keeping the fence

a u t h o rs

Eva De Fr

Dieter Leyssen

p r o m o t o rs

Tom Thys

Ward Verbakel

r e a d e rs

Bart Eeckhout

Justin Garrett Moore

Nina Rappaport

Giovanni Santamaria

Joke Vermeulen

k e e p i n g t h e f e n c ethe advent of gentrification in the town of Red Hook

2012 Copyright by KU LeuvenWithout written permission of the pro-moters and the authors it is forbidden to reproduce or adapt in any form or by any means any part of this publica-tion. Requests for obtaining the right to reproduce or utilize parts of this publication should be addressed to KU Leuven, Faculty of Engineering - Kasteelpark Arenberg 1, B-3001 Hev-erlee (Belgium). Telephone +32-16-32 13 50 & Fax. +32-16-32 19 88.A written permission of the promotor is also required to use the methods, products, schematics and programs described in this work for industrial or commercial use, and for submitting this publication in scientifi c contests.All images in this booklet are, unless credits are given, made or drawn by the authors (Studio Brooklyn).

k e e p i n g t h e f e n c ethe advent of gentrification in the town of Red Hook

Thesis presented to obtain the degree of Master of Applied Sciences and Engineering: Architecture 2011-2012

13

In our graduation project, Keeping the Fence. The Advent of Gentrification in the Town of Red Hook, we explore the tension between the local industrial waterfront activity and the advent of gentrification in Red Hook, a socially disadvantaged neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York. The abandoned waterfront of this old port village is threatened by the reconversion of its industrial buildings and land into recreational public domain and high price range housing development or light-filled artist studios. By keeping the fence that currently separates the living tissue of Red Hook from its former harbor sites we safeguard the industrial waterfront and preclude the gentrification that is characteristic for waterfront neighborhoods. We explore an alternative mode that gentrification could take, by addressing community networks between local residents and socially responsible and rooted gentrifiers as a main asset.

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Ambitious to tackle pivotal issues in the contemporary city, we started a project in June 2011, that we never could have imagined would be so close to our heart. Through ongoing self-reflection and a critical but nevertheless personal guidance of our promotors Tom Thys and Ward Verbakel, we came to find a way of inserting these ambitions in our architectural act, keeping in mind the finiteness of our interventions. Determined to actively involve local residents, there were moments in which, we found ourselves struggling to decide which role to play as an architect. By equally valuing participatory design strategies and architectural interventions far beyond the residents capacity, we, as outsiders, tried to address the social reality of a place in a personal approach.

During one month of field work and a year of home-based research, we were continuously enriched by meaningful encounters. We would like to thank everyone who influenced our thoughts and inspired our design process.

First of all our special thanks go to Tom and Ward for sharing their experience and knowledge and opening up perspectives. By making us wander, they stimulated our critical mind and challenged us to strive for a higher level. Our thanks go as well to the 11 other students of Studio Brooklyn for the mutual fertilization and the enriching collaboration throughout the year. We would also like to thank our readers for their personal contribution to our design process: Giovanni Santamaria, for his specific knowledge on Red Hook and our conversations on gentrification; Justin Garrett Moore, for inviting us at the Department of City Planning and helping us understand the citys regulations; Nina Rappaport for her critical view on gentrification and the enjoyable talk we had on mixed use neighborhoods, such as Red Hook; Bart Eeckhout, for his intermediate feedback and Joke Vermeulen for broadening our vision on what architecture could be, and sharing her positive criticism through 5 years of learning.

The contribution of the Belgian artists, Kathleen Vermeir and Ronny Heiremans was of great importance as they introduced us in the phenomenon of gentrification and helped us formulate the definition of our project. We would like to thank Pierre Le Hors, a Brooklyn-based artist, for participating in an interview on how the contemporary artist, who often initiates the process of gentrification, should position himself and Emiliano Gandolfi for demonstrating how interdisciplinary design can be an answer to the latter question. Our thanks also go to Gilly Karjevsky and Kerem Halbrecht of 72 Hour Urban Action for exemplifying how minimal urban interventions sometimes yield large impacts; to Columbia University, GSAPP and in particular Richard Plunz for pointing to the importance of global tendencies on the local scale.

We especially want to show our gratitude to the photographer Andy Vernon-Jones who captured us with his pictures on the every-day life of Red Hook and joined us in telling the story of its residents in this thesis volume.

Finally we want to thank our family and friends: Sigrid Leyssen and Niels Engelen for helping us finish this volume, our brothers, sisters and closest friends of which some shared this experience with us and others encouraged us from the sideline.

For our parents: this year made us realize even more how much you mean to us and what we owe to you. However it sometimes may seem we thought it evident, we cannot say how much we appreciate your endless support. Before engaging in a new adventure, we want to let you know we could not have done this on our own. We hope you are as proud of us as we are of you.

For Sander and Stijn: we love you for your patience and understanding, for remaining positive and supportive. We would like to thank you for giving us the chance to explore ourselves in an intense project, for which we gave everything we got.

We dedicate this volume to all these people and many others, who guided us in any way.

Keeping the Fence. The Advent of Gentrification in the Town of Red Hook is the third volume out of a series of three volumes that present our two semester work in the KU Leuven gradu-ation thesis design group, Studio Brooklyn. The first volume Brooklyn 101. Five Chapters on a City Life, presented by thirteen graduation students that enrolled in the studio, explores the whole of Brooklyn and translates the impressions and observations we were fortunate to experience on our one moth field trip to Brooklyn, NYC. On this fieldtrip, we, Eva de Fr and Dieter Leyssen, chose Red Hook as the site of our individual project, out of a framework from old port to airport that addresses three neighborhoods Red Hook, Crown Heights and East New York. In the second volume, we enriched our understanding on this site by investigating the structures and phenomena that shaped the neighborhood and define the neighborhoods future. The result of this research is presented in Red Hook. Structures and Phenomena, a collaboration with Miguel Van Steenbrugge. Two case-studies, Detroit: the New Brooklyn by Eva De Fr and A Renewed Critical Architecture by Dieter Leyssen, helped us in understand-ing the urban issues we were dealing with during our work process. An urban experiment made us experience these issues on a personal level. In the third and final volume which we present here, we will refer to Brooklyn 101. Five Chapters on a City Life (CCL) and Red Hook. Structures and Phenomena (SP) to provide our decisions with a specific background. With this volume, a poster is included that will help to situate the different proposals in our comprehen-sive project for Red Hook.

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SOCIAL ENCLAVES PLANNING THE CITY LIVING MODELS CITY ECOLOGY

12 CASE STUDIES

13 EXPERIMENTS

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structures and phenomena

Keeping the fencethe advent of gentrification in the town of Red Hook

Red HookCrown Heights

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As part of the Studio Brooklyn design group, which reflects on the varieties of city life, our graduation project Keeping the Fence. The Advent of Gentrification in the Town of Red Hook is a comprehensive social analysis and design approach on the present-day tendencies in Red Hook, Brooklyn, NYC. By studying the existing structures and phenomena of the neighborhood (Red Hook. Structures and Phenomena), we aim at capturing the every-day life of its residents and the operations of the living environment. We opened up our designers perspective from the smallest scale of a single community center, to the large scale of the Brooklyn Railroad System and global shipping routes. By envisioning ambitions and proposals for the Red Hook neighborhood in an urban plan, and complementing these perceptions with four designs that bring to life the given reality of an individual site, we created a multilayered vision for the Red Hook community.

