Adaptive Use Design Study, Jacob Riis Bathhouse

Beyer Blinder Belle, Architects & Planners

These studies of adaptive use design alternatives were prepared by Beyer Blinder Belle, Architects and Planners, under Architect-Engineer Contract No. CX-2000-3-0027, to assist National Park Service management to evaluate the feasibility and desirability of various approaches to the preservation and adaptive use of the Jacob Riis Bathhouse, Breezy Point Unit, Gateway National Recreation Area. As the studies progressed, it became apparent that considerable capital investment would be required to adequately address the preservation and conservation needs of the Bathhouse. It also became more and more apparent that the National Park Service budget could not provide adequate funds and that we should start to consider seeking private capital investment under the Historic Property Leasing Program. The leasing program requires that proposed alternations to National Register historic structure comply with NPS-28 Cultural Resource Management Guidelines, the Secretary of Interior's Standards for Historic Preservation, and any other requirements the National Park Service may impose. This requirement was carefully considered in the formulation of all the adaptive use alternatives. The Historic Structures Report, Historical Data, for Jacob Riis Park Historic District states that the park "is historically significant as a relatively unaltered example of a publicly planned and designed municipal bathing beach in the 1930s . . . . the bath house is the most important historic structure in the park and is an excellent example of beachfront recreational architecture of the early twentieth century." The entire bathhouse complex (its mass, volumes, materials, form, design and details) is considered significant both historically and architecturally. Of relatively less significance are the changing structures and showers within the courtyard enclosures and the expedient alterations made to the structures since World War II. All of the adaptive use alternatives preserve the significant aspects of the bathhouse while providing for increasing intensity and efficiency of use. A future Historic Structures Report, Architectural Data sholud address the subject of significance of the various detailed aspects of the bathhouse and develop detailed alternative treatments that would comply with the National Park Service policies and guidelines.