The city has just added a little California dreaming to its plans to give Downtown a sparkling new park.
The Economic Development Corporation just named San Francisco-based open space firm Hargreaves Associates to design Willoughby Square Park, which will replace a dour strip of tenement buildings on Duffield Street — once its existing residents are evicted by eminent domain and the buildings torn down, of course.
A rendering released this week makes the future park on Willoughby Street one block west of Flatbush Avenue look like a lush paradise with a plethora of shade, seating and open grass.
“The plan calls for the open space to help meet the needs of workers, visitors and residents nearby,” the city noted in a press release. “It will provide greatly needed open space for the area’s growing commercial and cultural hub.”
The city won’t confirm a timeline for the build-out, which depends partly on when the remaining tenants will be evicted.
Officials from the Department of Housing Preservation and Development have been “assisting” tenants into other affordable housing since May to make way for the 1-1/4-acre greenspace.