Red Hook is known as a socially disadvantaged neighborhood, which is cut off from the rest of South Brooklyn by the Gowanus Expressway. (SP p56) The area is perceived as a desolate enclave with a mixed-use character and remnants of what used to be a thriving industrial port. The translocation of the harbor activities to New Jersey in the 1950s, converted Red Hook from a successful working class community into a distressed neighborhood where drugs addicts and criminal gangs became no exception. (SP p42) As of the eighties, socially involved residents started to establish community organizations to empower and educate Red Hooks locals and to improve the living condition in the poor neighborhood. (SP p68) These organizations are still active today and form a big part of Red Hooks identity as a small town or village, where strong community bounds thrive. The reality of Red Hook and its residents, however, is contradictory to the medias image of the neighborhood as an abandoned but aestheticized ruin. Today, Red Hook, with its unique fishing village atmosphere and industrial dcor, is increasingly represented as the new Walhalla for the young hipster. With its light-filled industrial buildings and high vacancy rate, the neighborhood is susceptible for the perils of gentrifiers. Up to now, the new wave of gentrification was limited because of the global economical crisis and difficult connection to public transport networks but the process remains subcutaneously present. (SP p62)

The appealing morphology of industrial Red Hook is a result of the neighborhoods history as New York City harbor. Its location at the mouth of the Hudson River, in the Upper New York Bay, was in the 1600s the incentive for the Dutch to start colonizing the land. By the 19th century, Red Hook was a successful cargo port, and its waterfront was densely built with ware- and storehouses that were used to storage bulk goods, bound for import and export. The neighborhood was called the Walled City. Dock workers came from around the world to live in Red Hook. In the 20th century, the first public housing project in NYC, called the Red Hook Houses, was constructed for the working class residents. The neighborhood became densely populated and congested, resulting in the translocation of the Red Hook port to New Jersey, where large open sites, demanded by the new container transportation, were available. The Red Hook area fell into decay and became one of the poorest New York City neighborhoods. Up to now 70% of the Red Hook residents lives in public housing. What was once a densely populated neighborhood with condensed port activity, is now a living tissue with a high vacancy rate surrounded by a desolate and abandoned waterfront area with empty industrial buildings and large tracts of vacant land.

Until today, the departure of industries is continuously reshaping New Yorks cityscape. Industries are pouring out of New York City because they fear for the availability of space, the increasing prices of large tracts of open land, the cost of doing business in the city and the uncertainty of the land use policy. In Red Hooks abandoned waterfront lies the potential for the future development of the neighborhood and the citys industrial capacity. In light of the need for local production as counterweight to the process of globalization, it is important that the city acknowledges the value of the Red Hook waterfront. By land banking the former harbor site, the city can safeguard the area for future industrial (port) development and in that way enforce the Citys industrial base. The location of the Red Hook Port at the mouth of the Hudson River is proven to be ideal in the past and new development there can offer

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a durable alternative transportation mode for freight goods that have to be shipped inlands. Simultaneously, the proposed industrial zone can tackle the problem of unemployment among the Red Hook working class residents.

The New York City Planning Department, however, faces a dilemma whether to protect the industrial sites at the Red Hook waterfront, or to give free rein to the real estate market, that preys on every piece of available land, especially at the waterfront. In the rest of New York City a tendency can be noticed towards green and recreational waterfront development. The latter is in fact a goal formulated in PlaNYC 2030, a plan released in 2007 and updated in 2011, by Mayor Michael Bloomberg that envisions a greener and greater New York. The recreational waterfront reconversion is often accompanied with the construction of high-rise luxury apartments with a view on the bay that are the outcome of an already long and still ongoing process of gentrification. The resulting increase of the real estate prices and rising rents of surrounding properties causes the displacement of local residents. Our graduation project responds to the tension between the safeguarding of the industrial waterfront and the advent of gentrification in Red Hook.

Today, the remaining industrial sites are largely inaccessible due to a continuous fence, that encloses the waterfront area. Behind this fence large tracts of vacant land and old industrial warehouses, of which only a few house active industry, are waiting to be demolished or to be reconverted. By keeping the fence, reminiscent of the wall formed by ware- and storehouses in the 19th century, a zone for future industrial development can be marked, The fence symbolizes the indication of a safeguarded zone which is not intended for speculation of the real estate market. It constitutes a border, between the industrial zone at the waterfront and the residual fabric of Red Hook, which can not be exceeded by the wave of gentrification that is running through Red Hook. The advent of gentrification will only intensify in the future, forcing us to think about the different possible modes this process could take. By precluding recreational waterfront development, the construction of luxury housing at the shore, and the reconversion of old industrial edifices behind the fence into artist studios, a new aspect of gentrification, specific for Red Hook, can be encouraged.

Red Hooks recent history is characterized by different waves of gentrification in the neighborhood and its surrounding area. In the 1960s the gentrifying wave that ran through the adjacent Carroll Gardens neighborhood surpassed Red Hook completely. The area was unattractive to the gentrifying young professionals, looking for a pleasant and unique residence in the proximity of Manhattan, because of the lack of Brownstone buildings and the absence of a connection to the subway system. Also the poor living conditions and bad reputation caused gentrifiers to seek other housing locations. In the 1980s, however, the process of gentrification began to take place far beyond the transit-oriented neighborhoods or historical Brownstones. A young creative class focused on distressed neighborhoods with an impressive industrial patrimony to search for light-filled factory buildings with high ceilings to convert them into studios. Red Hook became attractive to artists because of its cheap real estate, high vacancy rate and former industrial waterfront. The creative class primarily housed near Van Brunt Street and the waterfront, seemingly causing a geographical opposition to the poorer residents who live in the public housing projects in the center. However, the gentrifiers that arrived in Red Hook in the 1980s tend to have stayed in the neighborhood and seem to have developed a social responsibility towards the distressed situation of the community that they live in. The outcome of the gentrification process in Red Hook is therefore not equivalent to that of Williamsburg, a postindustrial neighborhood located at the Brooklyn waterfront that is irreversibly changed because of this process. Together with longtime residents, gentrifiers pushed forward the organization of networks to help educating and empowering local youth through art or promoting professions. By becoming rooted community members that are actively involved in improving Red hooks living conditions, they have gained the trust of other longtime residents. The tight community bounds still exist today and the identity of the neighborhood is built on the formation of the networks between non-profits, art centers, small businesses, schools and other public institutions. Today the gentrification process is slowly

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getting back on course after it was stabilized by the economical crisis in 2008, during which a few gentrifying restaurants and art galleries on Van Brunt Street faced bankruptcy.

