We are celebrating 15 years — and counting — of stories that are deeply researched and deeply felt, that build a historical record of what the city has been.
We are celebrating 15 years — and counting — of stories that are deeply researched and deeply felt, that build a historical record of what the city has been.
September 26, 2025 – November 8, 2025
Bronx River Art Center
1087 East Tremont Avenue, Bronx, NY 10460
Free and open to the public
Gallery hours: Monday – Friday, 3 – 6 pm, Saturday 12 – 5 pm
Opening reception: Friday, September 26, 5 – 8 pm
RSVP here
Cross Bronx/Living Legend reconsiders one of New York City’s most mythologized infrastructures. The story of the Cross Bronx has long been told as a saga of heartless governments and powerful men, destruction, disconnection, and congestion. But behind these sweeping narratives are the everyday lives of the people who call the corridor home. In neighborhoods like Highbridge, West Farms, Crotona Park, and Parkchester, residents have long contended with the highway’s indisputable harms — displacement, asthma, noise, and barriers that cut across community life. Yet alongside anger and struggle are joy, pride, and love of neighbors.
Rather than retelling the story of the highway itself, Cross Bronx/Living Legend is a story of people and place. Through new images of the corridor by Bronx-based photographer Abigail Montes, audio excerpts from conversations with dozens of Bronx residents, and never-before-exhibited historical materials, Cross Bronx/Living Legend presents a picture of the corridor as one continually in the making. As new visions for its future take shape, the boldest possibilities cannot be dictated from the perspective of the highway, but must come from the expertise, hopes, and imaginations of the communities who live with it every day.
Organized by Urban Omnibus in collaboration with the New York City Department of City Planning
Opening Reception
Friday, September 26, 5 – 8 pm
RSVP
Public Programming
There will be Saturday public programs at the Bronx River Art Center for the duration of the exhibition.
Learn more and RSVP
The Future of Infrastructure and Place
Saturday, October 25, 2 – 4 pm
How will we build an infrastructure of care in communities long burdened by the work of moving people and goods across cities and regions? Recent policy efforts across the country have sought to redress the harms wrought by midcentury infrastructure projects on working-class and racialized neighborhoods, which persist to this day. Simultaneously, the ever-intensifying impacts of the climate crisis require both the adaptation of existing structures and invention of new solutions to ensure a sustainable future. To address both the demands of the future and legacies of the past, we end up in the present: in the places where communities live on top of, around, and within the operational systems of our cities and regions.
What is the path forward to contend with infrastructure like the Cross Bronx, address historic and contemporary harms, and honor the needs and desires of current residents, rather than repeating damaging approaches of the past? Bringing together perspectives from environmental justice, community activism, urban planning, civil rights, and urban design, this event probes the future of infrastructure in the context of place, in New York City and on a national scale. This conversation will take place in a circle format with the audience invited to join the highlighted speakers in responding to questions and prompts from the exhibition’s collection of community stories about the past, present, and future of the Cross Bronx.
Bronx River Art Center (BRAC) is a culturally diverse, multi-arts, non-profit organization that provides a forum for community, artists, and youth to transform creativity into vision. Our Education, Exhibitions, Artist Studios, and Presenting Programs cultivate leadership in an urban environment and stewardship of our natural resource — the Bronx River.
Urban Omnibus is The Architectural League of New York’s online publication dedicated to observing, understanding, and shaping the city. We raise new questions, illuminate diverse perspectives, and document creative projects to advance the collective work of citymaking.
The Architectural League of New York supports critically transformative work in the allied fields that shape the built environment. As a vital, independent forum, the League stimulates thinking, debate, and action on today’s converging crises of racism, inequity, and climate change, in service of a more livable and just world.
The New York City Department of City Planning (DCP) plans for the strategic growth and development of the City through ground-up planning with communities, the development of land use policies and zoning regulations applicable citywide, and its contribution to the preparation of the City’s 10-year Capital Strategy. DCP promotes housing production and affordability, fosters economic development and coordinated investments in infrastructure and services, and supports resilient, sustainable communities across the five boroughs for a more equitable New York City.
Cortico, in collaboration with the MIT Center for Constructive Communication (MIT CCC), helps communities and organizations listen more deeply through recorded small-group conversations. Supported by a thoughtful balance of human listening and AI tools, we help partners understand what people are really saying by surfacing insights, themes, and stories that might otherwise go unheard.
Fannie Lou Hamer Freedom High School The fundamental aim of Fannie Lou Hamer Freedom High School is to teach students to use their minds well and prepare them to live productive, socially useful, and personally satisfying lives.
Cross Bronx / Living Legend is supported in part by the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts and the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council.
The views expressed here are those of the authors only and do not reflect the position of The Architectural League of New York.
