Project Description
The most ambitious design for the Van Alen Institute’s Reimagining Brooklyn Bridge Competition. The Brooklyn Bluff envisions a new borough floating above the East River.
A LIVING INFRASTRUCTURE
The ‘Brooklyn Bluff’ looks to natural landform features at water body edges for inspiration and creates an equitable destination for human connection. The design enhances public connection to nature and fosters a new perspective on adaptive reuse and the history of New York City.
By including housing, hotel, cultural, retail, and public programming functions, the design allows for ongoing flexibility in usage. Through economizing the structure with an inhabitable program, a symbiotic relationship between revenue income and bridge maintenance costs are achieved, ensuring longevity in functionality for the future.
LIVING TOGETHER: A BALANCING ACT
In order to respect the original design, the architectural addition is a clear and legible distinction between contemporary and historic. The strength and utility of the Brooklyn Bridge is balanced with a progressive approach to architecture, evaluating a multitude of factors including social conditions, fiscal longevity, and safety while enhancing the iconicity of the structure. A large public park (POPS privately owned public space) balances the private economic incentives for the site.
Project designer, Daniel Gillen notes, ‘the topic of sustainability cannot be limited to environmental and social considerations alone, but could aim to recalibrate private profits towards the financial sustainability of public systems’.
Through this proposal, the public is encouraged to acknowledge that the future is both literally and figuratively ‘supported’ by the past and the symbiotic relationship between the two. The ‘Brooklyn Bluff’ must be as bold and ambitious as the original Brooklyn Bridge design in order to compliment New York City and Brooklyn. The ‘Brooklyn Bluff’ leverages the original Brooklyn Bridge structure by embracing the pier, while the cable structure supports the cantilevered span in equilibrium. One element is grounded in history while the other is reaching toward the future, establishing a 21st century infrastructure typology.
‘Humanity is clearly needing more from our cities and public spaces. An equitable system that prioritizes the needs of the many over the few. Architecture has a responsibility to facilitate this action’ Daniel Gillen