Introduction
The Battery Conservancy began operating in 1995. Its mission is to design, build, maintain and program the park’s landscape and to tell the stories of the site’s compelling history. From 1941 to the 1980’s the Battery went from a magnet of activity to a forlorn, dilapidated park. An award–winning Master Plan was completed in 1986 for the park’s renovation, but it languished on the shelf because of a lack of public will and civic focus. The Battery Conservancy was founded as a single–focus civic engine with the objective to implement The Battery Master Plan.
Over the past 13 years, the Conservancy with its public partners, led by NYC Parks & Recreation, has secured $112 million for design, construction and maintenance endowment. Three major capital projects are complete and seven more are in various stages of development, with expected finish dates over the next five years. By 2014 the entire Master Plan for the 25 acres of the Battery will be realized.
Click an image below to view a slide show of before and after images from The Rebuilt Battery
