STUDIO MEMBERS Kristin Brown; Claudia Castillo de la Cruz; Jackson Chabot; Jaiyi (Grace) Cheng; Alex DewittConnelly; Daniel Eizo Miyagusko; Lindsay Fischer; Molly Greenburg; Daniela Hurtarte; Saba Jaberolansar; Harsh Prajapati; Jane Kandampulli; Dhanya Rajagopal; Koichiro Tamura; Nasha Virata. FACULTY David Burney; Meg Walker
by Jackson Chabot & Daniel Eizo Miyagusko [UPM]
THE LAB
LAB: URBAN PLACEMAKING AND MANAGEMENT, FALL 2017
Each Fall, the incoming cohort of the Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment (GCPE) Urban Placemaking and Management (UPM) students take an introductory Lab course to gain invaluable fundamental Placemaking skills. For the Fall of 2017, the course was based around researching and supporting the case for converting an existing street, Hillel Place, into a pedestrian only plaza under the New York City Department of Transportation (NYC DOT) Plaza Program. This interactive collaborative project incorporated elements of research, community engagement, and street level evaluation. These elements and others built on a collective package of the courses Placemaking learning and contribution. The client for the Fall 2017 Lab was The Junction Business Improvement District (BID), led by Kenneth Mbonu. Additionally, the course was taught by Professors David Burney and Meg Walker whose professional and academic experience were instrumental to the learning process. The immediate study area for this Lab was Hillel Place, a small street just off of the busy Flatbush Junction in South East Brooklyn. Flatbush Junction is defined by the intersection of Flatbush Avenue and Nostrand Avenue. While this was the immediate site, to best understand the context of the project, the whole study area included the surrounding neighborhoods up to a ten minute walk away. The full extent of the site is shown in the attached image with several neighborhood points highlighted on the map.
