2022 Fall Fellowship: Reconnecting Communities across the BQE

Seeking community stakeholders and interdisciplinary design teams working in Brooklyn & Queens: The IPA will help match teams of experts with community partners to assist in visioning plans for a post-BQE neighborhood. Read on for details on how to bring this opportunity to your community this fall of 2022!

For too long now, New York City government officials have been struggling with what to do about the crumbling infrastructure of the BQE corridor, with the looming question of how to justify pouring billions of dollars into repairing only the Brooklyn Heights triple cantilever portion of the Expressway at the expense of stabilizing other sections that cut through less well-heeled communities. While the NYC Department of Transportation and the Mayor’s office is currently undertaking a strategic review of the BQE Corridor. The IPA continues its parallel investigation into what can be done with this aging piece of Moses infrastructure, including the possibility of removing it in total or in part.

2022 Fall Fellowship: Reconnecting Communities across the BQE

The IPA invites community engagement professionals, urban activists, urban planners, and designers, in partnership with local stakeholders, to select one of the seven catchment areas associated with Community Boards along the BQE (Brooklyn CB 10, 7, 6, 2, & 1 and Queens CB 1 and 2), in which to facilitate community discussions about the potential transformation of the BQE corridor. This fellowship opportunity builds upon the IPA’s very successful and well-attended 2020 Fall Fellow Residency “To Be or Not to BQE: A Post-Moses Community Vision.”

During the eight-week Fellowship, selected teams of Fellows and their community partners will have access to workspace and shared amenities at the IPA’s Block House on Governors Island and will be invited to participate in several public presentations to share their findings. At the conclusion of the Fellowship, teams will assemble all catchment areas into a single mosaic that maps the various aspirations of communities along the BQE.

Fellows will:

– Facilitate community discussion around this “once-in-a-generation” opportunity
– Meet weekly with guest lecturers and experts
– Share team meals
– Collectively problem solve

Work produced by the teams during the Fellowship will be public at the Block House and published as a volume of the IPA Fellowship series.

Planning is currently underway for the IPA’s Summer 2023 BQE Symposium on Governors Island, a culminating event bringing all voices to the table from both the first and second stages, along with government agencies, elected officials, policymakers, and transportation experts.

Lastly, download the information related to this competition here.