Category Archives: Project Updates

Brownsville Youth and Community Clubhouse

Brownsville Community Center and Clubhouse

During the summer of 2015, Tricia Martin, Kaja Kühl (youarethecity) and urban design students and faculty of Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation (GSAPP) Summer Studio had the opportunity to collaborate with a group of young Brownsville, New York residents on the design for a pop-up community clubhouse at Marcus Garvey Village. The residents, part of a program at Brownsville Community Justice Center (BCJC), developed a set of mental maps of their neighborhood to identify potential sites for the community center. Made in Brownsville, a local design not-for-profit, led the initial effort with BCJC that included the retrofit of a shipping container. Nicolas Fernando Del Valle Russell, one of our Columbia students from the summer 2015 studio, continued to assist WE Design with the project once a site was approved by L&M Development Partners, the owners of the housing development. Nicholas developed a site plan that included a stage for events, porous paving for paths, and a row of constructed nooks with custom benches and planters to be used for seating or other pop-up activities. The new facility will host a range of events such as movie nights, classes, and panel discussions.

This project demonstrates how collaboration between many experts and people of different backgrounds can have a meaningful impact in underserved communities.

Recent press on the project:

Brooklyn Eagle

dnainfo

news12brooklyn

Pop-Up Under the Elevated

Students participate in design charretteThis past spring, students from Sunset Park High School got a taste of what it’s like to be a landscape architect while reimagining the underutilized leftover space beneath the Gowanus Expressway on 36th Street, just around the corner from their school. In four after-school sessions, six students explored the process of site analysis, schematic design, and defending their design before a larger group of stakeholders.

Upon completion of the after-school sessions, Tricia and her fellow Design Trust design fellows presented the schematic design to city agencies and the community during a three-day pop-up workshop. Some of the ideas generated by the students will be incorporated into building the pilot project, including moveable planters (pictured under grow lights) that maximize flexibility of the space, and a larger area for public gatherings and events.

Gardens Rising

WE Design is pleased to have been chosen by the NYC Community Garden Coalition (NYCCGC) to develop a feasibility study for the design and construction of green infrastructure in 47 community gardens located throughout the Lower East Side. This project, “Gardens Rising,” combines community participation with urban planning, landscape architecture, and engineering to increase the permeability and stormwater capture in these gardens, the majority of which are located within an area that was severely impacted by Superstorm Sandy, as well as adding native plants to support habitat and beautify the neighborhood.

We’ve had a blast getting to know the gardeners and their gardens at each of the 47 sites, and are now evaluating the potential for green infrastructure through research of existing and relevant documentation, onsite fieldwork, and extensive community engagement. Based on information gathered from this first stage, we will develop an outcomes-based approach toolkit that matches specific existing garden conditions with various green infrastructure strategies. Working closely with the client and community, we will then develop criteria for evaluating priority sites on which to test the toolkit, creating concept designs for the most at risk gardens.

This extensive project has the potential to demonstrate, through specific hydrological metrics, the critical role community gardens can play in any city’s climate change resiliency plan.

gardensrising