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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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