Brooklyn-Queens Expressway 2053
NONPROFIT / 2023
Role: Event Production, Exhibit Curation Type: Symposium, Exhibition
The Brooklyn-Queens Expressway is crumbling, and federal funding is on the table for repairs, but what about radically reconsidering the entire divisive and polluting highway? How can we use this opportunity to mitigate climate change, redress historic environmental injustice, and significantly improve quality of life for all New Yorkers? These and other questions were addressed in a series of panels on highway removal, alternative transportation systems, community land trusts, and visions for the future on Saturday May 20 2023, hosted by the Institute for Public Architecture (IPA) at the Harbor School on Governors Island.
If the BQE, with freight moved to rail and water, were to become a tree-lined narrower boulevard rather than a trenched or elevated highway, what would communities want to do with this newly available ‘land bank’ in the threshold between their vibrant existing neighborhoods and a de-carbonized sustainable multi-modal transportation network? The Symposium brought together government agencies, elected officials, policy makers, transportation, housing, and climate experts, and residents of Brooklyn and Queens, to propel this important conversation about the future of New York City to the forefront.
Speakers: Jeffrey Chetirko, Clare Newman, Antonio Reynoso, Marc Norman, Adam Paul Susaneck, Alexander Levine, Nilka Martell, Dan Wiley, Marshall Foster, Michael Kimmelman, Claudia Herasme, Karen Blondel, Quincy Phillip, Kiyana Slade, Noely Reyes, Cynthia McLaughlin, Daniela Castillo, Diana Reyna, Hank Gutman, Tiffany-Ann Taylor, Diniece Mendes, Walter Hook, Zabe Bent, Yonah Freemark, Elizabeth Goldstein, David McCarty, Thad Pawlowski, Monxo Lopez, Andrew Sell
Event Producers: Janet Fink, Alec Rovensky
Graphic Identity: Alec Rovensky
Photography: Manuela Lourenço
Videography: KVL
Sponsors: National Endowment for the Arts, AIA Brooklyn, Architectural Record, Classic Harbor Line, AECOM, Alloy, Archtober, New York Review of Architecture, Brooklyn Daily Eagle, The Urban Assembly: New York Harbor School
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View recording︎︎︎
NONPROFIT / 2024
Role: Workshop Support Type: Workshop
The Story of the BQE, to be produced by the Institute for Public Architecture (IPA) in partnership with the NYU Schack Institute of Real Estate, is an online repository of oral histories of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE). The IPA is partnering with Brooklyn and Queens-based youth organizations all along the BQE corridor to provide opportunities for those impacted by the BQE to preserve memories of their lives, community, and stories of living alongside it.
Partnering organizations receive training from facilitators to assist them in incorporating the interview model into their existing programs. StoryCorps veterans Mitra Bonshahi and Adriana Gallardo facilitated intergenerational 40-minute audio interviews with participants, including students and their parents, grandparents, and/or neighbors. Interviews recorded with The Story of the BQE will be available online and a corridor-wide community listening event will be held at the conclusion of the project to share these stories to a wider audience in New York City and beyond.
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