{"id":156341,"date":"2026-04-03T14:06:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T14:06:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/156341\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T14:06:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T14:06:22","slug":"construction-on-philadelphias-carousel-house-rec-center-begins-this-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/156341\/","title":{"rendered":"Construction on Philadelphia\u2019s Carousel House rec center begins this summer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Love Philly? So do we. Let\u2019s be friends.\u00a0Sign up for the Billy Penn newsletter today<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Designs for a $44 million expansion of Carousel House, the city\u2019s recreation center for people with disabilities, are finished and construction is expected to begin late this summer, officials say.<\/p>\n

The project will add new gym and pool buildings to the 49-year-old center in Fairmount Park\u2019s Centennial District, along with a larger playground, reconfigured parking and dropoff areas, and an extensive interior redesign, according to renderings presented at a community review meeting<\/a> last month.<\/p>\n

\"\"Philadelphia will build two basketball courts in a planned new gym building at the Carousel House recreation center. (City of Philadelphia)<\/p>\n

The facility will more than double in size, and will have two full-length basketball courts, a lap pool and activity pool, locker rooms, a multi-purpose atrium, a kitchen, a classroom, and lab rooms for fitness, art, and computers.<\/p>\n

The project is part of the city\u2019s soda tax-funded Rebuild program and is being overseen by a Capital Program Office that Mayor Cherelle Parker created two years ago.<\/p>\n

This summer, construction drawings will be completed and the city will take bids from builders. A groundbreaking ceremony is planned for late summer and construction is expected to finish in summer 2028, according to the city\u2019s presentation.<\/p>\n

From demolition to expansion<\/p>\n

Carousel House closed in 2020, during the pandemic, and remained shuttered because extensive repair needs had left the building unsafe to use.<\/p>\n

The Department of Parks and Recreation initially planned to demolish the building<\/a> and replace it with a general-purpose rec center. But following protests by the all-volunteer Carousel House Advisory Council and other supporters, the city announced it would expand the facility instead.<\/p>\n

Designers held a series of public events in 2022 and 2023 to get community input and present design ideas, and officials said it would reopen by 2025.<\/p>\n

\"\"A rendering shows the planned redesign of outdoor spaces around the Carousel House recreation center in Philadelphia. (City of Philadelphia)<\/p>\n

But after Parker took office she put the project under the new Capital Program Office and it seemed to go into limbo<\/a>, advisory council members said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A Rebuild spokesperson later said the project had been delayed in part to allow planners to analyze underground utilities, do required archeological research and prepare a stormwater manager plan.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The estimated construction cost also soared from $12 million to $40 million, requiring officials to look for additional sources of funding.<\/p>\n

A call to speed up construction<\/p>\n

Last September, advisory council president Tamar Riley and other supporters spoke at a City Council meeting and urged members to push Rebuild to accelerate the project<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The group\u2019s treasurer Mike Martin said some programs for disabled users were \u201cdying a slow death\u201d after being relocated to another rec center that is shared with able-bodied residents.<\/p>\n

\"\"A rendering shows the view from the parking lot at the Carousel House recreation center in Philadelphia. (City of Philadelphia)<\/p>\n

Councilmember Curtis Jones, whose district includes the Carousel House site, noted the cost hikes and vowed to see the project through to completion.<\/p>\n

The community engagement process resumed with a relaunch meeting in October 2025, followed by last month\u2019s online presentation.<\/p>\n

More information on the project is available on the city\u2019s Carousel House Rebuild site<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"In March 2023, Rebuild and a design team presented design ideas for an expanded Carousel House at a community design workshop. (Rebuild)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Love Philly? So do we. Let\u2019s be friends.\u00a0Sign up for the Billy Penn newsletter today. Designs for a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[70877,70878,15321,2847,564,69,71,70,70879,70880],"class_list":["post-156341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-carousel-house-advisory-council","tag-department-of-parks-recreation","tag-disability","tag-fairmount-park","tag-featured","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-susan-slawson","tag-the-carousel-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}