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Restore or replace? Fight over historic West Village rec center and pool drags on.
By
Liam Quigley
Published Oct 16, 2025
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Liam Quigley
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Liam Quigley
Published Oct 16, 2025
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West Village residents won’t get their public swimming pool back anytime soon.
The latest twist in a fight over a downtown public indoor basketball court, pool and exercise center came late last month when mayoral front-runner Zohran Mamdani publicly supported a pitch by neighborhood groups to restore the space, which has been closed to the public since 2019.
It’s a departure from a plan proposed by Mayor Eric Adams a month earlier to demolish the aging structure and replace it with an expanded “fitness hub.”
The 117-year-old Tony Dapolito rec center on Clarkson Street shuttered six years ago after city parks officials uncovered severe structural problems. The space has remained locked up while city officials and neighborhood preservationists have argued over whether to tear the whole thing down and replace it, or restore it to its bygone glory.
The closure has forced locals to look elsewhere for a space to swim or work out in the neighborhood that doesn’t require a pricey gym membership.
“The pool is always closed,” said Wayne Johnson, 40, who works for Citi Bike. “ It's a shame. It’s a waste.”
In August, Adams announced a plan to demolish the building and erect a new, larger recreational and aquatic center that would be constructed alongside a city-backed housing development proposed for the same block.
The pitch would preserve a sprawling mural installed by the artist Keith Haring next to the center’s outdoor pool in 1987.
But Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, argued the historic building should be kept in place because it’s a key part of the area’s history.
“ I think there was a kind of predetermined outcome on the part of the mayor and the parks department, which was that they saw what they thought was an opportunity for creating some grand new aquatic center that nobody wanted and nobody was asking for, but they thought would be well-received,” Berman said.
Downtown New Yorkers used to be able to spend their summers swimming at the "Tony Dap."
Liam Quigley
During a forum hosted by a group of downtown Democratic Party clubs last month, Mamdani said he supported the plan backed by neighborhood groups like Berman’s.
Preservationists followed up with a rally earlier this month to celebrate Mamdani’s apparent support for the rec center's preservation.
Shawn Rickenbacker, director of the J. Max Bond Center for Urban Futures at City College, said those supporters should temper their expectations.
If Mamdani wins the general election next month, Rickenbacker said he’d expect him to lean on the expertise of engineers, not locals who want the old building to be restored.
‘I would imagine that any new administration would do their own evaluation with the intent to verify the initial assessment,” Rickenbacker said. “There were calls from the community to preserve it as much as possible. I think in the end, the profession of engineering and architecture had the final determination based on what they thought, following a similar assessment to the Dapolito center, that it would not be feasible.”
Rickenbecker added that dealing with aging, beloved facilities like the West Village center – affectionately referred to as the “Tony Dap” – is part of a growing trend across the city where locals want to see historic buildings preserved, no matter the cost. He pointed to the Renaissance Ballroom in Harlem, which was demolished a decade ago over community objections.
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new york city
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Liam Quigley
Liam Quigley is a reporter covering parks & sanitation for Gothamist and WNYC. Got a tip? Email [email protected]
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