Kent Avenue reveals the potential of an effective greenway; where parked cars delineate motor traffic from greenway traffic, cyclist and pedestrians are prevalent and buildings are increasingly occupied. However, as you round Wallabout Channel to the east of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, you once again feel trapped in Brooklyn’s post-industrial margin between the expressway and weedy lots. BGI officials know this and they have a capital project in the works to ameliorate the issue. The eastern portion of the Navy Yard will soon be under construction to develop a passive recreation zone.
One of BGI’s capital projects, the Naval Cemetery Landscape, has secured $1 million in funding from the TKF Foundation, a non-profit devoted to the development of sacred urban spaces, and $800,000 from the City Council. Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects are creating a landscape that will shift in plant form with time, just as the program of the site has shifted from farm to hospital to cemetery. As site preparation and contract documentation begin on that project, BGI is on to the next: Williamsburg Bridge Park and Columbia Park.
