DUMBO, Brooklyn

Dumbo Circuit is a participatory design project envisioned as a pop-up 1-mile outdoor fitness loop. AIGA NY took on the project because it seemed like a clear opportunity to demonstrate how design could change a place by changing the behavior of the people there. Other concurrent projects had layers of social and political complexity that sometimes made it difficult to see the role of design in the project. Over the course of the project, however, Dumbo Circuit uncovered social and political drama that AIGA NY had not anticipated.

Engagement

AIGA NY was approached by DUMBO Business Improvement District (BID) in early 2014. The BID, in partnership with NYC Parks, was looking for a creative way to activate unused space [1a1], improve public health, and connect DUMBO to neighboring communities. Building on NYC’s Active Design Guidelines, DUMBO Circuit presented a way for designers, and not just architects, to address public health epidemics like obesity, diabetes and heart disease caused in part by physical inactivity. A Neighborhood Challenge grant from the NYC Department of Small Business offered $40,000 towards its execution, making the project a reality.

Above: Views of AIGA/NY walkthrough with designers. At top right is the walkthrough route.

The project launched with a walkthrough and a set of six goals:

  1. CREATIVE PLACEMAKING: Push the role of design in creative placemaking. Pilot an urban intervention that activates public space, engages a diverse audience and promotes fitness.
  2. PUBLIC HEALTH: Create a free community gym that encourages New Yorkers to work out in a way that is fun, accessible, navigable and builds on the growing active design movement and recreation opportunities in NYC Parks.
  3. COMMUNITY CONNECTIVITY: Change perception of BQE as neighborhood boundary. Encourage DUMBO residents, workers, along with neighbors in Downtown Brooklyn, Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn Navy Yard, Vinegar Hill and 1.2Msf Watchtower Properties tech campus, to sweat together.
  4. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: Drive traffic to local businesses by capturing a portion of the thousands of bicyclists and tourists streaming off the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges.
  5. NEIGHBORHOOD IDENTITY: Bolster DUMBO’s reputation as a hub for innovation and creativity. Respond to site-specific challenges presented by bridges and elevated infrastructure by transforming underutilized spaces into an inviting gateway.
  6. VISIBILITY: Add a splash of color, and renewed sense of possibility, for high-profile sites adjacent to heavily trafficked tourist destinations.

From there, AIGA NY issued an RFQ (request for qualification) to its design community in March 2014. 24 studios submitted, and in April, five semi-finalists were selected. The review panel for the finalists was composed of representatives from DUMBO BID (Alexandria Sica, Executive Director and Kristin LaBuz, Director of Marketing & Events), AIGA NY (Manuel Miranda, board Vice President, and Emeritus board member Steff Geissbühler) and NYC Parks (Martin Maher, Chief of Staff, Brooklyn) as well as the NYC Department of Small Business Services (Erik Antokal, Program Manager).

Concept

The semi-finalists were then asked to submit concept documents in May 2014 that would convey their vision for the fitness loop, leveraging wayfinding, signage, creative surface treatment, mapping, customized fitness equipment and/or web design. The challenge was to appeal to a mix of income, age, and ability levels while complying with NYC Parks' standards for maintenance and public safety. The concept proposals needed to address both the user experience of the Circuit as well as a communications strategy. The five finalists were: Column Five, a visual agency in Newport Beach, California and DUMBO, Brooklyn; Matte Black, a Brooklyn-based design partnership; TODA, a DUMBO-based visual communication studio; WeShouldDoItAll, a multidisciplinary design studio in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn; and HUSH, and interdisciplinary design agency in DUMBO.[1a2]

Based on the strength of their concept design [1a3], the Brooklyn firm HUSH was chosen in June 2014. After a series of conversations between the design firm and DUMBO BID, a public charrette designed with an eye towards buy-in from the community happened in July.

Collapse

Soon after the charrette, the Brooklyn Bridge entrance facade, which was a big part of the HUSH design, collapsed. The Department of Transportation was wary of anything applied to the walls, so DUMBO BID asked the MTA if the back wall of the subway entrance could be used instead. They said yes, but only vinyl, which HUSH was unhappy with, since their dimensional design was better executed with paint. The project was on hiatus for a long time, waiting for the Department of Transportation to investigate the bridge and its underpasses.

HUSH was re-engaged in April 2015, but without the DOT review: Small Business Services (SBS), the funder, told DUMBO BID that it was taking too long. HUSH went back to the drawing board for a revised design proposal consolidated on Bridge Park 2, behind the F train, and without fitness items installed on the ground.

Above: Views of installed graphics. In the bottom two photos, you can see the Brooklyn Bridge entrance facade that had collapsed, and that had been part of the original project. Below: Bird's eye view.

Conclusion

The new design was completed and installed in December 2015. Now confined to Bridge Park 2, and without any fitness equipment, It was considerably scaled back from the interconnected plans that had been imagined in the original RFQ.

Each participant in the project had a separate outcome. For DUMBO BID, the project delivered the kind of coverage that it had hoped for, with articles in Curbed, the Daily News, the Brooklyn Paper, and the Brooklyn Eagle. HUSH got a crash course in creating a participatory civic project. AIGA NY learned the lesson that there are no small civic projects, and used the project as an opportunity to talk about civic work with its design community.

The unexpected outcome was that attention towards the project uncovered a long-buried broken promise for the site of Bridge Park 2. The Jehovah’s Witnesses, also known as the Watchtower, are a longtime landholder in the area, had promised to fix up this and other neglected parks back in 2004. The deal was made when the group was granted a zoning change for 85 Jay Street. Now that the Jehovah’s Witnesses are moving to Warwick, New York, they sold 85 Jay Street to Jared Kushner for $345 million. In January 2016, the Witnesses pledged $5.5 million to fix the park.

Credits

AIGA/NY steering board members: Alicia Cheng, Manuel Miranda, David Frisco

Design: Jodi Terwilliger, Creative Director, HUSH; Vanessa Smith and Megan Marini, principals, 3x3 Design

City and BID directors: Alexandria Sica, Executive Director, DUMBO BID; Lauren Coakley-Vincent, Director, Neighborhood Development Division, NYC Small Business Services