Brooklyn Bridge Park

HR&A served as a strategic advisor to Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation by guiding the development of the award-winning master plan.

The transition of 85 acres of vacant, post-industrial piers into active open space and development marks a reconnection of Brooklyn’s vibrant neighborhoods with its waterfront. The park commenced construction in 2009 and is now nearly complete, with over 85 acres are now open to the public. Planned development to support the park includes residential, retail, hotel development and parking. HR&A’s effort helped break a 20-year log jam by identifying a funding strategy for this award winning public space. Michael Van Valkenbergh’s extraordinary design provides residents and visitors with one of the great parks of New York City.

HR&A led predevelopment planning for Brooklyn Bridge Park.

HR&A was retained to staff a new citizen-led organization commissioned to prepare a plan to develop one of the most dramatic sites in urban America. This successful effort combined skills in public facilitation, design management, financing and executive leadership. Specifically, HR&A:

• Led a complex, multi-year stakeholder outreach process to the project’s numerous constituencies, including City, and State officials as well as diverse interest groups;
• Created a funding plan that uses future, on-site development to sustain the Park’s operating costs;
• Worked with the City and State to create a memorandum of understanding to provide capital funding; and
• Procured and managed the BBPDC’s team of master planners, counsel, and other consultants.