This year’s Advanced Landscape Architecture Studio, with the senior class at Rutgers, is working with the WQCLT to develop open space and planning ideas for the current Department of Education (DOE) building located in Long Island City, on Vernon Blvd. near the East River. This studio will develop site plans that consider the coast from Hunters Point Park to Rainey Park, and will develop designs that specifically connect the DoE site to the Queensbridge Homes, which is NYCHA public housing located just north of the Queensboro Bridge. This is especially important due to the long-standing racial divide (symbolized by the Queensboro Bridge) that keeps Queensbridge residents from venturing south; the DoE building is just 2 blocks south of the bridge, but in some sense it might as well be miles way.
Check out some photos our sites visits & our table at a community event hosted by the WQCLT on Sept.18, 2021 in Queensbridge Park.
Queensbridge is the largest public housing community in the nation, and the Long Island City waterfront is the fastest growing neighborhood in the nation, due to an influx of luxury development over the past decade. The DOE building sits right in between these two extremes, and offers a rare opportunity for changing the geographical and cultural paradigm of the region. Designs will focus on open space around the DoE building, coastal connections, and an exploration of alternative housing models.
““It’s where I’m from - Queensbridge. I love the people - I love the culture.” “We need more money. We need more space. Building space, to come together, to talk, to meet, to facilitate the things we want to do. Queensbridge is the largest public housing development in the country. And it is to me - and to a lot of people - the most talented single community in the country.””
““We give the people the information & the access, and they’ll execute.””
““If we don’t say what we want, then they’re going to tell us what they want to do.” “That’s kind of what’s been
happening with the LIC and Amazon. It’s been going on for quite some time. They want this waterfront property, they want to be controlling this land. And we cannot allow that to happen.””
““I mean, this is one of the biggest housing developments in the country. So, you know, the amount of kids that’s out here is enormous... They got one, two basketball courts, but... you can only do but so much.” “We need that property, to cultivate it not only for sports, also for the arts also. It’s for kids can go somewhere...and have a playing ground.””