Between August 2010 and October 2013, I volunteered with Architecture for Humanity: NY on the project Across the BQE. Initially we met with the community and proposed programming the space under the elevated highway.

The community hated the proposal.

In response we, the community and the AFH group, shifted our attention to pedestrian safety. Over the past twenty years, over two hundred pedestrians, and over a hundred cyclists had been struck by cars along the mile and a half stretch that was the focus of the architectural intervention. Park Ave. is used as a secondary highway with cars driving in excess of 60 miles per hour. The highway driving speeds were particularly dangerous given that five elementary and middle schools located feet from the curb.

Over the course of a year, and after four meetings with the community, we developed a site safety survey and developed a set of recommendations that were presented to, and subsequently approved by, the New York City Department of transportation (DOT). The project became a pilot project for the Mayor’s office “Vision Zero” plan.