AVENUE V PUMPING STATION, Gravesend

 

Standing on Avenue V just west of 86th Street in Gravesend is one of NYC’s very few decorative structures associated with its sewers, all due respects for the gigantic Digester Eggs of Greenpoint. It resembles one of the Beaux-Arts subway entrance buildings designed by Heins and LaFarge back when the subway originally opened in the first decade of the 20th Century. The Avenue V Pumping Station was constructed between 1911 and 1916, at the tail end of the Beaux Arts era, designed by architect Albert A. Martin and was eligible for NYC Landmarks designation in 1998. It was given a $210M dollar restoration in 2015 that repointed the brickwork and touched up its terra cotta trim and Spanish tiled roof…

 

…but the renovation wasn’t limited to the exterior. More importantly the upgrade added to the capacity of the pumping station capacity to pump 80 million gallons of sanitary and stormwater flow to the Owl’s Head Wastewater Treatment Plant in Bay Ridge each day, more than 150 percent more than it could before the upgrade. The station’s upgrade also adds to the hope that the brackish, polluted Coney Island Creek will also someday be cleaned up, as is the hope with Gowanus Canal and Newtown Creek. 

Check out the ForgottenBook, take a look at the gift shop, and as always, “comment…as you see fit.”

2/14/18