Daily News from New York, New York • 144

GOOD LIVING Prepare to meet your mako Wednesday, August 5, 1987 ACTION LINE Things that go bump in the road Pago 2 KSI 1 KL A 0D Dg)(fl 3 Us Pratt birthday Pratt Institute is cele City salutes start of a $63 facelift for Eastern Parkway groundbreaking ceremony. With him were Borough President Howard Golden, Parks Commissioner Henry Stern, and First Deputy Transportation Commissioner Samuel Schwartz. Grand old thoroughfare "Eastern Parkway is one of the grand old thoroughfares of Brooklyn, and I am delighted that the DOT, in cooperation with a whole host of" other city agencies and private groups, is restoring it to its original grandeur," Koch said." Golden called the reconstruction a "cause for celebration." He praised the plan and said the high level of cooperation between the community and the city agencies involved in the project had made it possible. Officials of the DOT say they expect the ambitious job to take about three years to complete. When finished, it will combine preservation of the historic parkway's landmark appearance with the in Eastern Parkway, which runs from Grand Army Plaza to the Interboro Parkway, was just one of several bucolic thoroughfares planned for the borough by Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux, designers of Central Park.

First in the U.S. The first parkway built in the U.S., Eastern Parkway reflects the European park and roadway developments Olmstead had observed on his travelsabroad. Originally the design was conceived as an extension of Prospect Park, reaching from Grand Army Plaza to what was then the Brooklyn city line. When it was completed in 1874, the parkway consisted of a main carriage roadway flanked by service malls, with service roads on either side. The original roadway was rebuilt between 1915 and 1920, after construction of the IRT subway, which runs beneath the parkway.

By CHARLES SEATON Daily News Staff Writer With the promise that it will once again be the "Champs Elysees of Brooklyn," city and borough officials gathered on Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights yesterday to mark the start of rehabilitating a 2.2-mile stretch of the parkway, between Washington and Pitkin Aves. The long-awaited project, to cost $673 million, is the largest single road construction job ever undertaken by the city's Department of Transportation, city officials said yesterday. The five-phase rehabilitation calls for reconstructing all roadways, mall sections, and sidewalks. There will also be improvements to street and mall lighting, as well as upgrading of traffic signals and the installation of new water and sewer mains. "This is a landmark reconstruction job for a landmark roadway," a beaming Mayor Koch said as he attended the And the heat goes on troduction of new features that will make the roadway safer for motorists.

Transportation Commissioner Ross Sandler said the reconstruction would do away with the problems often faced by motorists making left turns. "New plastic markings will delineate a new left-turn lane, ending the confusion for drivers making left turns past the service roads," explained Sandler. In addition, colored symbols will be set into the pavement to identify the bikeway on the pedestrian malls. To add to the greening of the parkway, 1,400 new trees will be planted, including elms, lindens and oaks. Transportation officials noted that the work was planned with the cooperation of Community Boards 8 and 9, several community support groups, the Eastern Parkway Coalition; the Brooklyn Museum, the Brooklyn Public Library and the Landmarks Preservation Committee.

1 1 4 brating its 100th birthday this year. Special events throughout the academic year are scheduled at Pratt's Brooklyn Campus and at Pratt Manhattan lo cated in the Puck Building. A Centennial brochure, "Looking Toward the Second Century," is available from the school. For information about an niversary activities, call 636-3416. Fashion show Community Board Six will hold its annual Lip Sync-Fashion Show next Wednesday at the Pros pect Park Band Shell.

The show provides an oppor tunity for young people at the Community Board 6-Summer Youth Employment Program to show their talent There will be money awards for the winners, with runners-up getting trophies and other contes tants receiving certificates. For information, call Rodney Henderson at 643-2396. Simon play The Maverick Theatre and Film Company will present Neil Simon's "Last Of The Red Hot Lov ers, today on inerrepont Street and the Brooklyn Heights Promenade at 7:30 p.m. Hospital ship The "Floating Hospi- tal," an 822-ton ship locat ed at Pier 84, 44th St. and 12th Ave.

in Manhattan, will conduct Brooklyn Day tomorrow. The ship offers a wide variety of health, educational, and social-service programs to low-income passengers. Visiting artists The Charles University Dance Company of Prague, Czechoslovakia, will check into Brooklyn College as visiting resident artists from Aug. 14 through Sept 7. As a part of a cultural exchange program, the troupe will be the guests of the Division of Dance of the Conservatory of Music of Brooklyn College.

The company performs on Aug. 22 at 8 p.m. and Aug. 23 at 2 p.m. in the Gershwin Theater at the college.

General admission tickets at $5 are available at the box office one hour before both Group plans lawsuit over etroTech By CHARLES SEATON Daily News Staff Writer Representatives of a Downtown Brooklyn community group, formed in the hope of throwing a monkey wrench into the multi-million Metro-Tech development, plan to file suit today against the backers of the giant development charging them with violating the federal Clean Air Act, the national Environmental Policy Act and the national Historic Preservation Act Donna Henes, the head of S.T.A.N.D. (Stand Together for Affirmative Neighborhood Development) blasted the $770 million project yesterday, saying that it would further add to the high carbon-monoxide levels in Downtown Brooklyn. "There are many problems that the city is just not addressing," Henes said. "The traffic and air quality conditions are already horrendous; and, on top of this, Me-troTech will add more people and more vehicles. Then there is also the possibility that the Williamsburgh Bridge will be closed for repairs." She added that the project will severely damage the living conditions in the area.

,1 DIANE DIODATO, 18, cools off friend, Phyllis Parasole, 22, as August heat wave grips Metropolitan Area. Friends hail from Bensonhurst. Today's forecast calls for more heat." ANtHONVKsanoitf dailynevvs v- r'it-'rVLX.