July 23, 2010
by Christine Yeres
Last Tuesday night the town board viewed drawings prepared by landscape architect Nick Pouder for a new gazebo for the downtown recreation field, a project the Downtown Steering Committee, an advisory board to the town board, has had in development during the last several months.
The existing rectangular gazebo sits below street-level in the far northeast corner of the recreation field on South Greeley Avenue separated from the Shell gas station by a rather weak watercourse. The structure is in serious enough disrepair that the town board’s inclination is to tear it down and build a completely new, octagonal gazebo up at street level with direct access from the sidewalk and removable railings on three of its eight sides.
Pouder’s renderings show an eight-sided, eight-columned open-air structure topped by a copper roof and a cupola that echoes the Bell School cupola across the street. The structure would be illuminated in the interior and curved steps would descend gradually on the field side from the gazebo’s floor level.
Sounds lovely, but how much will it cost?
During their meeting, town board members discussed the relative merits and costs of concrete, brick, bluestone and eurocobble as floor and step surfaces. The purpose of Pouder’s presentation before the town board was to procure approval from the board for the overall concept as developed to date. Board member Michael Wolfensohn stated that he needed to hear details of the potential cost of the project before giving it the nod. Pouder responded with estimates of around $240,000 for the landscaping and steps and around $185,000 for the gazebo itself.
Construction of the gazebo is the first phase of a conceptual plan that could in the future include restoring the watercourse to a healthy stream. The plan shows the streambed crossed by two small bridges that would allow pedestrians to walk from the northern end of the recreation field to the train station parking lot.
Members of the town board expressed their approval of the design and their intention to keep the project a priority. But Town Supervisor Barbara Gerrard said afterward that the board would work to bring down the cost of the project by first examining the types of materials suggested by Pouder.
Editor’s Note: The follow up to this story—“Town board members balk at cost of proposed gazebo, look to lay more sidewalk”—appeared on August 6, 2010.
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