One of the goals of this graduation project is to stimulate discussions in which the social responsibility of the new gentrifying generation towards local residents and the community they come to live in, can be shaped. By keeping the fence and precluding the gentrification of the waterfront, the advent of an alternative, socially envolved, gentrifier is incited.

By structuring our thesis volume Keeping the Fence. The Advent of Gentrification in the Town of Red Hook according to the different scales we addressed throughout the design research, the multilayered character of the project is emphasized. The first chapter explains the ambitions we set forward for the Red Hook community, both on the scale of the borough as on the scale of the neighborhood. We formulated an urban vision that addresses the discussed present-day tendencies in Red Hook and responds to the stress area between protecting local industries and accepting the process of gentrification. In a second chapter, we introduce several individual proposals that make up a master plan to achieve the future direction we envision. These proposals have to facilitate and stimulate the valuable trends in Red Hook, such as the safeguarding of the industrial waterfront and the formation of community networks. By combining different individual proposals we create three systems that recapitulate the smaller interventions and that each formulate a statement towards the different trends in Red Hook: - the protection of the industrial waterfront , - the green recreational development in Red Hook, - and the formation of community networks.

By critically testing our own strategies through four design proposals, the pragmatic analysis is brought to life on the scale of a lot in chapter four. Each design is the incarnation of two system proposals and is an ultimate point of confrontation.

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AMBITIONS 29 32 on the scale of the borough 38 on the scale of the neighborhood PROPOSALS 51

53 implementing infrastructure 61 redirecting the greenway 67 keeping the fence 73 densifying the residential fabric 79 integrating incubating poles 91 creating network squares 97 embedding living parks

SYSTEMS 105

107 infrastructural belt 113 green corridor 119 incubating square DESIGNS 127

129 red hook recreational area 141 coffey park 153 van brunt square 165 red hook rooftop

CONCLUSION 179 REFERENCES 183

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In light of the ongoing departure of industries out of New York City, which is transforming many waterfront neighborhoods into likely candidates for gentrification, we introduce Red Hook as a site where existing industries can survive and new ones can successfully set ground. Equally important, an improvement of the residents living conditions is foreseen in this reshaped waterfront town. In order to successfully accomplish these ambitions, an approach on two different scales was elaborated, Red Hook as part of the Brooklyn borough and Red Hook as a neighborhood. On the first scale, modifications to the borough-wide infrastructural systems must safeguard the industrial potential of Red Hook and protect the residential tissue for the detrimental consequences of gentrification. On the second scale, the identity of Red Hook as a working industrial waterfront and an active community is translated into a threefold scheme, restructuring the neighborhood as a whole.

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On the scale of the borough, three movements are proposed. The first movement interacts with the existing industrial activity in the adjacent waterfront neighborhood Sunset Park. By safeguarding Red Hooks waterfront from other uses than industrial and by implementing new infrastructure, the waterfront gets linked to Sunset Park. A new proposed freight railway connection and enhanced trucking routes will facilitate new and existing industrial players. The second movement redirects the green corridor, approaching Red Hook from the north, from the waterfront to the residential core of the neighborhood. The redirection facilitates the residential core area and safeguards the waterfront from recreational development. At last, we keep us from addressing the existing lack of metro access in the neighborhood because of the influences transit access proved to have on gentrifying neighborhoods. (SP p30)

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Magallan Passage

Panama Canal

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red hook feeder port

The change in global shipping routes will infl uence the sea ports on the east coast of the United States. Virginia will most probably gain in importance, receiving global cargo vessels. From Virginia, the goods are then to be distributed by smaller vessels to feeder ports, a function which can suit New York harbor. The New York side of the Upper Bay has the ideal location for receiving these smaller cargo vessels, thanks to its direct connection with the inland state and position at the mouth of the Erie Canal. Thanks to the natural depth of the bay near Red Hook, the accessibility for small cargo vessels can be more easily provided than at other places on New Yorks waterfront. (SP p 46)

new shipping routes

In the wake of the recent melting of the North Pole ice caps, two new arctic shipping routes opened the possibility for new global shipping routes. Before, seafaring via the North Pole was merely possible a few months per year and the two passages were never open simultaneously. From now on, shipping routes could be shortened in comparison with the current traffi c through the Panama and Suez Canal. (SP p46)

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industrial business zones

In 2005, acknowledging the harms of deindustrialization, Mayor Bloomberg stressed the importance of a strong industrial base for the city by defi ning specifi c Industrial Business Zones throughout the city, including Red Hooks waterfront. In his Industrial Policy, the improvement of the infrastructural connections between the different IBZs and the rest of the region is recommended. This recommendation can certainly affect Red Hook which is today completely bypassed by the freight railway system and highly reliable on truck traffi c. However, the implementation of this policy remains limited. (SP p44)

transit-oriented development

In PlaNYC, the city and Mayor Bloomberg presented rezoning projects, merely in areas with easy access to the transit system. The transit-oriented rezonings tend to lead to a devaluation of land and real estate in non-rezoned areas, facilitating the purchase of cheap property and the rise of new development there in the future. Red Hook, with its lack of a metro-connection, is such a non-rezoned area. Until today, its waterfront remains zoned as industrial and the large vacant lots and devaluated industrial grounds remain land banked for the future. We highly value the land banking process as it can consider development on a long-term scale, contrary to the short-time policies often applied in New York City in order to satisfy the markets needs. (CCL p93)

rezoned project areas

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On the scale of the neighborhood, a threefold scheme is developed, that envisions Red Hook in three zones, the industrial waterfront, the residential core and the inbetween zone. The inbetween zone facilitates both the industrial waterfront and the residential core. These zones are based on existing tendencies, processes and identities that we distinguished in the neighborhood as well as on the policies and regulations that the city imposes on the area.

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current land use

In Red Hooks land use, a residential zone in the core and industrial activity at the waterfront can be distinguished. The two zones affect each other in a transition zone with a distinct mixed-use character.

current zoning

The three identities of an industrial waterfront, a residential core and an inbetween zone, are already readable in the existing zoning regulations. At the core, the grounds are zoned residential with a fragmented commercial overlay at the borders. At the waterfront the zoning is mostly industrial and in the inbetween zone a coexistence of residential, industrial and one specific mixed-use enclave can be found. (SP p33)

threefold scheme and proposed zoning

In order to reconcile the existing zoning map with the proposed threefold scheme, we propose to rezone one industrial area in the inbetween zone into mixed-use. The rezoned area is currently characterized by a mixture of residential development and mainly car workshops of residents that house and work there.

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The fi rst zone is the industrial waterfront, which is currently enclosed by a continuous fence. In this zone, the proposed new infrastructure will facilitate the existing industries and provoke new industrial development on the large tracts of vacant land and parking that remain land banked behind the fence.

