Under the train trestles and highway bridges of New York City, there are 700 miles of underused public land. It seems like a waste, in a city where square footage is a hot commodity. So, in partnership with the city's Department of Transportation, the Design Trust for Public Space released a report this June reimagining these spaces.

The groups came up with seven specific locations on public land—the Gowanus Expressway, Division Street in Chinatown, Southern Boulevard in the Bronx, Broadway Junction in Brooklyn, the Queensboro Bridge, Highbridge Park and Kew Gardens. Each of the sites had a different kind of public infrastructure that they wanted to upgrade: landing (where a bridge reconnects with the streets on the other side), park, trestle, highway, clover (the looping on-ramps of highways), clusters of train tracks and span bridges. The plans address future needs, neighborhood revitalization, sustainability and mobility.

Some of the projects, like the redesign of Broadway Junction in Brooklyn, are already underway, while others are still in the planning phase. “The goal was to create new systems that can be replicated across the country,” says architect and Design Trust urban design fellow Susannah Drake.