Conversion of industrial waterfront into a new sustainably designed public park

The Brooklyn Bridge Park is an 85-acre sustainable waterfront park that revitalized 1.3 acres of Brooklyn, New York’s post-industrial East River shoreline. Stretching from Atlantic Avenue in the south passing under the Brooklyn Bridge to Jay Street north of the Manhattan Bridge, the long, narrow site offers sweeping views of New York Harbor and lower Manhattan. The park’s six piers offer diverse recreational opportunities including soccer fields, basketball courts, playgrounds, lawns, and a greenway for walking and biking. The park embraces the river as its reason for existence and incorporates pebbled beaches, a salt marsh, a boating ramp, and calm waters for kayaking and canoes.

The founding organizations are a part of the Brooklyn Bridge Park’s life, feeding its free programming with everything from kayak instruction and sport events, to movies, theatre productions, opera, and concerts. 2011 Selection Committee

Designed to be both financially and ecologically sustainable, the $16 million project is “the ultimate recycled park.” The benches throughout the park, for example, were made from wood salvaged from a demolished warehouse and constructed in Brooklyn woodshops. Half a million visitors or more attend the park’s many free programs, from movies and live performances to dance classes and history lectures. The project succeeds in transforming a derelict space into a truly democratic and sustainable playground.