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The Future of the Public Realm

THUR-B11: Implementing the Gowanus Lowlands: Who Builds, Who Maintains, Who Benefits

Thursday, September 17, 2026
10:45 AM - 12:00 PM PT
1.25 PDH, LA CES/HSW

The Lowlands is a community-based vision for a restored public realm along Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal—a Superfund site and former marshland recently rezoned for 8,500 housing units. Learn how policy, advocacy, and design align to transform a patchwork of private and public parcels into a new generation of built waterfront landscapes.

Learning Outcomes:

  • Examine new built work informed by the community-led Lowlands masterplan and rezoning, including design and management strategies that mitigate contamination, flooding, and development pressure while cultivating urban biodiversity.
  • Gain insights into ways that planners, designers, and community advocates collaborate to shape city policy and land use processes and work with public and private landowners to implement community needs.
  • Identify new tools for continuing to engage the community after a large policy action has passed, including tools for holding government agencies and private landowners accountable for promised commitments.
  • Apply new methods for organizing and funding local landscape maintenance and green workforce development, including the creation of a Parks Improvement District informed by local knowledge.