Above are sketches—suggestions really—of what could be done with the cement plaza in front of Walgreens, and its intersection at the corner of Church Avenue and Beverley Road. Diana King, of Fun City Design, a Kensington neighbor and landscape designer, did the color sketch and scale drawing at top. The other three, designed by terreform, the nonprofit arm of Michael Sorkin Studio, is a 4-step proposal by the office of a planner and architect who heads up the graduate Urban Design program at City College.
Their response was tremendously generous. In cold calls to each less than a week before the monthly CB 12 meeting on Tues. Oct 26, I asked if they’d be willing to come up with a rough idea for DOT’s cement plaza. I met Ms. King for the first time in front of Walgreens to measure; Michael Sorkin sent a staff member out from Soho to view the site and then called back to say, yes, his firm would have a plan, too.
The idea was to focus the CB 12 discussion on what could be done with this site and forestall piecemeal solutions. CB 12 funding for a bench here, a tree there, was not going to result in a coherent design that Kensington’s green-space supporters could put their hearts into or a good-looking welcoming plaza.
Here are two plans for future discussion, which in fact, could work together. The terreform plan shows a step-by-step approach to the intersection adding a bike lane, and eventually—or temporarily—closing Beverley Road to include café tables and chairs and a weekend Farmers’ Market. It also shows trees lining McDonald (high on the green-up Kensington wish list and already applied for at NYC Parks).
Although people on the community board and in the audience were surprised—and maybe delighted—by these proposals, the road from proposal to actual plaza is long and arduous. It will require the support of DOT, plaza merchants, local politicians,and the public. If this is your métier, please let us know. Your participation is necessary and more than welcome. Please email us at kensingtonprospect@gmail.com.