Travel / Outdoors

NEW YORK — Birds are chirping, the grass is green and tea is being served amid blossoming bushes.

Welcome to New York City in winter, with a cure for cold-weather blues: a pop-up indoor park in lower Manhattan that's open through Valentine's Day.

Despite temperate temperatures for much of the this winter, "it's our rebellion against winter," says Jonathan Daou, founder and CEO of Openhouse Gallery, a company that holds a 20-year lease on the space at 201 Mulberry St.

On a recent chilly weekday afternoon, babies played barefoot in the 75-degree world of Park Here while their mothers and fathers sipped tea, eating cookies and sandwiches.

One night, a movie is planned on the lawn; other days bring a ping pong competition, a trivia contest, wine tastings and soccer workshops.

The 5,000-square-foot artificial habitat in the downtown Nolita neighborhood is filled with trees, rocks, picnic benches and the recorded ambient sounds of Central Park in spring. There are giant cushions and even a hammock, plus a baby elephant.

But the park will be gone by mid-February.

The rest of the year, the 200-year-old former police precinct is a stage for business that plays on the "pop-up" retail method mushrooming around the world in recent years: a quick presentation of a product, performance or personality, with no commitment to a lease or contract.

It's usually set up in a mobile unit that can be assembled and disappear.

For its current incarnation as a pop-up park, Park Here (see www.openhousegallery.org) was the only warm, park-like space one family found for outings with their baby in winter.

"This is a great alternative when it's cold or raining," attorney Vida Cave says as she watched 6-month-old Caspian crawling on a round picnic blanket while she and her husband sat on a nearby bench.

For parents, there's food and drink vendors, plus Wi-Fi and a music playlist.

In the dead of winter, Park Here has something Central Park doesn't: In addition to natural light from skylights, there's artificial illumination for those who suffer from seasonal affective disorder.

Before it all folds, on Feb. 15, a big Valentine's Day bash is planned.