Best Practice

Introduction

Brooklynites had something to celebrate on Monday, September 22, as Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Governor George E. Pataki, Parks & Recreation Commissioner Adrian Benepe and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz opened the newest segment of Brooklyn Bridge Park. This 1.5-acre segment was converted from a parking lot into lush green parkland as part of a far-reaching City/State plan to transform a 1.3-mile stretch of the formerly industrial Brooklyn waterfront into parkland. In July of 2001, work began to provide increased public access to Brooklyn’s historic waterfront, and Monday’s ceremony marked the opening the $6.6 million, city-funded renovation of this portion of the park.

Brooklyn Bridge Park hosted 5 million visitors last year, including local residents, residents of nearby cities and tourists from around the world. After 20 years of planning and construction, the 83-acre post-industrial waterfront is nearing completion. Brooklyn Bridge Park has been a part of urban life since the opening of the first phase of the project in 2010. In order to make this large-scale project smoothly realized, the design team focused on solving the challenges brought by the site itself at the early stage of the project, while maximizing its advantages.

Reason to Be Selected

From open spaces to sheltered forests, the program offers different types of space and experience. Nearby neighborhoods were reconnected with functional urban nodes by means of parks, and the renovation of the first dock was optimized for a variety of waterfront and public events. The high standard design at the beginning of the project laid the foundation for the implementation and innovation of the later works. The new park will provide a better environment for local residents with a range of innovative waterfront facilities, and will further expand its influence in the city.

Highlights:

Community involvement + inspiration

Resilience + infrastructure

Activity + urban environment

Feature + Heritage

Details

Community involvement + inspiration: Many questions have arisen in the early stages of planning, such as: Is anyone really willing to use a park that is not adjacent to a neighborhood and is blocked by a multi-level Brooklyn-Queens highway? How to deal with the relationship between the park and the river bank? And more importantly, what should the park look like? How does it make use of the existing conditions to attract enough tourists to get long-term development? Over the next few years, landscape architects held about 300 meetings with local residents and community groups to effectively answer these questions.

Resilience + infrastructure: Designers know that the park must be very durable to withstand the daily tidal pressures of this low-lying site, as well as the possible post-rain flooding of the East River. To balance functionality and resilience, designers have introduced a new type of edge that can improve environmental energy efficiency while optimizing the use of riparian experiences. Stony embankments have become a versatile tool throughout the project: not only are they cheaper, they are better at withstanding tides and storm surges than impervious walls, but they can also be shaped into different shapes. At the same time, based on intensive research and testing by expert consultants, this highly engineered salt marsh returns the high-quality ecological environment to the urban waterfront and forms a new intertidal zone on the edge of the park.

Activity + urban environment: The first phase of the project will focus on linking the existing waterfront tourist area next to the Brooklyn Bridge with the underdeveloped Atlantic Street, an important commercial corridor. The two main entrances of the park are equipped with food stores and ferry stations, which form a close connection with urban life and make the entrance of the park a node in the city.

Feature + Heritage: Given the diversity of functions and landscapes, the design team needs to give the park an overall continuity to keep it in touch with the rich cultural history of the site. A large part of the park's physical structure is made of recycled materials, including stones left behind by the demolition of urban bridges and old pine beams in demolished buildings. New materials and equipment are also very simple and durable, and can adapt to the city's coastal environment, including galvanized steel, stone embankments and natural corrosion-resistant fences and so on.

Conclusions

The success of Brooklyn Bridge park comes from its designers' careful consideration of the status quo of the site. As part of the urban experience, this new ecosystem has grown up in densely populated urban centers. The project has made the riparian land a place that can be used and enjoyed by people. To this end, the design team strives to create opportunities for interaction with the riverbank, transforming the original steep embankment into a complex and changeable space and path, so that people can be in close contact with the river.