Special Flushing Waterfront District
Flushing, Queens
Four large, mixed-use developments are proposed along the Flushing Creek which are being developed with the NYC Department of City Planning as a new Special Waterfront District in Queens. The southern-most parcel, a 3.75 acre site, will create nearly 1 acre of publicly accessible open space on formerly inaccessible and industrial land. A new street and sidewalk network is being developed for the district that will improve direct neighborhood access to the shoreline.
The waterfront park will provide a continuous 12’-0” wide shoreline walkway with new site amenities such as lighting, benches, tables and chairs, trash receptacles, bike racks, and signage. In the upland portion of the waterfront park, a range of recreational programming will be provided such as stepped seating, sloped lawns, a picnic grove, and a small playground. A variety of seating typologies will be provided throughout the park, such as benches, seat walls, loungers, sculptural seating components, picnic tables, and social seating coves. Areas along the path will be carved out to create smaller waterfront gathering spaces as episodic moments that may be defined by specialty hardscape treatments such as decorative pavers, wood decking, or steel platforms, some of which could cantilever across the stone revetment, ensuring close access to the shoreline. Plantings of canopy trees will provide shaded seating, and flowering trees, shrubs, and lawn will provide a soft and varied understory environment that also promotes enhanced ecological and marine habitats. The edge of the shoreline itself will be stabilized with new stone revetment which will incorporate seating boulders and salt marsh plantings creating a naturalized shoreline that will help refresh the Flushing Creek as a functioning tidal estuary. The waterfront park falls within the Tidal Wetland Adjacent Area (TWAA) under NYS DEC jurisdiction, and will implement green infrastructure strategies towards site water quality management.
Recognition
This work was completed while Project Manager at Abel Bainnson Butz.
Client
United Group with Peter Poon Architects