A BIG PLAN: Dumbo-based Bjarke Ingels Group unveiled its proposal to turn the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway
triple-cantilever into a new park called the BQP. Bjarke Ingels Group
COURIER LIFE, A M BR B G PRIL 12–18, 2019 3
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
Call it the BQP!
A world-famous architecture
fi rm has proposed to turn
the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway
into an ambitious 10-acre
park on top of a capped highway,
calling it the Brooklyn-
Queens Park — or BQP.
Architects with the
Dumbo-based Bjarke Ingels
Group on April 2 released a
plan — which they produced
pro-bono — to build a six-lane
highway along the back of
Brooklyn Bridge Park on Furman
Street at ground level,
and cap it off in order to build
a new park on top.
The designers proposed to
spare the beloved Brooklyn
Heights Promenade and repurpose
the existing cantilever
into either a tiered park —
similar to the “ Tri-line ” park
idea proposed by Heights local
Mark Baker — or demolish
the two lower levels and recycle
the debris into an artifi cial
cliff side if the aged structure
proves too expensive to retain,
according to the fi rm’s planner
spearheading the proposal.
“We would be able to use
the BQE rubble to create a
newly-reconstructed cliff side,
naturalized, with Americans
with Disabilities Act ramps,
bringing you down and connecting
from the Brooklyn
Heights Promenade to Brooklyn
Bridge Park in a way that
it hasn’t been for a long time,”
said Jeremy Alain Siegel.
The new park could also allow
for Mayor de Blasio’s beloved
Brooklyn-Queens Connector
to run along the lowest
level, next to a two-lane Furman
Street for cars, as well
as an indoor parking garage
underneath the promenade,
renderings show.
Engineers from the fi rm’s
partner organization Arcadis
deemed that theirs is
the most straightforward way
to deal with the reconstruction
because builders would
only have to construct a new
roadway once without having
to take it back down afterwards,
and the road would
be at ground level instead
of the city’s proposed 50 feet
height — possibly making it a
cheaper and faster process, according
to the architect.
“We think that we could
very likely do this at the same
or a reduced timetable and
also at the same or reduced
cost,” he said.
Siegel and his team are considering
extending the park
to the Cobble Hill trench section
of the roadway at Atlantic
Avenue, which could even
allow for a future walkway
from Brooklyn Bridge to Red
Hook if the city decides to cap
that trench, according to the
Brooklyn Heights resident.
“If you were able to do that
you would be creating a linear
park that connects you from
the Brooklyn Bridge all the
way to Red Hook, which would
be quite an amazing thing,”
Siegel said.
The fi rm’s founder, Bjarke
Ingels, will also be moving to
the upscale Heights soon, according
to Siegel, so he could
end up having his own company’s
creation in his back yard.
The only diffi culty with
their plan is that the city
agency would have to go beyond
their remit and partner
with the state and Brooklyn
Bridge Park, but Siegel believes
that a plan as convincing
as theirs could gather
enough public support and
momentum to spur the departments
into action and overcome
bureaucratic hurdles.
“They have a critical life
safety on their hands, they
want to make sure the whole
thing doesn’t get snagged in
approvals and coordinations
and so they’ve been trying to
stay as much in DOT right-ofway
and DOT jurisdiction as
possible,” he said. “If people
can really come around to
that idea then that coordination
will not be such a headache,
it will be something that
is demanded and something
that has to happen to make the
right decision here.”
The project group designed
the proposal to accommodate
the same amount of traffi c
that the department planned
for, but planners may be able
to reduce the road to four
lanes if traffi c fl ow decreases
as a result of new statewide
policies, according to a new
report by a Tri-state research
organization.
The Regional Plan Association,
which worked together
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
This panel got panned!
Mayor de Blasio’s new
“expert panel” for the Brooklyn
Queens Expressway
lacks watchdogs from elected
offi ces or neighborhood associations,
according to
the attendees of an April 3
town hall.
Several audience members
at the event, held at
Brooklyn Heights’s Plymouth
Church, raised the question
of why the mayor didn’t select
more community reps or
watchdogs for his 16-member
panel , which is chaired by
the head of a building industry
advocacy group and includes
urban planners, engineers,
architects, labor reps,
and several academics.
One of the event’s organizers
read out an audience
question addressing
this concern which she said
was common among the
submitted queries.
“This question came up
a lot,” said the co-founder
of the activist group to save
the Brooklyn Heights Promenade
A Better Way, Sabrina
Gleizer, before reading out
one submission.
“The mayor’s commission
has an impressive array of
experts but it appears to be
thin on community organizers,
representatives, and taxpayer
watchdogs. How can
we make sure we are represented?”
Gleizer read.
Gleizer and her fellow
head of the advocacy organization
Hilary Jager met
with de Blasio’s offi ce to ask
whether they could join the
panel, which was unlikely,
according to Jager.
“We asked for a seat at
the table, I don’t think that’s
going to happen,” she said.
But both activists and
their partners at the civic
group and co-hosts of the
event, the Brooklyn Heights
Association, agreed that the
panel would fi eld the community’s
input during the
whole process.
“We’re insistent, because
we can be really insistent,
that we have to have a way
to check in with community
groups, not just A Better
Way, not just the Brooklyn
Heights Association, other
groups on a regular basis,
whether that’s bi-weekly
or bi-monthly, we need to
have something really set
up and we made that clear,”
Jager said.
A spokesman for the mayor’s
offi ce said that the panel
would engage with the community
regularly over the
next months.
“The panel will be taking
input from and engaging substantially
with the community
through a robust, transparent
process,” said Seth
Stein. “Throughout that process,
the panel will meet with
local stakeholders and civic
groups to solicit feedback.”
The mayor’s original release
left open the possibility
for further additions for the
panel but Stein said that City
Hall didn’t currently have
any more panelists to share.
FULL HOUSE: Close to 1,000 people came to hear the latest news on
the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway repair project at Plymouth Church
in Brooklyn Heights on April 3. Photo by Kevin Duggan
A BQ-PLAN
Brooklynites
blast Blaz at
BQE town hall
Renowned architecture fi rm unveils park propsal
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