Quilian Riano is the Urban Design Fellow in the first in a series of public space pilot projects under elevated structures in New York City. The first pilot, located beneath the Gowanus Expressway at 36th Street and 3rd Avenue in Sunset Park, will connect to the waterfront, increase environmental health, and enhance pedestrian safety for residents of Sunset Park and workers at Industry City and adjacent sites. It will test urban design strategies, replicable lighting and green infrastructure, and inform a future NYC DOT capital project at the site, and other under the elevated locations citywide.

LINKS: Design Trust for Public Space || Project Launch

PRESS:

–New York City launches pilot to activate highway underpasses in Sunset Park (Next City)
–El-Space, a New Installation that Activates the Forgotten Spaces Under the BQE in Sunset Park (Untapped Cities)
–NEW YORK MAGAZINE’S APPROVAL MATRIX, MARCH 2018 (New York Magazine)
–El-Space is a Finalist of Fast Company’s 2017 World Changing Ideas Awards (Fast Company)
–New York firms envision ways for the city to absorb 9 million residents (Crain’s NYC)
–Underneath/Overlooked (Landscape Architecture Magazine)

After a series of lighting, green infrastructure and urban design workshops, the project was shown to the public in Sunset Park at a pop-up organized by DOT as well as at their Summer Streets event during August, 2016. The full design was launched with an event on the Spring of 2018.