Gowanus design firm sponsors international planning competition
Gowanus by Design, a community-based urban design advocacy group, is presenting its third international design and planning competition, “Axis Civitas.”
The two-phase competition asks participants to map and present conditions in the Gowanus area in a “Gowanus Atlas,” and then to use that analysis as the basis for an Urban Field Station that will be open to the public. Gowanus by Design describes the Atlas as “a collective mapping of the watershed surrounding the canal.”
In the recent past, the Gowanus Canal area has seen dramatic changes, including residential development, the announcement of a 10-year cleanup plan for the Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund site, the discovery of hazardous sub-surface conditions, global warming and the city’s long-term plan to reduce combined sewer overflows.
