The intention of the project is to bring the Waterfront to Brooklyn's Downtown. Public space is created along the waterfront at two different scales: the City scale, at the waterfront beneath Brooklyn Heights, and the local scale, between Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan Bridge.
Situated at a strategic point of New York Harbor, the piers in front of Brooklyn Heights could become an incredible location for an Urban Entertainment District, combined with a powerful linear public space along the waterfront. It is a regional public space because the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway connects with Queens, Long Island and Staten Island, the Brooklyn Bridge connects to Manhattan, and Atlantic Avenue connects more directly with Long Island.
The strategy is to distribute a series of attractor-uses along the different piers such as:
Urban Entertainment Center
Sports Center (open closed)
Retail Mega Store
Food Centers-Markets
The first probe is a small section of the waterfront, including a pier, Furman Street, the space between them, and a vertical connection with Brooklyn Heights, (restoring a historical condition). This is a single development unit that could establish the basis for a master plan for the entire Waterfront, up to Brooklyn Bridge. A series of elements distributed in this section create the public space; pedestrian walkways inside and on the edge of the piers, different plazas related to each major use are located strategically as reference spaces, the use of landscape as a defining element for different spaces, (cars alley, bus stops, landscape parking, pedestrians walks, sports courts, etc.). The implementation of mixed use spaces (open-closed) will allow them to be used day and night during the whole year.
The second probe is a new public space between Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan Bridge, a place with a unique character: the old Tabacco Wharehouses still stand there after a century, now in ruins, facing a waterfront park where people from Brooklyn pass by every day; walking, bycicling, playing ball, or just relaxing.
The intention is to transform it into an armature taking the bridges as main poles, making interventions in the old buildings, and encouraging reuse to support the people living and working around the area. Included are small restaurants, services, offices, market, special art features.
In addition "DUMBO" space (Down under Manhattan Bridge Overpass) will be totally transformed into a public garden and garden market with a very special character, taking as a paradigm for its design the gardens of Xilitla, S.L.P., Mexico.