Visualising Community Voices

Re-imagining a public park

What

Participative Installation

Collaborator

Friends of Fort Greene Park

When

2020

Services

Creative outputs

People research

A planning dispute over the development of Fort Greene Park

A controversial $24m redesign for Brooklyn’s Fort Greene Park ended in the courts, with local residents suing the Mayor's office over a lack of consultation or transparency.

The plans included cutting down 83 of the park’s trees, and the installation of wide boulevards throughout the park. Many local residents accused the Mayor’s office of deliberate gentrification of the park and an attempt to sidestep environmental regulations.

We worked with local communities to visualise how they should have been consulted

In collaboration with Friends of Fort Greene Park, we engaged with and listened to a diverse group of Fort Greene Park regulars. Through interviews with local residents, dog walkers, park rangers, playground and gym users, we explored people’s uses, histories, and memories of the park.

We also deployed simple ethnographic tools to help people express and visualise what spaces they already valued, what they would improve, and their dreams for their local space.