u/MrWinNT

via the Riverdale Press, May 8, 2026

Once a central gathering place for school sports and community events, the city has determined the long-shuttered stadium building at Van Cortlandt Park is beyond repair, with demolition now considered inevitable — even as funding to carry it out remains uncertain.

The conclusion follows a comprehensive planning study by the New York City Parks Department, which found the structure to be unsound after a yearlong engineering review. While the building has been closed to the public for years, officials say its deterioration has reached a point where continued maintenance is only a temporary measure.

Parks officials outlined both the building’s decline and the difficult reality facing the city. Jessenia Aponte, the Bronx borough commissioner for the department, said the building’s fate is sealed, though no timeline has been set.

“Those efforts led to a clear and difficult conclusion that the building has deteriorated beyond repair and will need to be demolished,” Aponte said. “At this point, the question is not if, but when.”

Constructed at the park’s southwest corner between 1937 and 1939 as part of a Works Progress Administration project — a federal initiative that funded public works during the Great Depression — the 3,000-seat stadium opened with a track meet and a football game between Manhattan College and Fordham University, presided by Robert Moses and Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia.

Over time, it evolved into a hub for recreation, with handball courts, baseball diamonds and a running track surrounding the stadium. But the land beneath it has contributed to its decline. Before the park was established, the area was largely wetland, later filled to make it usable. Those conditions continue to affect the site today, influencing drainage, soil stability and the long-term durability of any structure built there.

Marlisa Wise, director of architecture for the parks department, said the building’s foundation reflects that mismatch between design and environment.

“The current building foundation is on a shallow foundation, which is not what any architect or engineer would design to date for this kind of swampy soil,” she said. “In all honesty, the foundation is really not appropriate for the soil that the building sits on.”

That instability, combined with decades of exposure to the elements, has led to widespread structural damage. Engineers documented extensive cracking, water infiltration and corrosion throughout the building.

“The concrete is severely deteriorated, and you can see that the structural steel reinforcing is exposed and corroded, so it is in very poor structural condition,” Wise explained. “Water is basically moving through the concrete, busting the steel that’s in there, and causing the concrete to fall and deteriorate.”

Inside, the situation is equally severe. Mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems are largely nonfunctional, and hazardous materials, including asbestos, lead-based paint and other toxic substances, have been identified throughout the structure.

According to the parks department, its Capital Architecture division has no records of any significant work having been done on the building since its initial construction.

Together, those conditions led engineers to conclude that preservation is not feasible.

“Keeping existing beams, columns, walls and foundation is not feasible in the long term and will require complete demolition and rebuilding,” Wise said.

For Deb Travis, chair of Community Board 8’s Parks and Recreation Committee, the findings confirmed what many in the community had long suspected, even as they raised broader concerns about long-term investment.

“I wasn’t surprised by them saying that they thought that it needed to be torn down,” Travis said. “It’s really unfortunate that the lack of ongoing funding has led to this.”

She added that the community hopes to retain elements of the stadium’s history in whatever replaces it, even as the building itself cannot be preserved.

The city has not yet established a timeline for funding or redevelopment. Still, parks officials said demolition is part of a broader long-term vision that extends beyond the structure building to the roughly 21-acre surroundings that make up the stadium, including athletic fields, courts and other recreational space. The study outlines potential upgrades across that section of the park, though funding for the plan has not yet been secured.

Christina Taylor, deputy director of the Van Cortlandt Park Alliance, said the urgency now lies in moving forward, warning that delays could increase costs and prolong the park’s limitations.

She said moving ahead quickly would help prevent further deterioration of the site and allow for a coordinated redevelopment that brings the fields and facilities up to modern standards, rather than intermittent improvements over time.

In the interim, the department is considering ways to maintain recreational use, including the potential relocation of courts and other amenities.

“These could include removing the existing structure and installing simpler amenities like metal benches or handball courts, or potentially constructing new handball courts and another area before demolition occurs,” Wise said.

As the building continues to deteriorate, safety remains a primary concern. Engineers will conduct regular inspections, and additional protective measures may be required over time.

“This is what happens when you don’t invest in infrastructure over time, you reach a point where there’s no choice left but to start over,” Travis said. “At this point, it’s not just about what we’re losing. It’s about making sure what comes next actually serves the community.”