Streetsblog New York City

With Brooklyn Community Board 6 unanimously approving DOT’s modifications to the Prospect Park West bike lane, the public process surrounding this project has passed another milestone. Including committee votes, last night marked the fourth CB vote in the last two years in favor of the PPW redesign or the city’s proposed changes to it. The process that led to those votes goes back even further, and it’s worth a reminder of just how long the idea of calming traffic and improving bike access on PPW has been bubbling up from local residents.

This clip from the Streetfilms vault recaps a public workshop held by the Grand Army Plaza Coalition in March, 2007. GAPCO had been organizing for a year already at the time of this event. Participants in a May, 2006 site visit concluded that “vehicles travel southbound from Grand Army Plaza into Prospect Park West at a high rate of speed.” Speeding and poor conditions for cycling on Prospect Park West had emerged as key concerns at the Park Slope Civic Council’s traffic and transportation forum that same year.

Participants at the 2007 workshop also identified the lack of multi-modal access to GAP as a problem. The final workshop report [PDF] offered this recommendation:

Improve access to the plaza and connect it into a broader circulation system for pedestrians, bicyclists, automobiles and transit users. Balance the user needs. Make sure bicycle lanes aren’t dumped into fast-moving traffic.

These efforts were initiated by community groups while Iris Weinshall was transportation commissioner. The city was not trying to “sell” the idea of calming traffic on Prospect Park West or improving bike access to the Brooklyn Public Library and the Grand Army Plaza greenmarket. Residents were trying to motivate the city to act on their concerns.

A few months after GAPCo published their workshop report, CB6 passed a resolution including a request that DOT study the implementation of a two-way protected bike path on Prospect Park West.

This is the process that Iris Weinshall, Norman Steisel, and Gibson Dunn attorney Jim Walden are seeking to discredit and circumvent by suing the city.

The walking, biking, and public space enhancements for Brooklyn's Grand Army Plaza that DOT presented last night are now available online [PDF]. The top graphic shows the expanded pedestrian space and simplified intersection at the north end of the plaza, which will make walking to the center of GAP much more direct, pleasant, and safe. Here's what that space looks like now:

Local activists have been organizing and advocating for years to make Grand Army Plaza a public space that lives up to its setting in the heart of Brooklyn. One of the coordinators of that campaign, Robert Witherwax of the Grand Army Plaza Coalition, sent us this reaction:

Of our six tenets -- improved commercial opportunities, close the gap [between the park and the central plaza], buy back asphalt, rethink traffic flow, aesthetic improvements, and improved ped and bike access to and through -- this hits the last four squarely on the head.

We have called for a wholesale rethinking of the interplay between peds, bikes, and cars and the space devoted to each: DOT brought that...

And the fact that DOT can do this in their operational toolbox is extremely interesting. This is Brooklyn's version of Times Square.

With Prospect Park West slimming down to two lanes, there won't be so much asphalt to cross walking from Union Street or Plaza Street to Grand Army Plaza:

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At last night's presentation to a joint meeting of three Brooklyn community boards, DOT assistant commissioner Ryan Russo unveiled what he called "a pretty dramatic and bold, exciting plan" for Grand Army Plaza. The proposal lived up to the billing. Lots of asphalt will be reclaimed for walking and biking. Getting to the central plaza will be a much-improved experience, as will biking to the greenmarket, the Brooklyn Public Library, and the park, thanks to an entirely two-way system of bike lanes. Russo said DOT hopes to begin implementation in August.

It's a complex project that really needs graphics to help you visualize it, but I don't have the plans just yet. Here's my bullet point description and a Google satellite view until DOT posts the full presentation online, which should happen later today.

• Image: Google Maps
  On the north end of the plaza, northbound traffic on Flatbush and southbound traffic on Vanderbilt will cross at a greatly simplified X-shaped intersection. The pedestrian spaces that define the boundaries of the "X" will be much more generous and well-defined than the mish-mash of poorly-connected islands and striping that people navigate now. Walking to the central public space will be safer and simpler, especially if you're approaching from Park Slope.
• The Plaza Street bike lane will be converted from a buffered, one-way counterclockwise path to a two-way, parking protected path, giving cyclists a safe and legal way to take the shortest routes around the plaza.
• The area between the arch and the central plaza will be set off with DOT's epoxy-and-gravel surface treatment, seen on Broadway and other pedestrian reclamation projects. Physical barriers will be added to keep cars from illegally cutting across.
  
