Department of Design and Construction Receives Nine Awards for Superior Design from the Public Design Commission

DDC: Ian Michaels, 646-939-6514, michaelia@ddc.nyc.gov

(Long Island City, NY – July 24, 2023) The NYC Department of Design and Construction (DDC) announced today that it received a total of nine awards from the NYC Public Design Commission (PDC) as part of the Commission’s Annual Awards for Excellence in Design. The awards, usually given annually, were presented this year for the prior two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic, making this year’s awards the 40th and 41st annual awards.

40th Annual Awards

The 40th annual awards were presented by PDC for projects from 2021. Four DDC projects were recognized in the Bronx, Queens and Staten Island.

Queens Botanical Garden Education Building

To be located at 43-50 Main Street in Flushing, Queens, the new educational building for the Queens Botanical Garden will replace and expand the current facility, will support educational programming and will be a resource for visitors, providing restrooms and information for this underserved portion of the garden. The design comprises two interconnected forms - a classroom form and a two-story reception, public program and office form. A connective spine linking the two opens into an indoor-outdoor teaching space while the roof of the spine extends to create a welcoming entrance. The design was completed by BKSK Architects and OVS Landscape Architecture under DDC’s Design and Construction Excellence Program.

Rego Park Community Library including The Fore by Katrín Sigurdardóttir

To be located at 91-41 63rd Drive in Rego Park, Queens, the new Rego Park Community Library will include two distinct spaces for the public and operational support. The reading rooms are stacked in section, creating opportunities for visual connection and allowing natural light to permeate the space. The building’s massing inflects along the two public facades, scaling and sculpting the building while providing views and entrances to welcome the community and neighborhood. The artwork The Fore by Katrín Sigurdardóttir reflects on how plants are rendered in print. The artwork is formed from a mural combination of raised and flat brick with the modular pattern resembling mechanical and digital imaging processes. The design was completed by the firm Weiss/Manfredi under the Design and Construction Excellence Program.

LIFE COULD BE A DREAM by Jeffrey Gibson

Comprising three site-specific paintings and a permanent wall installation, LIFE COULD BE A DREAM at the new 40th Precinct in the Bronx references a lyrical excerpt from the 1954 song “Sh-Boom” by The Chords, a Bronx-based doo-wop group. The three paintings will be inset into a brightly colored mural painted directly on the wall that will frame the three canvases into one immersive installation. As with other Jeffrey Gibson work, the installation combines Native American aesthetic traditions with the visual languages of Modernism to explore the contemporary confluence of personal identity, culture, history, and international social narratives.

The Hawk and the Heron by Tatiana Arocha

The Hawk and the Heron depicts an imagined forest that perhaps grew on the land we now know as Snug Harbor in Staten Island. Based on research of local ecology, artist Tatiana Arocha used photography of Snug Harbor Cultural Center’s flora and fauna, and hand-made textures sourced from the gardens, to represent the abundance of life that has always been present in the land. All the elements are combined into a life-size scale digital painting, printed on contiguous panels with hand-painted gold accents. The work pays tribute to the rich cultural offerings of the Snug Harbor Cultural Center and is composed in a style that honors the New York Chinese Scholar’s Garden.

41st Annual Awards

The 41st annual awards were presented by PDC for projects from 2022. Five DDC projects were recognized in Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan.

Osborn Plaza

In collaboration with the Brownsville Community Justice Center (BCJC), the redesign of Osborn Plaza will revitalize a beloved neighborhood streetscape and plaza in Brownsville, Brooklyn. The existing plaza sits at the terminus of Osborn Street and provides direct pedestrian access to the Langston Hughes Houses. By reconfiguring the curb geometry, constructing a raised sidewalk, and extending unique scoring and two-tone pavement to the curb, the entrance to Osborn Plaza will be safer for pedestrians, will signal that the area is a public amenity, and will enhance the space as a piece of vibrant community and neighborhood infrastructure. The plaza itself will have CityBenches, granite seat blocks, raised trapezoidal planters, bioswales, colorful moveable chairs and tables with red and blue umbrellas, and an accommodation for a potential future kiosk.

Baisley Park Community Library

As part of an ongoing phase of improvements to the branch, located at 117-11 Sutphin Boulevard, Queens, including complete upgrades to the building systems, the Baisley Park Branch Library renovation will completely repurpose the interior space of this community cornerstone. The interior will include separate spaces for children, teens and adults. The existing atrium and side yard will now be accessible to the public, finally activating spaces that have remained unused for years, and the curvilinear shape of the exterior additions pay homage to the existing unique building vernacular. The project is designed by the firm LEVENBETTS under DDC’s Design and Construction Excellence Program.

Flexus by Grimanesa Amorós

Incorporated into the DOT’s Harper Street Asphalt Plant facility, Flexus by Grimanesa Amorós is an integrated light installation that celebrates the intersection of art, infrastructure and sustainability. Located along Flushing Creek at the interchange of the Van Wyck Expressway and Northern Boulevard, and inspired by Amorós’ fascination with construction that was instilled by her engineer father, Flexus similarly mirrors the energy and pulse of the city, providing a “scenic route” for all passersby. Using an astronomical clock function in the lighting controller, Amorós will program a lighting sequence —which will bathe the surrounding infrastructure in cool and warm light in a looping sequence— to turn on before sunset and off before dawn, ensuring it complements the environment’s natural rhythms.

Resonances by Christopher Myers

In conjunction with an interior renovation, Resonances will be comprised of two site-specific artworks in the interior of the Brownsville Library in Brooklyn. Both artworks incorporate visualizations of scientific data along with references to the history of the Brownsville neighborhood. As envisioned by Christopher Myers, the pieces will overlay images of magnetic fields from the work of Isidor Isaac Rabi, a Brownsville native who received a Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of nuclear magnetic resonance, with several other great figures who grew up in Brownsville.

Streetscape Improvements as part of the Safe Routes to School Program

This project will improve a total of 10 intersections between West 135th Street and West 150th Street in Manhattan along the Broadway Malls corridor to ensure that a network of streets are upgraded, including three that are nearby to schools and have records of injuries resulting from traffic accidents. To the North, at West 168th Street and West 169th Street, Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) will also reconstruct safe routes streetscapes with distinctive materials. The project scope in these areas will incorporate three plazas with seating, planting, trees, and two expanded planted medians.

About the NYC Department of Design and Construction
The Department of Design and Construction is the City’s primary capital construction project manager. In supporting Mayor Adams’ long-term vision of growth, sustainability, resiliency, equity and healthy living, DDC provides communities with new or renovated public buildings such as firehouses, libraries, police precincts, and new or upgraded roads, sewers and water mains in all five boroughs. To manage this $24 billion portfolio, DDC partners with other City agencies, architects and consultants, whose experience bring efficient, innovative and environmentally-conscious design and construction strategies to City projects. For more information, please visit nyc.gov/ddc.