Speaking of what you can do with the city, The Putting Lot is a collective of professionals from different backgrounds that will bring miniature golf to a vacant lot in Bushwick for the summer. Designs for the course’s nine holes are currently being solicited through an open design/build competition. As a proposition for urban design, the competition’s submissions are meant to engage with themes of urban sustainability, and a stipend of $500 will be provided for the construction of winning entries. See the competition brief for more details.
The Architectural League was an early promoter of the ability of design expertise to add value to urban space. Back in 1992, the League curated The Productive Park: New Waterworks as Neighborhood Resources, which examined the potential use of city-owned property atop aquifers in Brooklyn and Queens to simultaneously expand the city’s supply of water and public space for recreation.
In the years since, empty space in the city has gone from being seen as a liability, prone to crime and symbolic of urban decay to being considered an asset to be used for public benefit. The urban agriculture movement flourished as part of this transformation, as community gardeners and urban farmers gained legal status for their productive use of neglected property.
The Putting Lot has secured a spot for a recreational amenity in Bushwick, offering an interesting new program for an underutilized vacant area. There’s still time to submit your designs, so get out your pencils: the competition deadline is 6pm next Monday, April 27.
The views expressed here are those of the author only and do not reflect the position of Urban Omnibus editorial staff or the Architectural League of New York.