“From coastal resiliency and sustainable green practices to the preservation of affordable housing, world-class public art, and vibrant, year-round programming in award-winning public spaces, Battery Park City leads the way in many of the measures that makes cities livable."

Raju Mann

President & CEO
  • 03/20/18
  • Art & Culture
  • BPC People
  • Community
  • Environment
  • Governance

NEWSLETTER – MARCH 2018

BPC PEOPLE
 

Della Lee: Real Property Administrative Assistant

Favorite BPC Spot:
South Cove

 

For more than three decades Battery Park City has been the domain of the delightful Della Lee.

Born in Harlem Hospital and raised in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, Della Lee attended St. Ambrose elementary school, St. John’s Junior High School, and Bay Ridge High School. Her first job was as a bookkeeper at Norton Simon, Inc., a multi-industry corporation that manufactured consumer products such as Halston perfumes and Heinz ketchup. After Norton Simon merged with Esmark in 1983, Della found a new bookkeeper position with Industrial Utility Corporation, based in Brooklyn.

Hard work and good impressions paid off, however, as in 1984, Della was contacted by her previous Norton Simon supervisor with a job opportunity at the Battery Park City Authority. Little did Della know at the time that accepting the job as Assistant to the Director of Central Records would give her a front seat to lower Manhattan history.

Since most of Battery Park City was undeveloped, Della initially worked out of a trailer before being the first Authority employee to move to the 18th Floor of what was then 1 World Financial Center, as built by the property development firm of Olympia & York (the building is now known as 200 Liberty Street, part of Brookfield Place). As File Clerk, Della was first to move into the building as she was responsible for maintaining the Authority’s personnel files.

Throughout her years Della held a variety of different positions at BPCA. From File Clerk to Central Records Coordinator, and from Assistant to the Director of Human Resources to Executive Secretary to the President, Della’s distinguished tenure at the Authority has spanned five Governors, five Mayors, and 11 Authority Presidents.

In 1999 Della earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from the College of New Rochelle, and in 2008 she began work as an Administrative Assistant to the Vice President of Real property, where she still serves today.

Her best memories involve attending openings and inaugural events for buildings built up and down Battery Park City’s 92-acres, as the neighborhood grew from a display model to a fully developed urban oasis. She and her co-workers who helped the site transformed from landfill to a burgeoning residential and commercial community saw themselves as one big family – a unique moment in New York City history she will always treasure.

In her spare time, Della volunteers for her church’s nursing home ministry, along with her husband of 30 years. She enjoys traveling, bowling, attending jazz dinners, VIP fashion shows, street festivals, and has recently taken up Soul Line dancing. She gushes about her niece and nephew, who she raised since they were newborns and would take to family events hosted by BPCA over the years. They grew up as the Authority itself did, and witnessed the transformation of downtown with their Aunt Della at the fore.

Della is proud of what the community has become and is thankful for the BPCA – not only for providing her a work family, but for introducing her to her best friend, Danielle Fyffe, who worked for the Authority in Affirmative Action and later in Human Resources. Della and Danielle became best friends at the Authority, which grew into a bond of sisterhood.

Danielle passed away three years ago but remains alive and well in the heart of Della Lee, still here making memories at the BPCA. “Until we meet again,” Della says, looking up to the sky, reminiscing about her wonderful decades spent at the Authority with her best friend.

2018 BPCA Board Meeting Schedule

The schedule of meetings for the Board of Battery Park City Authority has been established as follows:

Tuesday, April 10
Tuesday, May 15
Tuesday, June 12
Tuesday, July 10
Tuesday, August 14
Tuesday, September 18
Tuesday, October 16
Tuesday, November 13
Tuesday, December 11
Read the notice here

GENERAL NEWS / EVENTS
Ball Field Hours Spring 2018

Monday, Wednesday and Friday: 9:00am – 9:00pm
Tuesday and Thursday: 8:00am – 9:00pm
Saturday & Sunday: 8:00am – 9:00pm

The Community Center at Stuyvesant High School will be closed on Wednesday , March 21. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. 

BPC PARKS
BATTERY PARK CITY AUTHORITY WINTER EVENTS CALENDAR
 

Early Spring Children’s Gardening
Tuesdays
March 20 – April 24
3:45 – 5 pm

Children’s Garden Rockefeller Park
Celebrate spring by digging and planting in the Children’s Garden. Learn about green practices and composting firsthand. For children who enjoy nature and like to get dirty! Registration Required. Ages 6-10.
To register, please email: registration@bpcparks.org
Fee: 6 Sessions $90

 

Celebrating Mexico!
Featuring Mano a Mano

March 24
Saturday 4-6 pm
6 River Terrace

In Veracruz, Mexico, a Fandango is a community-based celebration where people gather to dance, play and sin to the beat of Son Jarocho. Mano a Mano: Mexican Culture Without Borders will join us for the fun and will showcase their moves on the zapateado. Also, jewelry making with beads inspired by the traditional Mexican folk art! Registration required. Art project for ages 5+.
To register, please email: registration@bpcparks.org

 

Tuesday Talks
A Year on Broadway
March 27
Tuesday 1pm
6 River Terrace

Artist Elise Engler will discuss A Year on Broadway, her year-long project of drawing on-site every block of Broadway in Manhattan from Broadway Bridge at 221st Street to Bowling Green. The final work is 109 feet by 6 inches and can be accordion-folded, allowing the viewer to follow the drawing as if walking the length of Broadway in accelerated time. The piece has been featured in The New Yorker and on CBS’s Sunday Morning. To learn more, click here.

 

Preschool Play and Art
New reduced fees 
Thursdays, January 4 to April 5 
Session 1: 10-11:30 am
Session 2: 3:30-5 pm

6 River Terrace
Encourage imagination and discovery through child-directed free play. Take delight in story time, dress-up and wielding blocks and vehicles. Engage in art projects with your walking toddler that include painting, clay and more!
Fee: 14 sessions $200
To register, please email: registration@bpcparks.org

 

Parent and Baby Yoga
New reduced fees 
Mondays, January 8 to April 23
6 River Terrace
Enjoy yoga in a safe, supportive environment while learning postures and exercises specifically suited for new parents and babies.
Cycle1: January 8 – February 26
Fee: 6 sessions $90 or $20 drop-in
Cycle 2: March 5 – April 23
Session 1: 1 – 2:15PM
Session 2: 2:30 – 3:45PM

Fee: 8 sessions $120 or $20 drop-in
To register, please email: registration@bpcparks.org

 

Chess For Children
Tuesdays, January 9 – April 3

Beginners: (5-7 YRS) 3:30-4:25pm
Intermediate: (7 YRS & UP) 4:30-5:30pm

6 River Terrace
Learn the language of chess through thoughtfully designed stories, brain-challenging activities and fun competition. Find out why this ancient game still captures the heart and imagination of young and old. To learn more, click here. Fee: 13 sessions $195

 

Spring In Your Step
Tuesdays, March 20 – April 24
12pm – 1pm
6 River Terrace 

What better way to celebrate the change of seasons than to join Battery Park City Parks programming leaders for a mid-day power walk routine followed by meditation and therapeutic exercises. These activities are proven to relieve stress, increase energy levels, and reset the mind. Put a spring in your step and get healthy and active in 2018! Free
To learn more, click here.

 

2018 Annual Art Exhibition 
Art on view weekdays,
January 29 – March 30

2-4pm, 75 Battery Place
Free

View pieces made by participants of all ages from the BPC Parks art programs and see the creative expressions of the community firsthand. To learn more, click here.

BROOKFIELD PLACE
 

The Rink at Brookfield Place
Monday – Sunday through April 1
(weather permitting)
Three World Financial Center, 230 Vesey St,
New York, NY 10281

PUBLIC SKATING HOURS
Monday – Friday
1:00pm – 2:30pm
3:00pm – 4:30pm
5:00pm – 6:30pm
7:00pm – 8:30pm

Saturday – Sunday & Holidays
10:15am -11:45am
12:00pm -1:30pm
2:00pm – 3:30pm
4:00pm – 5:30pm
6:00pm – 7:30pm
8:00pm – 9:30pm

PUBLIC SKATING PRICES
$15 single public session (90 minutes)
$5 skate rental
For more information click here.

MUSEUM OF JEWISH HERITAGE
 

Untold Stories of Jewish Woman
Tuesday, March 20
36 Battery Pl

This three-day festival of readings and performances, including theater, music, and conversation, will challenge the stereotypes of Jewish women’s lives and elevate their voices.
Tickets for each day are available, as well as tickets to the Celebration held Tuesday from 6 – 8 pm. Or purchase the All Festival Pass which includes all three days as well as the Celebration.

For more information click here.

 

Shaya
Thursday, March 22
7 pm
36 Battery Pl

Chef Alon Shaya is a two-time James Beard Award-winner whose Israeli-style New Orleans restaurants have been hailed as among the country’s best. He debuts his latest masterpiece —a cookbook that describes the evolution of a cuisine and the transformative power of cooking.

Free to attend with Museum admission.

For more information click here.

POETS HOUSE
 

The City with Rigoberto Gonzalez:
30th Anniversary Close Readings
Saturday, March 24
3 pm
10 River Terrace , Elizabeth Kray Hall

Lambda Award-winning poet Rigoberto González considers five poems that explore the city. As the bittersweet symbol of order and chaos, progress and decay, community and overcrowding, the city is both beacon and demon—a landscape of possibility where dreams are born and where dreams transform or die. González examines a range of poetic representations of the city and civilization and how, over centuries, this manmade space continues to mirror human joy and anxiety. These poems help us understand the powers of the city—the greatest archive of memory, history and story.

$10, $7 for students and seniors, free to Poets House members

For more information click here.

SKYSCRAPER MUSEUM 
 

Millennium: Lower Manhattan in the 1990s
Wednesday – Sunday ongoing exhibit
12 pm – 6 pm
39 Battery Place

Multimedia exhibition, running from November 8, 2017 through April 2018, vividly recaptures this strange and formative time in the history of New York’s historic commercial hub, through a striking combination of architectural drawings and models, archival and contemporary photographs, original posters, maps, sketches, renderings, and other documents of the era. MILLENNIUM revisits this recent history of lower Manhattan in the years just before Downtown’s identity was cataclysmically recast as Ground Zero, and a new era truly began.

Admission: $5 for ages 12 and up

$2.50 for students and seniors

Children under 12: Free

For more information click here.

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