A Brooklyn Newcomer Proposed Burying a Highway to Make a Park
He arrived to find the city planning a yearslong detour on stilts, and drew a plan that kept traffic moving and added green space.
Freakonomics Radio Network · How a Great Architect Thinks ft. Bjarke Ingels | Better in PersonThe applause was the surprise. Bjarke Ingels, an architect who had just bought a home in Brooklyn Heights, stood up at a neighborhood meeting about the Brooklyn Queens Expressway and pitched a different future for it. He said it was the only community meeting where his team got applause.
Ingels had arrived in a historic neighborhood known for its elevated Promenade, with views across the water to Manhattan. The Promenade sits above the Brooklyn Queens Expressway. The city plan for repairs called for a temporary six lane highway at Promenade level, on stilts.
Ingels put the timeline in personal terms. His son Darwin was seven and living in New York, and Ingels figured the boy could have left home before the temporary structure was gone.
His alternative started with what was already there. Behind the Promenade is a berm, which he described as a backdrop for the park and as shelter for the park from highway noise. Ingels proposed cutting a little into the back of the berm, placing the six lanes on the ground, and putting a lid over them.
The lid could be repaired and made into a Promenade, traffic would keep the same capacity, and, as Ingels put it, it would "create 10 hectares of new parkland." Ingels said a few plots could even hold "some homes that could maybe offset the cost of doing it." Ingels said everybody could see that "this was probably better."
He acknowledged there would still be transitions at either end. But he said his approach was infinitely cheaper, because the highway would sit on the ground with a little lid on it. He likes to quote a T-shirt given to him by Swedish friends: “If you think good architecture is expensive, then try bad architecture.”
Whether the plan will be built is not reported in the source. Ingels said the city eventually stopped what it was doing, asked another team to study the problem, and invited his firm to assist in that process.
Questions people ask
What does it mean to put a lid on a highway?
It means building a deck or a lid over a road that sits at or below ground level, then using the top as a park, plaza, or street. The cover blocks some noise and exhaust, and it reconnects land that the highway had divided.
What is the berm in this story?
A berm is a raised bank of earth, often planted with grass or trees. In this story, Ingels described it as a backdrop for the park and as shelter for the park from highway noise.
How can adding a park be cheaper than a temporary road?
Building on the ground usually needs less steel, less temporary support, and less demolition than building a second elevated road to carry traffic during construction. The savings come from simpler structure and a shorter construction period, though ramps and connections at each end still cost money.