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Session Guide

60-Minute Education Session

SUN-C07: The Improbable Reinvention of a Marginalized Landscape: Shirley Chisholm State Park

Sunday, October 29, 2023
3:45pm – 4:45pm CT
1.00 PDH, LA CES/HSW, AIA/HSW, AICP, FL, NY/HSW

    Lead Speaker(s)

  • Elizabeth R. Silver, ASLA (she/her/hers)

    Principal
    Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc.
    Brooklyn, New York

    • Speaker(s)

  • Leslie Wright

    NYC Regional Director
    New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation ("NYS Parks")
    NY, New York

  • Rose Harvey (she/her/hers)

    Executive Director of New City Parks; Former Commissioner of NYS Parks, Rec. & Historic Preservation
    New City Parks
    New York, New York

A dedicated team of designers and public agency leadership share the story of Shirley Chisholm State Park, once a landfill but now the largest State Park in New York City. This project overcame steep political, legal, financial, and physical challenges to provide a large-scale park for an underserved neighborhood.

Learning Outcomes:

  • Describe the administrative, legal, financial, and political complexities behind the making of large public parks in dense urban environments.
  • Understand the ways the design team worked strategically within the physical constraints of a landfill while also delivering on the design vision and carefully managing a modest budget.
  • Demonstrate the ways that access to nature and landscape programs can support underserved communities with issues of poor health, limited access to nature, and few recreational options.
  • Illustrate the importance of collaboration and shared vision to enable the design and delivery of an urgent project under difficult circumstances.