21st Century Street

Today Fourth Avenue exists as an element of separation between the residential neighborhood of Park Slope and Industrial Gowanus. As a major North/South thoroughfare for cars, trucks and overflow traffic from the BQE, coupled with the intersection at Ninth Street (which contributes a subway hub), there exists a dangerous intersection which has already caused one fatality, 51 pedestrian injuries and 15 bicycle injuries.

We propose a plan to think of 4th avenue as a park dedicated first to pedestrians and cyclists by connecting Gowanus and Park Slope through Gowanus’s industrial aspect “grating” and Park Slope’s more cultivated aspect “vegetation”. Together they intertwine to form a Green Grid in the median of Fourth Avenue which becomes a dedicated bike lane.

The Green Grid:
The Green Grid System locates a grate above the existing subway vents on 4th Avenue. This grid aesthetic acts as the platform of the bike route, lends itself to a vocabulary associated with the positive and negative form of The City’s street system, and adds a re-mediating element for water flowing into the Gowanus Canal.

The Cladding:
The positive form of the grid informs the new cladding structure proposed for the subway overpass. Just as the tree clusters on Fourth Avenue build spaces where one may experience transparency through the tree canopy, the cladding on the facade acts as layered leaves where light shines through. Here the cladding of the overpass and its function to illuminate is illustrated. The cladding structure peels opens, allowing light to shine through and create a well-lit pedestrian passage under the bridge as well as warn on-coming traffic.

Proposed Plan:
The alterations to Fourth Avenue and Ninth Street include:
Fourth Avenue:
-widen the crosswalk median on Fourth Ave to the ADA standard
-incorporate a grass and tree mound median and sidewalk for cyclists and pedestrians
-make dedicated bike lanes out of the side-street parking on Fourth Avenue (during the peak rush hour times)
Ninth Street:
-redistribute Ninth Street’s bike lanes between parked cars and sidewalk
-add swales and tree plantings

*These treatments prioritize traveling modes for pedestrian and bicyclist through safer alternatives to crossing streets, accessing roadways and having dedicated spaces for their travel. Motor vehicle traffic becomes tertiary by restricting parking during rush-hour and creating green mounds within the parking/cycling lane to des

The proposed street during morning and evening rush-hour on Fourth Avenue (above left) and non rush-hour on Fourth Avenue (above right), show the temporal flows of pedestrian and traffic. The re-distributed bike lane remains constant on Ninth Street (below) during peak and off-peak traffic. Ninth street gains a safer route for bicyclists and planting techniques to accompany the bicycle lane.

Remediation:
Filtration swales are introduced into the Green Grid design of 4th Avenue and 9th Street to capture storm-water run-off from the higher elevation of Park Slope down to the basin of the Gowanus Canal. By adding a network of filtration swales along the new bike lanes, a sponge barrier is formed perpendicular to the flow of water. This barrier is designed to collect the average rainfall, absorbing and evaporating the toxins in that rainfall so to lessen toxicity levels of the Gowanus.