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Steeplechase Plaza Under Construction in Coney Island

Posted in amusement park, Amusement ride, Redevelopment, tagged B&B Carousell, Coney Island, Economic Development Corporation, New Construction, NYCEDC, Parachute Jump, Steeplechase Plaza on August 10, 2012| 1 Comment »

B&B Carousell Pavilion Under Construction in Steeplechase Plaza, Coney Island. July 30, 2012. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

When the B&B Carousell reopens in Coney Island next season, the restored 1919 ride will spin in a glass pavilion next to the Parachute Jump. The progress of construction on the pavilion and its new home Steeplechase Plaza can be seen in the above photo. Large-scale neon lettering spelling B&B CAROUSELL will encircle the top of the completed pavilion. Coney Island’s last hand-carved carousel was saved from auction in 2005 when the City purchased it for $1.8 million from the McCullough family who operated it on the north side of Surf Avenue since the 1970s.

The Parachute Jump, the sole survivor of Steeplechase Park, is also a focal point of Steeplechase Plaza. The red, yellow and blue sheet metal panels and medallions at the base of the Jump are getting a redo as you can see in the photo below.

Construction at the Base of the Parachute Jump. July 30, 2012. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

While fans of the Jump continue to hope that the landmark ride will someday be restored to operation, we don’t see that happening due to liability concerns and high costs. In an article that we wrote for Preservation Magazine in 2002, independent ride engineer and certified safety inspector Ed Pribonic expressed concerns about stress on the structure and the viability of reusing original components. “As a visual icon, it’s probably fine,” he said. “When you’re talking about turning it into an operating amusement ride that carries passengers and is subject to thousands of dynamic load cycles a day, then it becomes a different engineering problem.”

Besides, Coney Island is getting a 2.2 acre public plaza on the old Steeplechase site, not a new Steeplechase Park. According to the NYCEDC’s press release issued at the time of last November’s groundbreaking, the plaza will be the western gateway to the revitalized Coney Island and will be large enough to host a variety of events. For the first time, visitors will be able to walk directly underneath the Parachute Jump and gaze up at the latticework structure from the inside. The landmark will also get a new lighting scheme to “bring the bling to Coney Island,” in the words of Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz.

Artist Rendering of Parachute Jump Gateway. NYC Economic Development Corporation

Traveler: Skywheel at the Wisconsin State Fair 2012

Posted in Amusement ride, Travel, video, tagged Curtis Velare, Jim McDonnell, McDonagh Amusements, Minnesota State Fair, Skywheel, Space Wheel, Wisconsin State Fair on August 9, 2012| 1 Comment »

It’s a treat to see the classic and rarely seen Sky Wheel, one of the flashiest carnival rides of the late 1950’s and ’60s, in action on the midway at the 2012 Wisconsin State Fair. Coney Island photographer/videographer Jim McDonnell made a trip to the fair this past weekend and brought back this POV video.

The ride is owned by McDonagh Amusements and is a 1965 Allan Herschell model refurbished by them in 2003. After the Wisconsin fair closes on August 12, the Sky Wheel will travel to two American fairs famed for their independent midways: the Minnesota State Fair (August 23- September 3) and the State Fair of Texas (September 28-October 21).

Seeing the video brings back memories of the Velare brothers, Curtis and Elmer, who pioneered the eye-catching idea of two Ferris wheels, and then four, set up in a row. Their first Sky Wheel — a double wheel– debuted with Royal American Shows at Tampa and Orlando in 1940. In 1958, they introduced the Space Wheel– a double double wheel. A Billboard ad from our collection trumpets the 92-foot-tall Space Wheel as “The Greatest of all Portable Rides,” “Brilliantly Illuminated,” “Unequaled Public Appeal” and “Front Page Publicity.”

In 1960, Allan Herschell, the merry-go-round and kiddie ride manufacturer in North Tonawanda, NY, bought the patent rights to manufacture the double wheels from the Velares. Herschell president Lyndon Wilson paid tribute to the Velares’ tenacity and ingenuity. He told the Billboard that it took 20 years of hard work by the Velares to develop the double wheel and the double double wheel from wheels which were all steel and had cable drives to wheels with part aluminum, part steel construction and dual friction drives that operate like clockwork.

1958 Ad for Velare Bros Space Wheel. © Tricia Vita Collection/AmusingtheZillion

Coney Island Zip Line Still Under Construction

Posted in amusement park, Amusement ride, video, tagged Boris Johnson, Coney Island, London, new ride, Zip line on August 5, 2012| 6 Comments »

Zip Line Under Construction in Coney Island. August 4, 2012. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

The scaffolding towers for the Coney Island Zip Line started going up last week on Stillwell Avenue, but construction has not been completed. No one was working over the weekend. The gates were locked and the lot was a ghost town. Sources told ATZ that the zip line expects to be ready to open next weekend.

In the meantime, the BK Festival’s merchandise vendors who sell hats, sunglasses, jewelry and other items under the multicolored tents did not open as usual on Saturday and Sunday. Word on the street is they were closed because of the ongoing construction. Will they be allowed to open when people are zipping overhead? The new attraction is being set up behind Nathan’s and runs from the Bowery and Stillwell Avenue to West 15th Street. Originally slated to traverse Stillwell Avenue and open in July, the zip line’s debut has been rescheduled a couple of times due to paperwork delays. “It’s taken a bit longer than we thought to get the engineering drawings required for this project,” zip line operator Patrick Ingram told ATZ when we first wrote about it in June.

Another zip line in the news last week was in the UK, where London’s Mayor Boris Johnson got stuck in mid-air when he tried out the 1,000-foot ride at an Olympics celebration. This comic video of him merrily waving little Union Jacks before the zip stalled went viral and won him fans in China. “I love his spontaneity, not pretentious at all!,” one wrote on the social networking site Weibo, according to the Wall Street Journal. Will Coney Island “Mayor” and Mermaid Parade founder Dick Zigun be the first to ride Coney’s new zip line?

UPDATE September 14, 2012

Long-Delayed Coney Island Zipline Is Officially Open!

UPDATE August 19, 2012

BK Festival Vendors Back in Business, Coney Zipline Isn’t, ATZ

UPDATE August 14, 2012

Official sources tell ATZ that additional paperwork needs to be filed and the Zipline might open on Thursday or Friday.

UPDATE August 10, 2012

The Zipline is finished and ready for zipliners. On Thursday and Friday the crew was being trained and the zipline was tested. We’re expecting it to open today and will post an update via twitter