The Park at Essex Crossing
The Park at Essex Crossing
New York, NY
The Park at Essex Crossing is a shady oasis in the heart of Manhattan’s Lower East Side. As the marquee park within the six-acre, 1.9 million square foot Essex Crossing Development (formerly SPURA), this new green space directly responds to the neighborhood’s desires for shady seating, flexibility, lighting, native plantings, and play space.
Bordered by Broome, Clinton and Suffolk Streets and sitting atop a parking structure, one of the challenges for this park was to create a peaceful space in one of New York’s most bustling neighborhoods. With a few simple moves, the design prioritizes seating, shade and an expanded, naturalistic sense of place. Picking up on the Lower East Side’s history of beloved urban gardens, the Park design layers canopy and understory trees, swaths of woodland planting, and vine-covered vertical plantings to create a woodland garden in the city. Meandering planters allow the park to feel separate from the city, dense native plantings provide year round shade, botanic interest, and habitat value. Customized tables and stools offer a variety of configurations for social gatherings in this, one of New York’s most historic communities. Finally, a custom-designed playground for two to five year olds surrounded by seating and open views holds the northeast corner of the site. This pocket park offers tranquility and delight for all ages, year round.
As Principal at West 8, Unknown Studio’s Claire Agre led public engagement and concept design through documentation and construction of the park over a five-year period (2015-2019).
Project timeline: 2015-2019
Client: Delancey Street Partnership
Scope: Full Design Services + Public Engagement
Project Type: Park
Size: 15,000 SF
Budget: $1 Million
With: West 8 urban design & landscape architecture, p.c.
Claire Agre, Principal & Senior Landscape Architect
Consultants: Beyer Blinder Belle (Coordinating Architect), AKRF, Rodkin Cardinale Consulting Engineers, DeSimone Consulting Engineers, Illumination Arts
Awards & Recognition:
Excellence in Mixed-Use Development, Urban Land Institute New York.
