Public Space
Alliance

Together with dozens of partners, the Bronx River Alliance has transformed an abandoned concrete plant, a former manufactured gas plant, and more open space into sections of the Greenway. When complete, the Bronx River Greenway will be a continuous series of parks and trails along New York City’s only freshwater river: the Bronx River that flows through Westchester County and the heart of the Bronx.

BQ Green is a proposed 3.5-acre park along the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway that will extend a concrete platform over a portion of the expressway, integrating Marcy Green and Rodney Park. The project improves access to open space in a neighborhood facing a serious deficit of park space and combats century-long issues of environmental impacts, including air pollution.

Bushwick Inlet Park is a portion of the NYC Parks Greenpoint Williamsburg Waterfront Open Space Master Plan. This North Brooklyn new open space is in the early stages of development with one parcel out of five activated for public use. The Bushwick Inlet Park design was developed through many community meetings and adopted through a public process.

Through the federally mandated cleanup under the Canal’s Superfund status, The Gowanus Lowlands envisions a network of parks and public spaces centered on the Gowanus Canal and connected to the watershed. The Gowanus Canal Conservancy seeks to ensure the community has a role in shaping a watershed that is accessible, active, and clean for all.

The Newtown Creek Alliance is a community-based organization dedicated to restoring, revealing and revitalizing Newtown Creek.  They work to restore community health, water quality, habitat, access, and vibrant commerce along Newtown Creek. Since 2002, the Alliance has served as a catalyst for effective community action.

Located directly under the Kosciuszko Bridge, Under the K Bridge Park has converted a formerly abandoned site into a vibrant 7-acre open space that invites the public to the waterfront of Newtown Creek. Designed by PUBLIC WORK, Under the K fills a void within the area’s current open space network and stitches together several public spaces.

Brooklyn Bridge Manhattan envisions unlocking the potential of the forgotten spaces under the iconic Brooklyn Bridge, creating a new type of urban community park. Built upon the spirit and foundation of the original Brooklyn Banks, the Banks will be restored while expanding public space and access to create a variety of flexible play spaces for all ages.

New York Restoration Project (NYRP) installed the Living Shoreline Project to save one of the last wetland ecosystems in all of Manhattan. Employing nature-based designs, this project protects and restores the surrounding community’s natural resources and strengthens the environmental functionality of their green space while also fortifying the area’s climate resilience. The Living Shoreline Project is located at Sherman Creek Park, which sits between Inwood and Washington Heights.

The Lowline is a plan to build the world’s first underground park in an abandoned trolley terminal at the heart of New York City’s Lower East Side. The project envisions using advanced solar technology to deliver sunlight below the city’s sidewalk, enabling plants and trees to grow.

The Smallpox Hospital Ruin sits on Roosevelt Island within the shadow of the United Nations and World Health Organization. The building once served as a hospital for a devastating pandemic and a training center for New York’s front lines. Registered as a federal, state and city landmark, it is our country’s only landmark ruin.

Dutch Kills Loop is a circuit of public walkways, bridges, rail-lines, green space, learning gardens, urban agriculture, food waste and stormwater management systems, restored shorelines and wetlands, and a green jobs incubator. The Loop plans to restore and link currently disjointed segments of the railway to the creek, while providing environmental and economic benefits to the surrounding community.

Hunter’s Point South Park transformed a once barren post-industrial site into an 11-acre waterfront park along the East River in Long Island City, Queens. The park provides access to the water’s edge, offers spectacular views of the Manhattan skyline and highlights resilient features like bioswales, berms, tidal marshes, and a curated landscape of native plantings.

The New York State Pavilion is a historic structure originally built for the 1964-65 World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens. People for the Pavilion, the organization spearheading its preservation, is devoted to raising awareness of the historic value of the New York State Pavilion, and of its potential to serve as a vibrant and functional public space.

The QueensWay is a community driven effort to transform a 3.5-mile stretch of abandoned railway in Central Queens into a linear park and cultural greenway. When completed, the QueensWay will be a new kind of neighborhood park that will safely link to and enhance Forest Park.

Freshkills Park will be the largest park developed in New York City in over a century. The transformation of what was once the world’s largest landfill into a sustainable park makes the project a symbol of renewal, urban resilience and an expression of how we can re-imagine reclaimed landscapes in the borough of Staten Island.

The proposed Skyway project will occupy a half-mile elevated portion of the long abandoned rail line between Richmond Terrace and Heberton Avenue and Nicholas Avenue in Staten Island’s Northern Shore. The project will include various recreation spaces as well as a farmers market, public gardens and historic markers.