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residential core

The second zone is the residential core. This zone is embraced by the commercial overlay that makes the transition to non-residential uses. In the residential core, we focus on the densifi cation of living units on the available vacant land. The densifi cation originates here because this is already the most residential area and can support new housing development for the diverse and mixed-income population base that now characterizes the neighborhood.

residential land use on zoning map

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inbetween zone

Defi ning the borders of these fi rst two zones creates an inbetween zone. This zone facilitates both the industrial waterfront and the residential core with cultural and economic services implemented on the vacant lots in this zone, which complement the daily life in the residential core and assist with the reactivation of the industrial waterfront. In order to succeed in this dual role, these newly implemented functions should become part of existing networks between residents, community organizations and businesses.

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Andy Vernon-Jones

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The cited ambitions formulate an urban vision that addresses the present-day tendencies in Red Hook and responds to the tension between protecting local industries and accepting the process of gentrifi cation as a given reality. By introducing seven individual proposals in the Red Hook area, we make up a master plan that envisions an alternative mode these forthcoming processes could take. The proposals facilitate and stimulate the revival of the industrial waterfront of Red Hook as part of the Brooklyn borough, the redirection of green waterfront development through the living fabric of the neighborhood, and the reinforcement of the threefold scheme that redefi nes Red Hooks identity.

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In order to attract and stimulate new harbor activity at the Red Hook waterfront, the existing freight transport routes through the neighborhood are improved and a new infrastructure system that connects to the existing transit network of the Brooklyn borough is implemented. In this proposal, different kinds of infrastructure are elaborated in order to facilitate a wide range of transportation modes.

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extension of the freight railway

The first infrastructure anticipates on the planned upgrades of the freight railway system in Sunset Park, a water-front neighborhood adjacent to Red Hook. An extension of this plan must reconnect Red Hooks waterfront to the rest of the state and must attract big industrial players, that will stimulate the revitalization of the harbor activities in the neighborhood. The new freight train will offer a durable alternative for truck traffic through Red Hooks living fabric.

green sidewalks

Secondly, the safety of sidewalks is enhanced, in mixed-use zones that contain both industrial and residential development. By extending existing green banks that originated along the footpaths due to a lack of maintenance, pedestrians are protected from passing truck traffic. The green sidewalks can offer alternative walking routes to the few accessible waterfront destinations, such as Valentino Pier.

enhancing of the trucking routes

Thirdly, the course of the existing trucking routes is diverted around Red Hooks residential area. Two loops of truck lanes will serve independent industrial waterfront zones and connect to nearby accesses and exits of the Gowanus Expressway.

proposed freight rail

traffic map

enhanced trucking routes

extension of greenway

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redirecting the greenway [ G8 ]

Jo Michael Studio


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The greenway network from adjacent neighborhoods is extended through Red Hook. The extension of the bicycle path in the neighborhood is the completion of the greenway network in between Carroll Gardens and Sunset Park.

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redirection of the greenway

While usually green bike paths run alongside the shoreline, the proposed greenway cuts right through Red Hook. This movement both serves the residential core and leaves the industrial waterfront free from recreational development.

Red Hook

Carroll Gardens Sunset Park

Greenway Map 2012 by Brooklyn Greenway Initiative

keeping the fence [ H10 ]

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The industrial sites at the Red Hook waterfront, of which a few are still active, are currently enclosed by a continuous fence. We propose to keep this fence in order to safeguard the waterfront area for future industrial development. The minimalist character of this proposal yields maximal consequences for the growth of the industries in the neighborhood. By land banking the waterfront zone behind the fence, the construction of residential high-rise or recreational parks along the shoreline is precluded. Although the fence is a strict demarcation between the waterfront and the rest of Red Hook, some cuts can be made to provide accesses to the waterfront. The identity of the waterfront destinations will only be enforced in this manner.

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industrial zones

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trucking route zone 1

industrial zone 2

industrial zone 3

industrial zone 1

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waterfront destinations

densifying the residential fabric [ F6, F7, G6, G7 ]

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Red Hook and its industrial patrimony are increasingly becoming an attractive living environment for the gentrifying population. (SP p62) The property prices in the popular area surrounding Van Brunt Street are remarkably higher than those nearby the Red Hook Houses, a large public housing project. Keeping in mind that the advent of gentrifi cation will intensify in the future, the priceless housing will expand. In order to anticipate on the ensuing displacement of local residents, we propose the densifi cation of the residential core with affordable housing on the available tracts of vacant land in this zone. This new housing development can guarantee the diverse and mixed-income population base that now characterizes the neighborhood.

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< 600k

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1M - 1.1M

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> 1.3M

no data

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available land

parking

vacancy

integrating incubating poles [ D6, D7, E6, E7 ]

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In order to activate both the residential core and the industrial waterfront, economic and cultural functions are implemented in the inbetween zone. We call them incubating poles, which accommodate the social networks, characteristic of Red Hook. These networks are the result of collaborations between local, mostly disadvantaged, residents and the more rooted and older gentrifi ers. They originated from a longtime history of community organizations and are still being formed today. (SP p68) We want to nominate these networks as a main asset to redefi ne Red Hooks identity.

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black population - Census 2010

hispanic population - Census 2010

white population - Census 2010

change in vacancy - Census 2010

family size- Census 2010

household income - Census 2010

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social segregation?

The gentrifiers and middle class inhabitants mainly house in the area surrounding Van Brunt Street, where property prices are high. This area is geographically and demographically opponent to the area of the Red Hook Houses. The contrast of these two zones can be laid out on the two orientations of the Red Hook grid. A more disadvantaged population, including the residents of the Red Hook Houses, lives in the eastern grid. The more wealthy local residents and gentrifiers house in the western grid, near the industrial waterfront and Van Brunt Street. Although first assuming that these two types of residents also socially oppose each other, we discovered that they collaborate in a series of community networks. The gentrifiers that arrived in the 1980s, tend to have stayed in Red Hook and felt socially responsible to address the distressed living conditions of the Red Hook area. They started to collaborate with local residents in order to empower the community members and improve the image of the neighborhood. (SP p62, p68)

40 - 60%

2,25 - 2,5 persons

< 25.000$

65.000 - 85.000$

< 20%

2 - 2,25 persons

25.000 - 45.000$

> 105.000$

< 20%

40 - 60%

< 20%

< 20%

< 20%

40 - 60%

1,75 - 2 persons

45.000 - 65.000$

20 - 40%

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The networks are made up of different non-profit organizations that work together with art programs, small businesses, schools and other institutions. We tried to reveal some of the existing networks to create a representation of the context, although we realize that this covers only a limited portion of it. We categorized them into food, cultural and employment networks.

food network

An example of a food network is the collaboration between Added Value, the Red Hook Farm and different gentrifying restaurants on Van Brunt Street. Added Value is a non-profit organization, originated in 2000, that focuses on the empowerment of local youth through education and employment. They teach teenagers how to produce their own vegetables and become economically independent. The young generation works in the Red Hook Farm for remuneration. The healthy food they grow is purchased by a large part by the Red Hook residents. The farm also delivers to Fort Defiance, The Good Fork and Kevins, three gentrifying restaurants on Van Brunt Street.

cultural network

An example of a cultural network is the collaboration between Dance Theatre Etcetera, Cora Dance Studios and PS15. Dance Theatre Etcetera is a non-profit organization, founded in 1994 that believes the arts are an effective vehicle for social transformation. The organization unites artists and community members through various cultural activities. Once a year they organize the Red Hook Fest, a festival for dance, music performance and poetry. One of the participating dance groups is Cora Dance Studios, a Red Hook based dance school, founded in 2009. They provide the community with an accessible dance education based on a pay-what-you-can basis. Both Dance Theatre Etcetera and Cora Dance Studios work together with the PS15 elementary school. Dance Theatre Etcetera initiates art programs at various local schools and the Cora Dance Studios for example offers a walkover service that ensures children a safe walk to the dance school.