• On the south side of the plaza, pedestrian islands will be expanded and five crosswalks will be added, making it easier to walk between Union Street, Plaza Street, and the greenmarket area. The greenmarket area will also be set off with epoxy-and-gravel and have physical barriers from traffic.
• There are several two-way bike connections planned for the south side, the general effect of which will be this: Anyone coming or going from Prospect Park West, the Prospect Park loop, or either end of Plaza Street will be able to bike safely and legally to any of those streets. Eventually a two-way path on Eastern Parkway, part of a separate capital project, will feed into this system. The plan also appears to include a small "bike roundabout" where PPW meets a two-way connection leading into the park loop (h/t @mikepstein for pointing that out).
  

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Just a reminder, DOT's presentation to a joint meeting of Brooklyn CB 6, CB 8, and CB 9 starts at 6:30 at the Brooklyn Public Library main branch. Word is that the advocates who've been working for years to make Grand Army Plaza a better public space are excited about this one, and if you live in the area you won't want to miss it.

Union Street in Brooklyn has a problem: The queue of cars waiting to drive through the intersection at Grand Army Plaza sometimes stretches as far as the eye can see. The bottleneck, which causes a lot of horn-honking, crosswalk-blocking, and other hazards, is intimately connected to another problem: Grand Army Plaza is a spinning vortex of traffic draining the life from what should be Brooklyn's premier public space.

At a CB6 committee meeting last month, DOT's Ryan Russo presented plans to alleviate the Union Street tie-up by converting the parking lane between Eighth Avenue and Grand Army Plaza into a moving lane. For advocates of a lively, welcoming, and safe Grand Army Plaza, the proposal encapsulated the shortcomings of DOT's approach to the area: By trying to solve the traffic problem on Union Street, the agency would do nothing to address the public space problems at the plaza, and may end up exacerbating them.

The city has recently made some headway improving Grand Army Plaza for pedestrians and cyclists. New pedestrian islands and a short, separated bikeway connecting the Prospect Park loop to Plaza Street have enhanced safety. More is on the way. A two-way protected bike path is slated for Prospect Park West, and a long-awaited median expansion on Eastern Parkway leading straight to the plaza should, someday soon, improve walking and biking from Crown Heights.

Adding another lane of moving vehicles on Union doesn't seem to fit with these incremental improvements, especially when an alternative that would simplify traffic patterns -- converting the westbound travel lane to a second eastbound lane -- has already surfaced at public meetings. "There are so many better solutions," said Robert Witherwax of the Grand Army Plaza Coalition.

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The people have spoken, choosing a design for Grand Army Plaza that connects it to Prospect Park, taking Flatbush Avenue underground and making pedestrians the primary users of the space.

"Canopy," a plan submitted by a team of French designers, took people's choice in the "Reinventing Grand Army Plaza" competition, sponsored by the Design Trust for Public Space. It was also selected last month by competition jurors as one of two top designs.

"Canopy" is one of few submissions that actually connects the plaza with the park. Like last year's Grand Army Plaza Coalition proposal, it at least takes a stab at dealing with area-wide traffic management issues -- a major consideration for any workable redesign.

While raising the profile of the project and drawing the attention of thousands of Brooklynites, it's unknown how much of an impact the competition will have on the eventual design. The Brooklyn Paper reports:

"The contest wasn’t intended for a design to be constructed," sniffed Scott Gastel, a spokesman for the Department of Transportation, which is conducting traffic studies as a first step in its own plan to fix the plaza.

"The competition has produced some very interesting concepts, which we will bear in mind as we continue to think about the future of Grand Army Plaza," he said. "We’re still looking into the designs [to evaluate their feasibility]."

Last Saturday, the opening of the Design Trust for Public Space's "Reinventing Grand Army Plaza" exhibit quickly transformed the plaza, normally devoid of any street life, into a vibrant public space. Visitors were welcomed with live music, a dance performance, food and exhibition tours. This photo set on Flickr has over 400 shots from Saturday's event. City Room reports:

Gone are the wasted expanses of concrete behind the arch, where ambulances used to lie in wait for traffic accident victims. The winning ideas include squaring the traffic circle to make more regular intersections, putting a canopy or elevated pedestrian walks over the plaza, creating a shelter for a year-round green market, adding a bike rental shop, and putting a visitor center at the subway stop.

