds across the five boroughs.
“This new playground will transform a former barren asphalt lot into a vibrant green space that will benefit P.S 84 students and the larger Astoria community,” said Carter Strickland, New York State Director for The Trust for Public Land.
Council Member Constantinides, an alumni of the school, helped secure funding to construct the new playground.
“As a P.S. 84 alumni and a neighbor who grew up just across the street from this school, I have many fond memories of this outdoor space,” Constantinides said. “From throwing around a football to chasing baseballs hit into the street, this schoolyard was a place of happiness and I’m incredibly proud to have helped make the investment to transform this concrete lot into a vibrant green open space that will better serve P.S. 84 and the larger northern Astoria community.”
The new playground is the result of a partnership with the New York City Department of Education, the DEP and the School Construction Authority. Queens Borough President Katz also helped secure funding.
