The night of Monday, November 26, about 30 parks enthusiasts trekked through driving rain to a community visioning workshop held by Newtown Creek Alliance. The objective: to plan for the development and design of a 13,000-square-foot, city-owned open space at the corner of Greenpoint & Kingsland Avenues. They came to establish values, generate ideas, and map potentials together.
The remediated space was owned by the the NYC Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and given to the community during the renovation of the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant. Now that the plant is finished, it’s time to work on the open space.
The site itself is by the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge at the northwest corner of Greenpoint and Kingsland Avenues, and will function as a gateway into nearby open spaces including the Kingsland Wildflowers Green Roof, the Newtown Creek Nature Walk, and the North Henry Street Public Basin (in development). It will create a pedestrian space and route into Greenpoint; hence the name, “Gateway to Greenpoint”.
Marlisa Wise and Benedict Clouette, an urban design team from Interval Projects, led the group through the initial planning session. As Clouette manned the whiteboard, Marlisa encouraged the group to brainstorm answers to the following key questions:
- What qualities are important for public spaces?
- What are the potential environmental benefits?
- What would be the quality of connections with the urban area?
The ideas springing up from the group were practical, inspiring, cautious, and creative. It was a fun environment, like kids planning their dream house, with lots of room to imagine.
Some of the aspects of the open space that were important to participants were:
- Air quality: lots of traffic in that area, which means fumes
- Some signage about the history of the site: it is wonderful that a previously toxic space will be turned into a public open space!
- Beauty
- Native plants
- Shade for the hot summer months
- Accessibility for people in wheelchairs
- Safety for everyone: children, pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers
- Information about the Native American history of the space
- Connection to local libraries and schools
- Connection with cafes and restaurants in walking distance
- Offer compost pickup at the park
- How can the site improve rainwater runoff and soil quality?
- Connections with local nearby industrial businesses including Evergreen, Greenpoint Storage Plus, Metro Fuel, Broadway Stages, Point Recycling, etc.
As exciting as all of these prospects are, there will also be challenges in developing this new public open space. For instance, Kingsland Avenue, North Henry Street, and Greenpoint Avenue are major truck routes. That means traffic and litter.
As one participant said, “Kingsland Avenue was designed for the Department of Sanitation. It’s not really safe for people to walk or children to play. You need the Department of Transportation (DOT) to look at the design. It was a dead end street designed several years ago, and maybe the street has to be redesigned.”
Newtown Creek Alliance reassured the group that there would be communication with the DOT. Other participants suggested raising the open space on a platform or series of steps, or creating a fence or wall to keep a boundary between the open space and the traffic outside.
The participants then split into smaller groups and looked at pictures of parks, meant to inspire ideas for the new space. Newtown Creek Executive Director Willis Elkins, architect Melissa Frost, and moderators Wise and Clouette each led a small group, designing a dream open-space with dry erase markers on blueprints of the sitemap. Some of the ideas included a compost toilet, a pedestrian bridge, a greenwall, a sculpture garden, a bocce court, a compost shed, a greenhouse, and a zip line!
When asked what her goals for the project were, Wise said, “Our goal is to have an open public accessible space that gives environmental benefits, and links together the neighborhood.”
The first phase of the project consists of these community planning workshops, which are made possible by the Greenpoint Community Environmental Fund (GCEF), Office of the New York State Attorney General, and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC).
GCEF granted $30,428 to Newtown Creek Alliance earlier this year to “generate a community-driven conceptual site plan and associated materials to inform discussions about the potential future development of a 13,000 square feet city-owned parcel as public green space.”
A build out of the space, however, will require additional funding. “We have no construction date yet,” said Wise. “The design process has to mobilize funding. We will have more workshops through June 2019.” After that, an official plan and design will be presented.
The DEP has provided the land, but it is not known if they will fund anything else. Newtown Creek Alliance, the DEP, and the designers and architects will work with elected officials and agencies to make the open space a reality after a cohesive, realistic vision has been created.
Elkins shared that “the next steps are to refine and synthesize ideas that were generated from Monday’s workshop, and also to touch base with NYC DEP and Council Member Stephen Levin’s office to give feedback from the meeting, discussing design opportunities and challenges.”
Newtown Creek Alliance expects that the next community planning workshop will be held in February 2019. Check GoGreen BK’s calendar for the date. Please participate and have a hand in planning this new community space!