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SBIDC

employment network

An example of an employment network is the Southwest Brooklyn Industrial Development Corporation that works together with local businesses in Red Hook and the adjacent neighborhoods, Sunset Park and Gowanus, to inform them on incentives, assist them in real estate selection and finance. The SBIDC helps small businesses grow and create employment opportunities for local residents. For example, they assisted the commercial revitalization of Van Brunt Street, thanks to the Avenue NYC Storefront Improvement Program.

1. Added Value & Herban Solution2. Brooklyn Waterfront Artist Coalition3. Coffey Park Club House4. Cora Dance School5. Dance Theatre Etcetera6. Falcon Works7. Fort Defiance 8. Kentler International Drawing Space9. Kevins10. Kidd Yellin11. Pioneer and King Studios12. PS 1513. PS 2714. Red Hook Community Justice Center15. Red Hook Farm16. Red Hook Food Vendors17. Red Hook Initiative18. Red Hook Library19. Red Hook Recreation Center20. Red Hook Rise21. Red Hook Senior Center22. South Brooklyn Community Health Center23. South Brooklyn Community High School24. South West Brooklyn Industrial Development Cooperation25. The Fatato Gallery26. The Good Fork27. Valentino Park and Pier28. Waterfront Museum

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small business

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Added Value Added Value is a non-profit organization promoting the sustainable development of Red Hook by nurturing a new generation of young leaders. The organizations objectives are the creation of opportunities for the youth of South Brooklyn, the expansion of their knowledge base and skills and the engagement of this young residents in their community, through the operation of a socially responsible urban farming enterprise. Added Value provides long-term training to neighborhood teenagers and educational programs for elementary schools all over Brooklyn. Through the urban farm, they want to educate communities in a sustainable future with healthy food and economical independence.

Bwac The Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition is a non profit organization, active in Red Hook since 1973. Started by a small group of artists, the organization now counts over 400 members. The involved artists remain until today in charge of the management, leadership, board and staff. Their activities are driven by two synergistic missions, firstly to assist emerging artists in advancing their artistic careers and secondly to present the art-of-today in an easily accessible format. They organize events in both their gallery, such as three annual exhibitions and weekly music performances, and outdoors on community events, such as the Red Hook Film Festival and Red Hook Fest.

Caro Dance Theatre The dance studios mission is to bring access to professional dance training to everyone. Since their establishment in 2009 in Red Hook, they provide the community with an accessible dance education based on a pay-what-you-can basis, ensuring that everyone can access their programs regardless of their financial situation. They organize a broad program of courses, for both youth and adults including classical ballet, modern dance, yoga, etc. In addition, they organize in collaboration with PS 15 a walkover service that ensures the participating children of PS 15 a safe walk to the dance school.

Dance Theatre Etcetera Dance Theatre Etcetera creates the opportunity for artists to collaborate with the community out of their belief that art can operate as an effective vehicle for social transformation. The organization is active in Red Hook since 1994 as a cultural programmer organizing dance performances, festivals and parades. In June, they organize the popular annual festival Red Hook Fest, featuring world-class music, dance, and spoken word poetry. Currently, the organization focuses mainly on art education and giving the opportunity to local youth to showcase their work and to work together with professional artists. In order to keep the involvement of the community , they work together with other community based organizations such as Red Hook Initiative and BWAC.

Falconworks Artist Group Falconworks Artists Group is a non profit organization empowering Red Hooks communities and inhabitants through theater and applied drama. The organization aims since 1997 to create an awareness among the inhabitants of systems of oppression in order to effect their change, by letting young people express themselves in their own voices and letting inhabitants perform theatre plays based on Red Hooks history and the struggles throughout this history.

Good Shepherd Services City-wide development, education and family service agency that focuses on the empowerment of vulnerable youth. They help youth to build up their own future and engagement within their family and community. In Red Hook, Good Sheperd Service has programs running in the South Brooklyn Community High School and in PS 15.

Hook Productions Hook productions is an educational program organized by the City Parks Foundation, providing audio-video production and technology training for teenagers. The classes are given in the Red Hook Recreational Center where the youths get lessons on multimedia programs, media literacy and new media training. The results of the work in these classes are shown on community events such as the Red Hook Film Festival. In addition, the participating students work on a green map of the neighborhood, an Internet-based participatory map that includes site icons, site photographs, video interviews with community members, and written site descriptions documenting the past, present and future of Red Hook green space.

Kentler International Drawing space The Kentler International Drawing Space displays since 1990 contemporary drawings by local, national and international artists, and gained in time an important spot in the cultural fabric of the community. They collaborate with the community through workshops in the neighborhoods schools and on events, offering various art-making programs to teachers, students and families. They aim to deploy contemporary art as a platform for inquiry, exploration, and empowerment. In addition to these workshops, they organize afterschool programs in collaboration with various non profit organizations in the area.

Kidd Yellin Studio and exhibition space that offers space for various community based happenings such as theatre shows and meetings.

Lucky Gallery A gallery that works with, and displays the work of underrepresented and emerging artists. The gallery aims to interact with the community through workshop, performance, education and opportunity. The gallery was shut down in July 2010 because the landlord ended the lease of the building. However, the gallery remained organizing events from time to time in other businesses throughout the neighborhood.

Red Hook Community Justice Center This center handles criminal, housing and family court matters in an innovative, multi-jurisdictional problem solving court. Their method is based on the dissidents own determination of the underlying reason of the criminal activity and a case-specific strategy to avoid reoccurrence of criminal behavior in the future. The Red Hook court threats cases from entire South Brooklyn including Red Hook, Park Slope, Sunset Park, Windsor Terrace, Carroll Gardens, and Boerum Hill neighborhoods. They collaborate closely with other community based organizations and let offenders often perform community service as a means of recompensing the community that they harmed by the commission of the crime. In addition, Red Hook Community Justice Center houses a Youth Court, in which youths are trained to serve as jurors, judges and attorneys, handling real-life cases involving their peers.

Red Hook Economic Development Organization that aims to vitalize Red Hooks local businesses, focusing on the ones located on or near the commercial part of Van Brunt Street, by creating partnerships between the businesses, the residents and the industry. To do so, RHED organizes a wide range of events, from flea markets to treeplanting, from neighborhood clean-ups to providing new street infrastructure. They collaborate with the PS 15 school and Southwest Brooklyn Industrial Development Corp.

