Brooklyn Bridge Plaza Vision Plan: Addressing Opposing Views

Kristin Brown (Pratt Institute)

In 2018, an undeveloped two-acre area under the Brooklyn Bridge overpass, to the east of Brooklyn Bridge Park became a potential site for a pedestrian plaza. The Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation and the Community Advisory Council, a local community-based advisory group, asked Pratt Institute to conduct a community engagement process leading to a vision plan for the area. The goal was to prepare recommendations for the design team to create a space that would balance regional public park.

The Pratt team interviewed key stakeholders who represented neighborhood residents and local businesses in the area, held a community workshop and researched the constraints that would influence the design and programming of the space. It quickly became apparent that there was not only a lack of consensus among local stakeholders but open hostility between groups who held opposing views. Some believed that Brooklyn Bridge Park had already drawn too many visitors and therefore only minimal uses should be allowed while others held that the space offered opportunities for additional programming and activities not offered in Brooklyn Bridge Park. The proposed solution to this conflict was to consider the space not as a single entity, but as a set of smaller sub-spaces that could be programmed independently of each other and could vary seasonally.

This paper examines the approach taken to develop the vision plan for Brooklyn Bridge Plaza, its effectiveness, and the recommendations that resulted.