The Center for Resilient Cities and Landscapes, Resilient Cities Catalyst, and Resilient Red Hook gathered designers to help build temporary (or pilot) improvements in the public realm at Red Hook, Brooklyn. They raised money for the purchase of materials and for employing local youths for the summer. Volunteers were gathered for designing and constructing. Team of designers came up with ideas to be shared between volunteers to build on each other’s creativity, and work towards a collective goal. The following project is targeted at Wolcott Street between Dwight Street and Richards Street, Red Hook, Brookyn.



Press: “As COVID-19 hinders city efforts to protect residents from the heat,  Community groups step in” (Credits- InsideClimate News)

  Press video:  "Cool Streets" Responds to NYC's Extreme Heat During Covid-19” (credits - InsideClimate News)

  Press video: Red Hook “Cool streets” by StreetFilms

The mission was to expand shade to provide cooler spaces so as to reduce extreme summer heat in Red Hook’s public spaces, by focusing on places and designing spaces that are accessible to people of all ages and backgrounds. By working collaboratively, we used the community’s existing skills and experience to develop designs that empowered the youth to implement easily deployable cooling strategies. We created spaces that allow residents to find relief from the summer heat while also re-establishing social connections safely in the public realm, as the COVID pandemic continued to remain a threat.

Because 450 trees were in the process of being removed as part of the Sandy recovery/resiliency project in Red Hook Houses, we aimed to  expand the cooling potential of the trees that remain, which were primarily preserved around the center in the Red Hook Houses farm. We focused on the block of Wolcott street between Richards and Dwight. This site was located between PS15 school, a public library,the NYCHA Red Hook Houses farm, a senior center, citi bike station, and parking spots. Our proposed site plan involved connecting these existing institutions through our extended canopy, water play, street library, and public seating interventions.

We proposed three key intervention concepts:
 
1.  Bring your own tree: Creating Shade Structures
2. Pop-up Library with Use of recycled materials
3. Tunnel of mist: Cooling and Playing with Water

Bring your own tree :
A kit of parts bring /build your own tree intervention made it posible for visitors to cluster these planters to expand the shadow. Some examples of plausible arrangements along the sidewalk, a street corner, and around the blocked parking site. Evidence suggests a 10% increase in tree canopy cover can lower afternoon ambient temperatures by as much as 1-1.5C.

Cool Streets came at the right time for the community of Red Hook giving them a space to call their own. The project eventually was fully funtional by the locals, after learning and understanding the mechanisms of the pop-up elemets, and used to empower them towards ownership of their neighborhood.