Following last week’s visit to Los Angeles-based Kadre Architects, we are moving our Meet Your Next Employer series to New York City this week where we meet the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation.

With responsibility for the stewardship of 30,000 acres of land, or 14% of New York City, NYC Parks describes itself as a “city agency that builds and cares for public spaces for New Yorkers to connect, play and enjoy.” The department’s extensive list of properties includes 800 athletic fields, 1,000 playgrounds, 550 tennis courts, 66 public pools, 48 recreational facilities, 17 nature centers, 13 golf courses, 14 miles of beaches, 1,200 monuments, 23 historic house museums, 600,000 street trees, and two million more parks trees.

Over on Archinect Jobs, the department is currently hiring a Capital Projects Estimating Coordinator to join their New York City office.

For candidates interested in applying for the position, or anybody interested in learning more about the department, we have looked back on Archinect’s previous coverage of NYC Parks to demonstrate the department’s intersection with the city’s urban fabric.

Modular public restrooms pilot (March 2023)

In March 2023, NYC Parks announced the launch of a trial run for prefabricated, kiosk-like bathrooms for the city’s parks. At $185,000 each, the units cost a fraction of the multimillion-dollar price tags for traditional restrooms. The unit’s design resembles a curved newspaper kiosk, with slatted sides that are intended to provide privacy while also dissuading illicit behavior.

NYC Parks have allocated one test unit for each borough, while five more “comfort stations” are under construction. According to the department, the new pilot is meant to “determine the feasibility of using this model in the future as an economical solution to building bathrooms in parks.”

$7.25 million grant for an expanded greenway network (August 2022)

In August 2022, NYC Parks joined with the city’s Department of Transportation and Economic Development Corporation in a successful grant application to the U.S. Department of Transportation. The departments received $7.25 million to expand the city’s greenway network across the five boroughs, with a priority on serving historically underserved, lower-income communities.

“Greenways provide connections between parks and serve as vital resources for recreation and transportation, and this grant funding will allow us to create the comprehensive plan needed to equitably improve and expand the greenway network citywide,” said NYC Parks Commissioner Sue Donoghue at the time.

A call for landscape architects to reimagine NYC greenspaces (March 2022)

Earlier in 2022, NYC Parks issued a Request for Proposals in search of ten firms to provide landscape architecture services for upcoming park improvement projects. While NYC Parks design approximately 70% of landscape architecture projects in-house through its 500-person-strong capital division, the RfP was an example of the department’s engagement with private sector design firms.

“The landscape architecture firms selected through this RFP will have the chance to make a lasting impact on New York City's park system by reimagining greenspaces for the communities they serve,” the department noted at the time, while also emphasizing the importance of sustainability, accessibility, adaptive reuse, and historically sensitive restoration for collaborators.

Honoring the unjustly demolished Seneca Village in Central Park (October 2019)

In a demonstration of NYC Parks’ engagement with monuments and history, 2019 saw the department organize the installation of a plaque in central park to recognize the demolition of Seneca Village in 1857. The mostly Black community of 350 individuals was forced out of the village to make way for the park’s creation.

The memorial plaque was part of then-mayor Bill de Blasio’s push to diversify the city’s public art and recognize overlooked figures from its history. The plaque was the second monument to Seneca Village, which is considered the first significant community in New York City made up of African American property owners.

Meet Your Next Employer is one of a number of ongoing weekly series showcasing the opportunities available on our industry-leading job board. Our Job Highlights series looks at intriguing and topical employment opportunities currently available on Archinect Jobs, while our weekly roundups curate job opportunities by location, career level, and job description.