Politics
A Second Act for Gatehouses at the Central Park Reservoir?
The two imposing buildings no longer serve their original purpose. The city is seeking to adapt them.
Good morning. It’s Tuesday. Today we’ll learn about the gatehouses in Central Park that the city wants to repurpose. And, with 99 days to the Democratic primary for mayor, we’ll also get details on how much money the candidates have raised so far.
Rohit Aggarwala inside a Central Park gatehouse.Credit…James Barron/The New York Times
To many New Yorkers, the reservoir in Central Park is a body of water surrounded by a 1.5-mile path they can run, jog or just walk on. Rohit Aggarwala sees it that way. He jogs there himself.
But Aggarwala, the commissioner of the city’s Department of Environmental Protection, also sees possibilities in the two stone gatehouses at opposite ends of the reservoir.
The city is looking to repurpose the two gatehouses, built during the Civil War as control points for water from upstate flowing into Manhattan through aqueducts. The reservoir no longer feeds into the city’s water supply; the gatehouses now control only the water levels in the reservoir.
They were designed as monuments, as municipal structures often were in the 19th century. The south gatehouse, not far from Fifth Avenue and the 86th Street Transverse, is topped by an imposing clock with whitish Roman numerals on a dark round face. According to a description from Aggarwala’s agency, the back door leads to a balcony with “stunning views” of the site (whose official name is the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir), Central Park and the cityscape.
