Architecture Firm BIG Brings Impressive Changes to Brooklyn Bridge Park in New York

A new green space rises like a giant manta ray.

Image via Bjarke Ingles Group

Brooklyn Bridge Park in New York has become a tourist hotspot since it was built in 2010, transforming an otherwise empty and industrial area into a vibrant city center. Recently, the food fair Smorgasburg has set up weekly tents next to the park. Also, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer have devoted $7 million to continuing development along the waterfront (including a beach—is that sanitary?). It seems like more and more people will pour into the public space in the next few years.

Architect Bjarke Ingels of Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) has set his sights on the coveted park with a new design for a rising platform at the south end of the city property. The structure will rise up over Pier 6 and above the beach below like a "manta ray," according to the architect, or a "Tostito," according the New York Times.

Michael Kimmelman of the New York Times reports, "The architect calls this the work’s 'Titanic moment'—he means the movie, not the wreck—the point to which one or two people could climb and stand at the railing, gazing out over the city. In essence, the architecture invites us all to come to a spot where we can feel alone." We eagerly await the meme, Instagram trend, or hashtag this inspires.

The grassy field that stretches out along the park will be designed with help from Michael Van Valkenburgh, a Brooklyn-based landscape architect. The outdoor venue has the potential to be an open-air stage. Below, the ramp offers a shady recess for hot or rainy days.

The project will cost $8 million, which will be raised privately. Ingles is waiting on a patron for the plan as well as approval from the Public Design Commission before he breaks ground. 

Ingles, the hot young architect of the moment, is also building a giant apartment complex in Midtown East.  

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[via New York Times

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