York College / City University of New York (CUNY)

Location: Jamaica, NY
Surface System Used: A-Turf® Titan S-50 with sand and rubber infill
Completion: January 2024

Overview

Founded in 1847 and based in New York, N.Y., the City University of New York (CUNY) is the United States’ first free public institution of higher education and the largest urban public university in the nation. Today CUNY includes 25 colleges spread across New York City’s five boroughs and serves more than 225,000 students. To benefit its undergraduates and the Jamaica, N.Y. community in which it resides, CUNY York College unveiled a new soccer and track and field complex in January 2024 that features a 120,000-square-foot A-Turf® Titan S-50 soccer field. This area is now the largest playing field in Queens and the only Soccer-specific field in the most diverse county in the U.S!

Key Challenges and Solutions 

The York College soccer field was completed in partnership with A-Turf and N.Y.-based general contractor, Fidelis Contracting. A-Turf and its National Director of Soccer, Jim Kilmeade, began collaborating with former CUNY Athletic Commissioner, Zak Ivkovic, in 2016 to discuss renovating the condemned and dormant soccer field and running track. This collaboration led to an in-depth interaction with CUNY York College and Langan Engineering. Together, this team established the highest standard for a synthetic turf system – a minimum of 50 ounces of face weight – and specified A-Turf® Titan S-50. A-Turf and Fidelis Contracting were, ultimately, chosen to rebuild the entire York College Athletic Complex.

“A-Turf is proud to have been selected as the synthetic turf provider for the new Sports Complex at York College,” said Kilmeade. “We installed our industry-leading Titan system, which sets the standard for aesthetics, durability, and performance through a combination of monofilament and Slit film fibers.” This ‘hybrid’ system provides an amazingly robust, plush, and natural-looking surface, resulting in an ideal playing field for soccer, since it closely resembles natural grass in pristine condition. 

A-Turf is the official synthetic turf provider for the National Premier Soccer League. The Titan system at York College is also the same system A-Turf installed at Highmark Stadium in Buffalo, N.Y., which is the home field of the National Football League’s Buffalo Bills!

The key challenges of this project were construction delays that pushed installation from August to December 2023. A-Turf overcame this setback through relentless communication with Fidelis Contracting and Langan Engineering. This included multiple on-site logistics meetings for scheduling and staging. A-Turf scheduled a plan that began staging and installation during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays and into the new year. As a result, A-Turf met the deadline and completed the project in the first week of January 2024.

The most unique and compelling feature of this restorative venture is that it was the catalyst for the transformation of York College Athletics and serves as a beacon of hope for the underserved Jamaica-Queens community. This recreational site now serves families, community groups, and local sports teams in southeast Queens.