How can we enhance streets to make physical and social connections among varying building types? What placemaking approaches can enhance local identity and foster people’s safety, health and wellbeing?

Historically characterized by a high concentration of public housing and long associated with socioeconomic violence, Brownsville is emerging as a locus of new affordable housing opportunities and a cultural center characterized by innovation and entrepreneurship thanks to multiple community-driven, collaborative efforts as well as public reinvestment.

City and local community stakeholders will host an open house and exhibition featuring various community-centered planning, design and placemaking efforts focused on Livonia Avenue in Brownsville. The event will also include a tour of public and affordable housing developments along the Livonia Avenue corridor including key public spaces like Betsy Head Park.

The overarching aim of the event is to engage neighborhood residents, community organizations, city agencies and development organizations in creating a sustainable urban design vision for Livonia Avenue and Brownsville that meets the needs of the neighborhood.

The tour’s itinerary will feature Brownsville’s mix of high- and mid-rise public housing, mid-century urban renewal projects, and the growing stock of modern affordable, supportive, and mixed-use developments.

Starting in the 1940s, the city replaced tenements on traditional street grids with “superblocks” developed by the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA).

Part of a wave of post war NYCHA public housing construction across Brownsville, the Tilden Houses built in the early 1960s is an example of the "Towers in the Park" concept featuring high-rise residential slabs surrounded by open, landscaped space.

The 1970s heralded in a new era of public housing design and development in Brownsville. Developed by the New York State Urban Development Corporation, Marcus Garvey Village was one of the first public housing developments offering an alternative to the “Towers in the Park” typology.

Designed by famed architect Kenneth Frampton, the low-rise, high-density townhouse-like structures span nine city blocks with stoops, private backyards and semi-public courtyards.

L+M Development Partners acquired the property in December 2014, and Curtis + Ginsberg Architects designed the renovations of the complex inclusive of illuminated façade panels and courtyard restorations.

The Marcus Garvey Extension marks the next phase in the neighborhood’s transformation. This mid-rise development along Livonia Avenue brings critically needed affordable housing units, community facilities, and commercial space to Brownsville.

Rising above adjacent elevated subway tracks, the buildings strengthen the “low-rise, high-density” 1970s development by creating a town center.