More recently, in 2019, the highway became a hot topic when it appeared that New York City Department of Transportation (NYC DOT) intended to reconstruct the road’s triple-decker section that hugs the perimeter of Brooklyn Heights. In Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens, where the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE) runs through a trench that isolates the neighborhoods of Red Hook and the Columbia Street Waterfront, the report suggested, “A platform could be constructed over the below-grade section of the BQE to create nine new blocks of housing while reconnecting two neighborhoods.”Ībout the same time, DLand Studio, a Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary firm with an interest in public landscapes, began working on an effort called BQ Green to transform the BQE into “an ecologically and socially productive spine by introducing recreation space, ecological strategies, and infrastructure improvements.” DLand Founding Principal Susannah Drake worked closely with a City Councilwoman Diana Reyna to develop a pilot project that involved capping a two-block stretch in Williamsburg to “provide playing fields and verdant open space for an underserved Hispanic community.” As Drake recalls, “Our original budget of $100 million to provide significant open space and safer connections to school for the 140,000 Latino families seemed like a social and political win.” The project remains unbuilt. The Bloomberg Administration’s PlaNYC 2030: A Greater, Greener New York, released in 2007, advocated decking over rail yards and highways to create more room for housing. This is not a new concept or even a particularly radical one. ![]() And, like other kinds of open space land, they don’t need to be used for the same purpose forever. But the rights-of-way created for those same highways could become the symbols of a 21st-century renaissance, one in which we repurpose what we’ve got to get what we need. The highways that carved up our densely developed urban neighborhoods were once the height of progress, the apex of mid-20th-century notions about personal transportation. He also gave us a gift, a surprising one we don’t generally appreciate or notice. He left New York City with over 160 miles of expressways and parkways, much of it heavily trafficked and desperately in need of rehabilitation. Over half a century ago, Robert Moses rammed his highways through block after block of apartments, displacing thousands of families in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens, destroying some neighborhoods, and isolating others. But that open space, even if it’s filled by bumper-to-bumper traffic, is also-potentially-land. What I realized just looking out my bedroom window is that the sunken, six-lane expressway doubles as a swath of open space, affording me an unobstructed view of the Manhattan skyline from my fourth-floor walkup. On a functional level, it denotes the areas of shared access: vehicles driving to and from adjoining properties, and circulation routes for bicycles and pedestrians.I live in Brooklyn, a couple of blocks from the Prospect Expressway, a 2.3-mile link between the elevated Gowanus Expressway and Frederick Law Olmsted’s Ocean Parkway. Its pattern, inspired by the stained-glass windows found in nearby historic buildings, connects to the spatial history of the site. The pavement itself is tasked with multiple roles. Feature pavement extends to the edge of adjoining properties, enabling owners to directly access the park. Existing mature trees have been retained while new trees, planted in avenues, visually connect into Richmond Terrace and Docker Street. A series of grassed terraces orient towards the city and take advantage of views of the MCG and CBD skyline. The park has a local feel and is well integrated with the existing residential character of its surrounds. Richmond Terrace Park, designed by Hansen Partnership with input from City of Yarra, was formed by closing a section of road at the intersection of Docker Street and Richmond Terrace. ![]() ![]() “A major thing that came out of both was to plan for more time … we’ve learnt to go more slowly, to take people along on the process.” – Joanna Bush, City of Yarra. ![]() Richmond Terrace Park by Hansen Partnership was formed by closing a section of road at the intersection of Docker Street and Richmond Terrace.
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