The plaza, home to the city’s second-largest green market, close neighbor to four top Brooklyn attractions, and the occasional rooster, was done in by the car.

Residents in Park Slope, Prospect Heights, Crown Heights and Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, the four neighborhoods it separates instead of unites, are hard pressed to figure out how to reach the Bailey Fountain and the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Arch without becoming roadkill. The traffic whizzing around the plaza has been called “the only concrete and asphalt roulette wheel in the world.”

You can check out the designs of all 30 finalists here, and if you see one that you think promises to improve conditions for pedestrians and cyclists, don't forget to give it your people's choice award vote.

Photo: The Design Trust for Public Space

This morning officials announced the winners of the "Reinventing Grand Army Plaza" competition, a contest that drew 200+ proposals for transforming the gateway to Prospect Park into a public space worthy of its landmark status. A jury composed mainly of designers, planners and community advocates selected four designs to receive cash prizes, while winnowing the entrants to a field of 30, to be displayed on-site through October 13. Members of the public will be able to vote for their favorites via text message, with results announced on October 8.

After the exhibit, the Design Trust for Public Space and the Grand Army Plaza Coalition, along with NYC DOT and the Parks Department, will participate in a series of public workshops based on the top 30 designs, with the ultimate goal of composing a new plaza master plan.

Prize-winning designs are "Canopy" and "Please Wake Me Up!" (pictured) in a tie for first, "Urban Stripes" was awarded second place, and Brooklyn's Garrison Architects took third with "A Center for Brooklyn." Unfortunately, not every finalist made a serious attempt to address GAP's complex traffic issues, which will be essential to creating a lively and inviting public space. On the other hand, the guidelines do indicate that entries "did not have to be realistic."

Have a look at the options for people's choice and tell us what you think.

In the second installment of his "Street Transformations" series (here's the first), Clarence Eckerson shows the progress underway at Brooklyn's Grand Army Plaza. The package of pedestrian and bicycle improvements you see in the video was first unveiled by DOT last spring. Says Clarence:

As one gentleman said to me while admiring the new greenery and traffic islands in Grand Army Plaza, “Wow, sometimes government does work!” It’s easy to quickly forget how things were, but we here at Streetfilms aim to not let that happen. Check out these extraordinary before/afters; especially the new separated bike lane which safely transports riders from Prospect Park.

How'd we get here? Check out: Grand Army Traffic Survey, Reclaiming Grand Army, Minding the GAP.

What's next for this iconic public space? Some ideas are sure to surface from the Re-inventing Grand Army Plaza competition, which is set to review proposals this month.

The Grand Army Plaza Coalition (GAPCo) and The Design Trust for Public Space have launched a website for their "Ideas Competition" called Reinventing Grand Army Plaza, which is intended to generate new visions for the plaza's design. The jury will award three cash prizes to the winners, and along with other top entries will be exhibited in an outdoor exhibition at Grand Army Plaza later this year.

Grand Army Plaza is New York City's greatest unrealized asset. Home to powerful architecture, the Soldiers' and Sailors' Arch, the elegant Bailey Fountain, the entrance to Frederick Law Olmsted's greatest park, and a transit hub, the sum of these parts is emphatically less than the whole. Currently an underdeveloped public amenity, the redesign of Brooklyn's Grand Army Plaza will invigorate surrounding communities, just as the re-conception of Manhattan's High Line set off an explosion of activity in West Chelsea.

Top submissions will be exhibited outdoors at Grand Army Plaza in the fall of 2008. Submissions will also inform the program for a new schematic plan for the Plaza, to be created in late 2008 in partnership with the New York City Departments of Parks and Recreation and Transportation.

Tell us what you think about Grand Army Plaza - join the online conversation. For questions about the competition, or to be added to the competition mailing list, send an email to: info@reinventingGAP.org.

Related

• Reinventing Grand Army Plaza: What Are Your Ideas?
• Grand Plans for Brooklyn's Iconic Public Space

Photo: Ethan Kent.