NYC Opens Shirley Chisholm Recreation Center
The Brooklyn civic center, built by the NYC Department of Design and Construction, was completed with a hybrid steel and mass timber structure.
Updated on Nov. 6, 2026 in Construction
The NYC Department of Design and Construction completed the Shirley Chisholm Recreation Center in Brooklyn, a 75,000-square-foot facility built on a long-underused portion of Nostrand Playground. Consigli Construction Co. received an Award of Merit for the project.
Why it matters
The project shows how a city civic building can combine recreation space with after-school and community programming on a previously underused site. Its structural and stormwater solutions offer a reference for similar urban construction in New York City.
The 75,000-square-foot center was completed as a civic project by the NYC Department of Design and Construction, with no cost or comparator data provided in the source extraction. The project's total budget and final completion date were not disclosed.
The players
NYC Department of Design and Construction
The city agency responsible for building and renovating New York City's public facilities, including civic and recreation projects.
Consigli Construction Co.
A construction firm that received an Award of Merit for its work on the Shirley Chisholm Recreation Center.
The details
The center's lower three levels house recreation spaces, including a competition-grade natatorium and a double-height gymnasium. Upper floors contain after-school classrooms, a teaching kitchen, and a media lab, and the team used cross-laminated timber decking over the natatorium alongside long-span steel and mass timber glulam beams.
Industry Context
The project accommodated a last-minute change to New York City stormwater management requirements through grading changes, bioretention areas, and underground detention systems. It reflects how city construction projects are adapting to the city's evolving stormwater rules.
Brooklyn residents gain access to a new recreation center with a competition-grade natatorium, gymnasium, after-school classrooms, and a teaching kitchen. The facility offers community programming in a building constructed on land that had been underused for years.
The takeaway
Turning underused public land into multi-use civic facilities can expand recreation and youth programming without requiring entirely new sites. The Shirley Chisholm Recreation Center shows how that approach can be carried out in a dense urban borough.
Further reading
Explore more coverage in Construction for context on how New York City builds its public facilities.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Engineering News-Record (ENR) magazine.
