Friday night I braved the cold to attend the opening reception for “Designing the Myrtle Avenue Pedestrian Plaza – Pop Up Exhibition and Workshop,” sponsored by the Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership and the Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn BID. The event brought together neighborhood residents, business owners, committee leaders, and designers to start a dialogue about the re-design of one of Brooklyn’s most underachieving public spaces. More specifically, it introduced ideas solicited by MABP in the fall after the DOT selected the site for inclusion in the NYC Plaza Program. My attendance was not impartial; I live in the neighborhood and want to see something good go in.

Today, the Myrtle Pedestrian Plaza is a windswept bit of postwar ‘urban renewal’ between Hall and Emerson, Myrtle and Willoughby Aves in the Clinton Hill section of Brooklyn.  Its defining feature is a service road that provides access to suburban-style parking for the single-story retail facing Myrtle. The public spaces – a bench here, a patch of grass there – feel less like a gathering space and more like leftovers at the base of equally anonymous towers.

Most of the submitted proposals had the right instincts to address these problems: create defined spaces, remove parking, encourage a variety of activities at different times of day and year, and incorporate sustainable design features both high tech (solar panels) and low (trees). I found more successful those entries that considered the quality of the space in terms of use and narrative, rather than relying on overly formal gestures to enclose the plaza.

Surprisingly, there was a degree of consensus on the features people want: benches, trees, and markets were all high on the list. There was less agreement on aesthetic sensibility, but it was telling that the MABP was running a slideshow of contemporary – mostly European – precedents (some personal favorites: this, this, this, anything by them). My hope is that when the DOT finally selects an architect, all parties involved aim for this level of quality. Each of these projects creates a unique sense of place by enhancing adjacent urban programs, and in turn complimenting activity with bold, contemporary materials and colors. Each proves that good design need not be overly fussy, expensive, or difficult to maintain.

Further, each avoids the cliché kit-of-parts (think old-timey lanterns and planters) that afflicts most small public space projects in New York. The High Line is one notable exception to this rule, but so were its funding, and the enormous amount of publicity it received. But if the various stakeholders in the Myrtle Pedestrian Plaza think big, there’s no reason they can’t come to a design that grabs the spotlight too.

The Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership is hosting a workshop on Saturday, February 13th, from 12-5pm. Visitors can check out the pop-up exhibition space at 352 Myrtle Avenue and give their feedback on the proposed ideas.


Image courtesy of the Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership via Flickr. As with all review and opinion pieces posted on Urban Omnibus, the views expressed are those of the author only and do not reflect the position of Urban Omnibus editorial staff or the Architectural League of New York.

Travis Eby is a recent graduate of the Yale School of Architecture. He loves his stoop in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn.