Case Study: The Atlantic Yards Project

INTRODUCTION

The Atlantic Yards Project in Brooklyn is a well-known project. Yet there are some uncertainties about who and what they are designing. One thing is certain, Forest City Ratner  is the developer. But who is the architect after the departure of Frank Gehry in 2009? How big is the actual project? What is its scale? When will it be finished? One can visually see the protest against it in Brooklyn, but who are the organizations behind the banners? Etc…



Source: Google Maps



 

Experiment on October the 8th, 2011

Experiencing and listening to the community feeling in Idalias Salon & iBeauty Bar, 677 Washington Avenue, Brooklyn.

Atlantic Avenue

Source: Google Streetview

Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, New York City –running from one waterfront to the other- is one of the most important routes in Brooklyn as it is the only East-West truck route throughout the borough. And not only in the present day does the avenue have importance, but also in the history of Brooklyn as the Atlantic Avenue Railroad.
It could be seen as an armature (1), described as a linear system for sorting sub elements in the city and arranging them in sequence. This theory is suitable when one thinks about all the different neighborhoods linked to the Atlantic Avenue. It acts as a boundary between different communities a lot of the time.
Also very different places are pinned on the Atlantic, ranging from large projects such as the Atlantic Yards, to smaller antique shops, etc.

Does a ride on the Atlantic Avenue from East to West show striking social changes from one neighborhood to the other? Are the boundaries of the various neighborhoods noticeable? …

(1)    Shane, D.G. (2005) Recombinant Urbanism: Conceptual Modeling in Architecture, Urban Design and City Theory., Wiley

Presentation Collective Culture

How do people collectively express their culture? How do they color their surroundings?...

In order to find answers, we approached this matter through four types of public spaces –the community space, representative place, streetscape and the virtual realm- in which people demonstrate their collectiveness. We considered them as being equally important.

COMMUNITY SPACE

Community gardens require an engagement to be part of the collective culture, which distinguishes it from the general public space. It makes this community space by nature often exclusive. This exclusiveness could also be taken literally because of the fences around the gardens.
What is your influence as a designer? Can you allow the exclusiveness in terms of boundaries but design them differently so that they can be something more inviting?
Could you interfere in something which exists only of an informal group of people and doesn’t want a high end design? Or could you only be a gardener in the community space?

REPRESENTATIVE PLACE

We noticed a shift in representational space in terms of the big classical ideas to the contemporary.

Obviously, nowadays we don’t have institutions with that kind of power anymore and the representation of new public spaces has changed to the local and the temporal. Things that can be built up quickly and go away again. So what can a designer do to create new public spaces? Is it limited to small scale design such as painted public spaces and temporal installations as a container bar?

STREETSCAPE

There is a diverse and active urban culture in the streets of Brooklyn. Whether it is about expressing discontent with institutions, like a mural or poetry on a large facade, the built environment can serve as an art board for inhabitants. One could say that the streetscape also has the capacity to generate urban activity and invite people to interact with their environment.

Could this capability be more profound if a designer was asked to redesign Brooklyn’s streetscape?
Or do sidewalks and streets need to be designed like the great parkways that cross Brooklyn’s grid?

VIRTUAL REALM

The virtual realm is a relatively new public space which supports collective culture in general. People can join online communities, which reflects a feeling of belonging. The Internet is an easy way to reach out ideas to a large group of people and bring them together for a common goal or interest. There are a lot of blogs in and about the different neighborhoods in Brooklyn.





Sources:
http://www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com; http://crowhillcommunity.org/index.shtml; http://maps.google.be/ ; http://www.brooklyn.com/maps.html; http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/index.xhtml; http://www.openwifispots.com/citylist_free_wifi_wireless_hotspotBrooklyn_NY.aspx; http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/landusefacts/landusefactsmaps.shtml; http://www.nycgovparks.org/facilities/; http://nycwireless.net/; http://www.prospectpark.org/about/history/historic_places/h_gap; http://www.socialexplorer.com/pub/maps/map3.aspx?g=0&mapi=2000+Census+Tract&themei=1;
http://www.pps.org/civic-centers/brooklyn_essay/; http://tourdebrooklynplaygrounds.blogspot.com;