‘Kojak’ Station To Reopen In Modern Garb
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A police precinct in the East Village that was once the gritty setting for shows like “Kojak” and “NYPD Blue” will reopen today after a four-year restoration.
The project, which began in 2003 and cost about $25 million, has transformed the 9th Precinct at 321 E 5th St. from a run-down icon of New York’s past into one of the city’s most modern and architecturally pleasing station houses.
New amenities include panoramic, bullet-proof glass windows, 700-pound stainless steel doors, and a brand new elevator system — the old station house had elevator shafts, but no elevators — the project manager from the New York City Department of Design and Construction, Charles Kaczorowski, said.
The station will be shown off today to many former police officers who spent a bulk of their careers at the “fighting 9th.”
“When I started working here they had tourist maps with blanks over the East Village and Harlem,” a retired police officer that patrolled the 9th Precinct between 1969 and 1980, Christopher Reisman, said. “Everything exists in a different time and place.”
The past isn’t all forgotten in the new precinct house. The stones from the old station house’s façade were removed before the demolition, washed, and reused in the construction of the new precinct, Mr. Kaczorowski said.