Red Hook Film Festival (October) An annual festival that organizes a competition open to all filmmakers, artists or animators attracting predominantly local Red Hook or Brooklyn-based productions. The events takes place in the building of the Brooklyn Waterfront Artist Coalition. The festival aims to promote films and short films about Red Hooks history, its struggles and character such as Red Hook High, a docu-soap made with students of the South Brooklyn Community High School.

Red Hook Initiative An organization addressing Red Hooks youth with programs concerning education, employment, social and emotional health, physical health and community development. Started as a side-program of the local hospital, the initiative grew into an independent non profit organization with an own green building, addressing their commitment to justice and sustainability

Red Hook Rise This non profit organization aims to provide sports, educational and physical fitness programs for the communities youth. They seek to create the kinds of opportunities for Red Hooks young people that more fortunate children may take for granted. The organization is based on a partnership with the parents to help organizing sport games and reading classes. They collaborate with the local school, PS 15, where they organize events such as a fun day.

Southwest Brooklyn Industrial Development Corp. This corporation with branches in both Sunset Park and Red Hook, assists businesses with accessing incentives, finance, real estate selection, procurement, advocacy and commercial revitalization. They have programs for the employment of locals in local businesses for which they collaborate with other non profit organizations. The organization assisted the commercial revitalization of Red Hooks Van Brunt street, thanks to the Avenue NYC Storefront improvement Program through the Department of Small Businesses and the Red Hook main street program through the New York State Department of Housing and Community Renewal. On top they organized a District Marketing Program for Red hook in 2008, promoting some local businesses, predominantly located near Van Brunt Street.

The Fatato Gallery Founder Antony Fatato organizes next to his artist practice an educational program, World Education Endeavor, that provides opportunities for students by arts and science education and supports them to advance their careers. The world education endeavor expanded throughout the borough, creating a network of professionals that are committed to share their knowledge with the educational needs of their community. In Red Hook, world education endeavor organizes workshops and classes in the Coffey Park Club House. In partnership with local businesses, they have an community-art program in which youth can work on the design and realization of large-scale paint murals. For the young children, they organize football classes on the Red Hook Recreational fields. In addition, they help the local youth with finding a job, mediating between them and local businesses.

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adult education center

We propose an adult education center that can take part in empowering and educating local residents. By proposing a training school for adults, we address the needs of the older generation, which is surpassed by the enthusiasm to empower the youth. Unemployment is a contemporary issue in the Red Hook neighborhood, we want to tackle with this incubating pole. A few of the possible partners: Added Value, BWAC, Coffey Park Club House, Dance Theatre Etcetera, Fatato Gallery, industrial center, Red Hook Initiative, SBIDC,

By proposing new network players or incubating poles on the available vacant land in the inbetween zone, the existing networks can be extended and enforced. These functions might accommodate the needs of the industrial waterfront and the economic base of the Red Hook neighborhood as well as operate on the quality of life in the community.

industrial center

Another incubating function, could be an industrial center, which acts as a conference center for the industrial waterfront. It houses the administration of the port, offers trainings to blue collar workers and accommodates meetings between different industrial businesses. Possible partners could be Added Value, adult education center, Red Hook Economic Development, Red Hook Initiative, SBIDC,

community empowerment center

We also propose an alternative community empowerment center, modeled on the design of Miguel Van Steenbrugge, who also works on Red Hook. The community center will provide a place for education, recreation and rehabilitation, building upon community involvement, social interaction and instructional programs. Possible partners could be Added Value, Fatato Gallery, Good Shepherd Services, the Red Hook Initiative, Red Hook Justice Center, SBIDC,

theater

A theater can provide a covered space where the different art programs can perform and engage in new network relations. Possible partners could be BWAC, Cora Dance Studios, Dance Theater Etcetera, Falconworks Artist Group, Red Hook Library,

public platform

A public platform could be an incubating pole that offers starting businesses a place to thrive. Different entrepreneurs can work in the same space and hereby influence each other and enter new networks. Possible partners could be the adult education center, BSC, BWAC, industrial center, SBIDC, ...

cinema

A new cinema can become a gathering space for different generations and could encourage the local film production, where Red Hook is increasingly becoming known for. Possible partners could be BWAC, Hook Productions, the Red Hook Film Festival,

business solution center

A Business Solution Center, modeled on the Industrial Policy of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, can serve Red Hooks industrial business zone. Counselors help industrial companies access incentives, inform them on regulations and business opportunities. A local ombudsman develops relationships with the local business community and therefore knows how to assist them if necessary. Possible partners could be: Fatato Gallery, Red Hook Economic Development, Red Hook Initiative, Red Hook Rise, SBIDC,

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available land

parking

vacancy

creating network squares [ G7 ]

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On crucial spots in the inbetween zone, network squares are proposed on vacant land and existing public spaces are proposed to be explored as such. These squares are perceived as voids that aim to connect different existing networks and to provoke the formation of new networks. A large part of the users comes to the network squares with the underlying purpose of improving their business or promoting themselves. The square stimulates its surroundings and this can result in an improvement of the socio-economic activity at these locations. They can also accommodate occasional activity such as markets or parking space. The network squares are fl eeting places of exchange.

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embedding living parks [ H6, H7, I6, I7 ]

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In order to improve the living qualities of mixed-use Red Hook, we focus on the relation between the existing parks and their residential environment. Because parks are a gratuitous form of recreation, they can attract all types of Red Hook residents, forming an alternative to the individual garden. By proposing both activities and open space, the parks can become a point of attraction and dilatation to their surroundings, a destination where residents purposefully head to in their spare time. Residents can come to the park to meet, to refl ect, to relax. In this way, the living parks are envisioned to complement the residential core and to improve the quality of life in this zone.

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Andy Vernon-Jones

Andy Vernon-Jones

By combining the different individual proposals, we create three systems that recapitulate the smaller interventions and that each formulate a statement on the different aspects of the future vision we developed for the current tendencies in Red Hook: the protection of the industrial waterfront, the redirection of the green recreational development and the formation of community networks.

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infrastructural belt [ D4, D5, E4, E5 ]

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By combining the newly proposed and improved transport system, that includes a new railroad and improved trucking routes, with the existing fence, an infrastructural belt along the industrial waterfront is created. The symbolic of the fence that safeguard the industrial land at the waterfront, is enforced by the zone of freight infrastructure. The infrastructural belt does not only demarcate the border between the industries and the living fabric of the neighborhood, but also facilitates and stimulates local harbor activity. On spots where the fence is less distinctive the freight infrastructure can form an alternative demarcation line

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green corridor [ I3, I4, J3, J4 ]

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The greenway forms a connection between the different living parks throughout Red Hook. Together, the greenway and the living parks constitute a green corridor through the fabric of Red Hook that offers an alternative to the green, recreational developments along the rest of the New York waterfront.

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incubating square [ G7, G8 , H7, H8 ]

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By combining the network squares and surrounding incubating poles, a system, in which local networks can operate, originates. The combination is called the incubating square and consists of the different network players and the space in which network ties are initiated.

