BY KEVIN DUGGAN
Jurors for a city competition
to redesign the Brooklyn
Bridge walkway have chosen
six fi nalists, the City Council
and its partner fi rm for the contest,
the Van Alen Institute, announced
Thursday.
Designs unveiled on July
9 include three schemes from
architecture fi rms, as well as
three from contestants 21-yearold
or younger — all of which
aim to revamp the borough’s
namesake span to give more
space to pedestrians and cyclists,
which has become more
important in the age of social
distancing, according to one of
the jurors.
“For too long, the Brooklyn
Bridge has been more geared toward
serving cars than people.
This competition is a unique
opportunity to rethink that balance
at a time when the city is
facing an outsized need for public
space,” said Regina Myer,
president of the local businessboosting
group Downtown
Brooklyn Partnership.
COURIER L 4 IFE, JULY 17-23, 2020
Finalists in the “professional”
category include big
names like Dumbo architecture
fi rm Bjarke Ingels Group, who,
together with Manhattan engineering
and design fi rm Arup,
proposed a plan called “Back to
the Future.” The group’s plan
would return the bridge to its
roots by losing its car lanes and
ramps, and instead reserving
all its space on the walkway for
pedestrians, with room on the
current vehicle lanes below for
public transit, bike lanes, and
more foot paths.
Among the other two professional
proposals is a plan called
“Brooklyn Bridge Forrest,” by
Scott Francisco of Manhattan
fi rm Pilot Projects Design Collective,
which has an expanded
walkway and reclaimed bike
lanes below, along with greenspaces
dubbed “microforests”
at either end of the bridge.
Among the “young adult” fi -
nalists is a proposal for a glass
deck over the roadway’s sparkling
Bjarke Ingels Group and Arup proposed a design that takes cars off the Brooklyn Bridge in favor of pedestrians,
cyclists, and public transit. Bjarke Ingels Group/Arup
light and projection systems
called “Do Look Down,” by
designers Shannon Hui, Kwans
Kim, and Yujin Kim, who are
from Hong Kong, California,
and New York, respectively.
Another one from that category
called “The Cultural
Current,” by Tennesseans Aubrey
Bader and Maggie Redding,
calls for a colorful squiggly
walking path made out of
reused wood and recycled plastic,
which winds its way across
the bridge, while vehicle traffi
c below would be phased out
over time, according to the proposal.
The fi nalists will present
their ideas via Zoom at a virtual
“design showdown” on
July 23 at 6 pm, where the jury
and the public will be able to
give them feedback and criticism.
Winners will be announced
later this summer,
according to organizers.
Council Speaker Corey
Johnson, a contender to succeed
Bill de Blasio as mayor,
and Van Alen launched the
competition in February and
took submissions up until the
beginning of April.
The fi nalists were originally
supposed to be announced
in May, but the
schedule was delayed by the
outbreak of the novel coronavirus,
a spokesman for Johnson’s
offi ce previously told
Brooklyn Paper.
Finalists announced
for Brooklyn Bridge
redesign competition
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