MIT design for South Bronx Waterfront

Thanks to the Harlem River Working Group, which we helped form, our waterfront is getting more attention and design treatment from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Students in Associate Professor Eran Ben-Joseph’s Site and Environmental Systems class applied their knowledge to envisioning an integrated waterfront access plan along the eastern banks of the Harlem River in Bronx, N.Y.

Park Avenue on the Harlem River, featured in the report, where we have worked to achieve greater access.

To generate strategies for reconnecting the river to its adjacent communities, twelve graduate students in DISP (Department of Urban Studies and Planning) took part in the Site and Environmental Systems class (11.304/4.255) with Professor Eran Ben-Joseph. Together they applied their knowledge to envisioning an integrated waterfront access plan along the western banks of the River in Bronx, New York. Partnering with city officials and local organizations, together they envisioned a pedestrian friendly Bronx.

READ MORE HERE.

Friends of Brook Park has been concerned that MIT, an institution with, at the start of Fiscal Year 2010, an endowment of $7.9 billion, will use this design study as a wedge to compete for grant funds with local organizations. For example, we believe they have put forward a proposal for funding through the South bronx Waterfront Partnership of WCS and NOAA funded by Rep. Serrano. This is a limited pool of $ that longstanding local groups rely on. Why should we have to compete when MIT has billions? Is there design work to support local communities, or to compete with them?