Landscape Information
Situated along 21st Street between 34th and 35th Avenues in Astoria, Queens, adjacent to Ravenswood Houses, the playground occupies a 2.67-acre, L-shaped space. The playground serves Ravenswood Houses and the adjoining Queensview Houses, two of the city’s largest housing projects, which opened in 1951 and 1950, respectively. In 1949, the City of New York acquired land on behalf of the New York City Housing Authority for the Ravenswood Houses project, built by developer Paul Tishman. Plans for the project included a community playground, which was turned over to the New York City Department of Parks in 1952. Within a few months, the Ravenswood Houses Playground opened, featuring basketball, handball, and shuffleboard courts, an ice skating area, a softball field, swings, a jungle gym, and a sand pit. In 1987, the name was shortened to Ravenswood Playground.
The southeast corner of the site is occupied by the New York Sanitation Department’s Queens West 1 garage, creating the “L” shape. A paved baseball field at the park’s hinge point separates the shorter north leg and longer south leg, each being bordered by canopy trees. The fenced-in north leg consists of two basketball courts and six handball courts. The south leg, which neighbors Ravenswood Houses, includes a playground area and a central spray shower with a colorful palm tree motif around a circle of central water jets. There is also a shaded lawn area at the farthest end of the park along 35th Avenue. Circulation follows a rectilinear pattern from the 34th and 35th Avenue entrances, and is then connected by a path following the outer curve of the baseball field. In 2009, the park was renovated thanks largely to its active residential community.
