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LATE BREAKING NEWS  

Carousel Housed in Acrylic Room

The Brooklyn Bridge Park that sits between the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges had reason to celebrate recently when an historic carousel that was painstakingly restored for more than 25 years was donated to the park, complete with acrylic housing from Reynolds Polymer Technology, Inc. (RPT) to preserve the carousel and keep out foul weather.

Artist Jane Walentas and her husband David purchased the 1922 carousel Ð known as PTC #61 by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company Ð in 1984 from Idora Park amusement park in Youngstown, Ohio which had just been shuttered after a devastating fire. While firefighters were able to save the carousel, decades of poor painting, disrepair, and scorch marks from the fire faced Walentas throughout the refurbishment. While her intention all along was to donate it to Empire Fulton Ferry State Park (now Brooklyn Bridge Park), numerous obstacles at nearly every step of the way bogged down the restoration process.

After spending copious amounts of time, energy, and funding to restore the carousel, installing it outside exposed to the elements was out of the question. Clearly, it needed protection from the weather once installed in its new home in the park, but the desired enclosure couldnÕt mask the beauty of the carousel.

ÒThe Architect, Jean Nouvel, a Pritzker Prize winner, was adamant about using acrylic,Ó explained Walentas. ÒWe would have been ok with a glass structure, but Jean was insistent that we use acrylic. He wanted vast expanses without structural interruption.Ó

These Òvast expansesÓ of unimpeded views were realized in R-Cast¨ acrylic panels engineered and custom manufactured to nearly 25Õ tall and an average of 3Õ wide set into accordion-fold doors on the north and south sides of the structure, and several wall panels reaching more than 27Õ tall and nearly 10Õ wide on the east and west faces. The accordion-fold doors allow for pedestrian traffic flow around the carousel, as well as fresh air when the weather is nice.

For more information, contact Julie Hober, Reynolds Polymer Technology, Inc., 607 Hollingsworth Street, Grand Junction, CO 81505, 970-241-4700, Fax: 970-257-1088, E-mail: juliehober@reynoldspolymer.com, Web: www.reynoldspolymer.com.

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