Van Alen and the New York City Council have announced the winners for the “Reimagining Brooklyn Bridge” international competition. The winning design in the Professional category is Brooklyn Bridge Forest by a multidisciplinary team including Pilot Projects Design Collective, Cities4Forests, Wildlife Conservation Society, Grimshaw, and Silman; while the winning design in the Young Adult category is Do Look Down by Shannon Hui, Kwans Kim, and Yujin Kim; Hong Kong, Bay Area, CA, and New York.
Proposing to reclaim car lanes for pedestrians and cyclists, while centering sustainability and social equity, the winning proposal in the professional category, Brooklyn Bridge Forest triples the capacity for active transit, brings biodiverse forest and green spaces into the city, and establishes a partnership to conserve 200,000 acres of tropical forest.
We are energized by this victory for healthier cities and the global environment. Brooklyn Bridge Forest seeks to build a new vision of environmental sustainability and social equity — reimagining this beloved landmark as a way to connect New York City and its residents to forests and natural systems that sustain life for all. -- Scott Francisco, Brooklyn Bridge Forest team lead and founder of Pilot Projects Design Collective
Do Look Down, the winning proposal in the Young Adult category, installs a glass surface above the bridge’s girders, creating a whimsical new pedestrian space brought to life by visuals that honor the city’s cultures, histories, and identities.
This health crisis, in addition to its intersections with racial and queer injustice, has violently amplified the systemic inequities built into New York’s existing urban infrastructure, and for designers and developers to continue to operate within a vacuum would be to take advantage of a position of immense privilege. We are extremely grateful for the support and resources provided by the Van Alen Institute and the New York City Council to approach this project as an opportunity for us to imagine meaningful public spaces where people can feel seen and heard — and ultimately, belong. -- Shannon Hui of the Do Look Down team.
Receiving more than 200 submissions from 37 countries, the Brooklyn Bridge, according to Deborah Marton, Executive Director, Van Alen Institute, proved that it “is much more than transportation infrastructure; it’s a symbol of New York City itself”. Inspiring participants to rethink the iconic Brooklyn Bridge walkway, the contest gathered short-term interventions and longer-term proposals for a complete reconfiguration of the bridge. Each winner was chosen by a combination of public votes and scores from the competition’s interdisciplinary jury. Other finalists in the Professional category included BIG + ARUP and ScenesLab + Minzi Long + Andrew Nash; and other finalists in the Young Adult category were The Artery by Lukas Kugler, New Milford, CT; and The Cultural Current by Aubrey Bader and Maggie Redding, Knoxville, TN.
