LOCATION: Brooklyn, NY

PROGRAM: PUBLIC SPACE

STATUS: PRESENTED 2013

Our competition entry was for a treatment of a New York City Department of Transportation-controlled space in our neighborhood Williamsburg, Brooklyn. On our daily walk past the asphalt strip under the Williamsburg Bridge, we dreamed of greenery and wanted to address the conditions underneath bridges that exist in many cities and throughout our own. We wondered if the shaded area could host an artificial temperate rainforest, fed by rain collected on the bridge. The forest could act to address multiple conditions and needs for the surrounding area: 1. As a rain garden for managing massive amounts of storm runoff from the bridge, 2. A way to mitigate car pollution from the bridge, 3. Sound mitigation and 4. A recreational space for the neighborhood. This proposal for the BMW Guggenheim Lab allowed us to share our vision and initiated a desire at Glickman Schlesinger Architects to always consider recycling, reuse, and nature in our designs especially in a challenging urban environment.