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Andy Vernon-Jones

Andy Vernon-Jones

By critically testing our own strategies through four design proposals, the pragmatic analysis is brought to life on the scale of the individual site. Each design is the incarnation of two system proposals and is an ultimate point of confrontation. The designs are practical examples of how the observed tendencies could alternatively be shaped.

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red hook recreational area [ I9, I10, J9, J10 ]

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The Red Hook Recreational Area is located in the south of Red Hook, near the waterfront. Before its construction from 1934 until 1949, the site was part of the Red Hook port. Today, the park offers various sport facilities for the residents of Red Hook and its environment and is, especially in the weekends, intensively used by baseball, soccer and American football teams for competitions. During summer season, food vendors are selling Latin American dishes next to the games. This traditional food market attracts visitors from all over the city. Our design for the Recreational Area results from the intersection of the green corridor and the infrastructural belt. The proposed freight train alongside the industrial waterfront will run straight through the Red Hook Recreational Area. The new greenway crosses the park and links it to Coffey Park, another living park in Red Hook. By weaving the multiple layers of the park, the surreal combination between the industrial surroundings and its recreational character comes forward and the scenic qualities of the park get underlined.

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recreation vs. waterfront industries

The site forms a green enclave in an industrially zoned area. Notwithstanding its industrial surroundings, the proximity of a densely populated residential zone, the Red Hook houses, creates an assured user base of kids, families, sport clubs and other types of users.

boundary of trees

The Red Hook Recreational Area is composed of multiple sport fields imbedded in the street grid. Clear lines of trees separate the fields from the built environment. Near the waterfront, the lines are less distinct, revealing interesting views of the industrial patrimony and activity that is located near the waterfront.

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reconstructing a boundary

The indistinct boundary of trees that runs through the Recreational Area is being reconstructed by the implementation of the freight railroad and greenway on this line. The two new transportation paths get interwoven with the existing layer of pedestrian circulation. This multi-purpose circulation branch links the different singular sport fi elds and enhances in this way the access to the park.

facilitating

Alongside the circulation branch, facilities are implemented for the adjacent uses. To facilitate the park, small bike hubs are implemented next to the greenway. Alongside the industrial tracts, the branch is accompanied by port cranes for the loading of the arriving goods on the trains. Thirdly, a viewpoint is created that overlooks the industrial waterfront from the park-side of the branch.

bike hubs

The bike hub consists of a covered bike parking lot and an auxiliary function, such as a do-it-yourself bike repair shop, a fountain of clean water or lockers. The hubs are located at spots where the interwoven paths congregate and a higher intensity might originate. .

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viewpoint

Where the waterfront approaches the Recreational Area and where the fence that protects the industries at the waterfront touches the sport fi elds, the viewpoint is implemented. The elevated viewpoint, overlooking the industrial waterfront, functions as an alternative to the fence on one side and at the same time as a tribune to overlook the recreational fi elds.

surreal combination

The impressive sight of the cranes next to the park, together with the freight train running through it, can elicit excitement from the parks visitors and hereby enforce the parks distinct image for new and old users.

industrial cranes

Industrial cranes are implemented in order to facilitate Red Hooks reactivated port industries. The presence of this large scale port infrastructure in the park represents clearly the contrast between the recreational and industrial uses in the area.

1. pedestrian paths2. greenway3. freight rail4. bike hub5. viewpoint6. industrial cranes

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coffey park [ H6 ]

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Coffey Park is a small park located between Verona, Dwight, King and Richards Street in Red Hook. The north part of the park was acquired by the Brooklyn Park Department in the beginning of the 20th century and consists of a green area, crossed by a concrete tile path. In 1943, the south part was added to the park ground after the city turned it over to the Park Department. The second phase of the park construction provided the park with a hardened surface for sport facilities that today attracts the most of Coffey Parks visitors. The park hosts different events, such as Oldtimers day, an annual festival to celebrate the former and current residents of the Red Hook Houses, and several talent shows for local youth. By extending the surrounding grid lines into the landscape layout, we anchor the park in its environment and improve the accessibility. Different incubating poles, such as an adult education center and the library are located in the proximity of the park. Together with the existing and proposed residential development, they circumvent the park area and provide the users for the park. In this way, the design of Coffey Park results from the intersection of the green corridor and the typology of the incubating square.

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residential development

affordable housing

active sport area

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different grid orientations

Coffey Park is embedded in the existing grid configuration, on the demarcation between the two street orientations.

active vs. non-active

The two construction phases of Coffey Park are still noticeable in the parks layout. The park is divided in an active hardened sport area and a non-active green zone that is shaped by the drawing of a concrete tiled path. On the demarcation between the two fragments of the park, a club house or community center is located.

different types of users

Coffey Park is surrounded by residential development, which can ensure the daily user base of the park. On the east and south side the park is confined by the Red Hook Houses, the first and largest public housing project of NYC. 70% of the Red Hook residents live in the Houses. In the north and west the housing deranges from affordable housing to expensive single row houses that run all the way into the Back area, surrounding Van Brunt Street.

boundary conditions

The Red Hook Houses, which are a tower-in-the-park typology, make up a different boundary condition to the park than the single row houses, assembled in blocks and crossed by the street grid. The proximity of the tower-in-the park project forced us to think about the relationship between these two different green urban spaces located next to each other: the existing green ground floor of the public housing project and the living park we want to revalue.

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distorting surrounding lines

By extending the greenway diagonally through the park, the two orientations of the grid are connected. The geometry of the park is defi ned by splitting the bicycle path in its two traffi c directions and imposing the distorted grid orientations on the greenway.

extension of the grid

The street grid is extended into the edge of the park. The new footpaths mark the entrances for pedestrians. While arriving at the meadow, they intertwine with the greenway and the intersections are perceived as terraces that announce the open space.

green ngers

The extension of the street grid on the side of the Red Hook Houses has an extra layer to announce Coffey Park into the NYCHA grassland. The footpaths are aligned with red Japanese maples with low trunks that accompany the larger green sycamore trees. Together they form green fi ngers that run from the Red Hook Houses into Coffey Park.

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animated park

On the edge of the park different facilities are implemented in order to attract residents and offer them an alternative to the individual garden. For example, picnic tables and barbeque spots are implemented.

center vs. edge

In the north part of the park, an open meadow originates, that is circumvented with an edge of activity underneath the existing trees. The animated area connects to the existing sport and seating facilities in the south. By extending the bicycle path through both parts, they are treated equally and united in one park.

incubating pole

Incubating poles, such as the adult education center and the library, surround the park area. The users of these network players can also reside in the park. The adult education center, for example, marches upon the park and uses the animated edge to create a seating platform.

van brunt square [ D7, D8, E7, E8 ]

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Van Brunt Square is a network square which we propose as an extension of Van Brunt Street, on an almost vacant lot that marches upon the industrial waterfront and the infrastructural belt. The square is perceived as a void that allows for the surrounding incubating poles to establish socio-cultural networks with each other. The void stimulates the economic activity of its environment. A perimeter of square activity, such as bars and a recruitment center, accompanies the square and creates a fl ow of temporary activity movement.

