A family picnics on the grass at Brooklyn Bridge Park in April in New York City.
Photographer: Al Bello/Getty ImagesWhat Makes New York City’s Brooklyn Bridge Park Work
Landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh reflects on the creation of NYC’s popular new public space and offers advice on how to reinvent urban waterfronts.
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Michael Van Valkenburgh really loves Brooklyn Bridge Park. This makes sense: The 72-year-old landscape architect led the lengthy and controversial conversion of this 85-acre plot of industrial land along the East River into one of New York City’s most celebrated public spaces. But he’s also an unabashed fan who lives nearby, allowing him to keep a close eye on it. He interrupts his rundown of the park’s more-celebrated features — like the sound berms that absorb the persistent roar of the nearby Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and the resilient vegetation that’s designed to shrug off future flooding — to boast about its status as “the coolest place to play basketball in New York.”