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junction of function

The site of Van Brunt Square is located in an industrial zoned area that touches on a mixed-use and residential zone with a commercial overlay. Van Brunt Square is an extension of Van Brunt Street, the commercial strips that houses typical gentrifying commercial development. The area surrounding Van Brunt Street is called the Back and houses the wealthy, middle class gentrifying population. The challenge of the network square will be to connect the new creative economy to the local industries at the waterfront.

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shifting of an axis

The transition of the commercial and gentrifying development on Van Brunt Street to the industrial waterfront is realized through the shifting of the axis on the square. The endpoint of Van Brunt Street is redirected along the former industrial quay at the Beard Street Pier building, which is converted into a promenade. The promenade is perceived as an enjoyable route to serve the back offi ces of the harbor industries and the fairway that are located in a mixed-use zone along the heavy industry zoning.

waterfront destination

The promenade is the extension of a smaller forecourt that seems to overfl ow in the water through the formation of a tribune.

informal forecourt

The infrastructural belt is crossed and the fence is cut open to provide a well-defi ned accessible waterfront destination for informal encounter. The forecourt houses the terrace of a new bar that serves locally produced food and drinks.

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void vs. perimeter

The square is perceived as a void that allows for neighboring network players to meet and interact. By using the square as a temporary place of exchange, its users seek to enhance their relationships with other local economies and to improve their own organizations in the perimeter.

incubating poles

Such organizations are called incubating poles. They are players in a bigger network of non-profi t organizations, small businesses, art programs, schools and other institutions that aim at improving the community life through empowerment of local residents and stimulating the local economy. An example is the Business Solution Center that we position at the corner of Van Brunt Street and the square. The goals of this organization is to inform local businesses on local real estate, employees, incentives, etc. The BSC can both assist the commercial businesses in Van Brunt Streets as well as the industries at the waterfront.

recruitment center

Also the recruitment center, where dock workers can receive their assignment of the day, can be perceived as an incubating pole. When these workers pass by, peaks of intensity will originate.

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red hook rooftop [ F5 ]

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Another network square we propose is the Red Hook Rooftop, which is located on top of the Pioneer and King Studios, a new artist center of Dustin Yellin, near the industrial waterfront. The artist wanted to create residencies, where international artists can work together, and a large exhibition space in a 24000 square foot, former industrial warehouse. The land next to the new art center is also property of Dustin Yellin and he plans to transform it into a sculpture garden. We propose to partly convert the ground into an industrial center that together with the art center can share a rooftop which offers a magnifi cent view on Manhattan.

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(creative) industry

The art center is located in the industrial zoning, near the infrastructural belt that defines the industrial waterfront. Served by the (B61) bus stop that is located at Van Brunt Street, it will attract both local gentrifiers as outside art lovers.

threat of the arts

The reconversion of an old warehouse into an art center in the industrial zoning is an indication of the increasing popularity of the Red Hooks waterfront area among the creative public. This new art center could threaten the local industries and residents by sparkling the process of gentrification in this area.

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stacking layers

By proposing a rooftop as a network square on top of an art center, we make an attempt to maneuver the trend of creative activity near an industrial zone into a direction that can be of value for the local economy. On the square, new bonds can be created between the local businesses and artists. of which new, rooted economic-cultural networks can originate.

a counterweight

As mentioned before we propose to create an industrial center on the site next to the art center, as a counterweight. The two different incubating poles can engage in new networks, formed on the jointed rooftop. The networks can positively infl uence both the industrial waterfront as the residential core.

proximity of Manhattan

At the rooftop, the public can overlook the fence to look at the waterfront and Manhattan, but remain distant from it. They are constantly confronted with the industrial character of the surroundings.

coffee caravan

The bar on the network square can stimulate informal encounter during lunch breaks, guided tours, rooftopparties and so on.

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Andy Vernon-Jones

Andy Vernon-Jones

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New York City is a city renowned for its constant transformation, subjected to an amalgam of underlying processes. During two semesters, we engaged ourselves with this urban transformation in Red Hook, the site we chose for our graduation project, and we were subsequently driven to think about future perspectives for this unique neighborhood in Brooklyn. Through fieldwork and research we succeeded in revealing some of the processes that are determined for the current and future everyday life of Red Hooks residents (Brooklyn 101. chapters on a city life and Red Hook. structures and phenomena). In our project Keeping the fence. The Advent of Gentrification in the Town of Red Hook, presented in this book, we make an attempt to maneuver these processes into an alternative direction. One of the tendencies that is alive in the neighborhood and not expected to diminish, is gentrification. While taking into account the different aspects and consequences of gentrification in Red Hook recreational waterfront development accompanied by luxury apartments, social segregation, displacement as well as the valuable establishment of networks that enables a neighborhood to improve itself in a single yet multifaceted approach, we tried to accomplish our ambition for Red Hook as a reactivated port and enjoyable living area for both new and long-rooted residents.

In order to fulfill Red Hooks undeniable potential as a port area for the New York City region, we rejected the current tendency of recreational waterfront development by keeping the fence that nowadays edges the industrial waterfront zone and by enforcing this border with new freight transport infrastructure. The implementation of this infrastructural belt connects to the widest level of the project Red Hook as a feeder port and will facilitate, on the level of the neighborhood, the new industrial players on the waterfront. In two designs we explored the tension introduced by these interventions on an architectural scale. At the Red Hook Recreational Area, the surreal combination of an intensively used park and the adjacent industrial port is represented. With the Red Hook Rooftop, we developed a design proposal based on the idea of the distinct inaccessibility of this industrial port for the public by creating a place to look at the waterfront but remain distant from it. In order to meet the needs of Red Hooks residents, the existing passageways to the shoreline, keep to be preserved, cutting through the infrastructural belt. One strategic cut through the fence is added in the design proposal for Van Brunt Square in order to facilitate the office and commercial spaces on the adjacent waterfront-located mixed-use zone.

Due to the keeping of the fence at the waterfront, a need is created to rethink the form and significance of the recreational green development that approaches Red Hook from Brooklyn Bridge park. As for now, this green development is located at the waterfront and usually goes hand in hand with priceless high-rise residential development. For the continuation of the green development in Red Hook, we introduce, conversely, an extension of the existing borough-wide greenway-network through the densified residential core of Red Hook, that links the living parks imbedded in the urban fabric. The green corridor connects to the level of the borough by providing new ways to cycle through Brooklyn and simultaneously offers Red Hooks residents an improved accessibility to their own green spaces. This concept is elaborated in Coffey Park, where the greenway connects the two differently orientated grids of the neighborhood. For the other living park, the Red Hook Recreational Fields, the greenway provides the sport leagues, their public and other visitors a new way of reaching the park.

While working on the project, a more fruitful process that comes along with gentrification in Red Hook revealed itself. The new, wealthier residents of Red Hook, called gentrifiers, tend to intensively collaborate with the local, mor

keeping the fence

Documents

advent of gentrification

town of red hookthesis

local residents

living tissue of red

u t h o rseva

industrial buildings

abandoned waterfront

waterfront neighborhoods