News Archive

Competition designed to invigorate historic Brooklyn neighborhood
 
HOK Sport was selected as the second place winner of the Red Hook Bicycle Design Competition sponsored by the Forum for Urban Design at an awards ceremony last night.
 
The design competition challenged architects and planners to imagine Red Hook as the most bicycle-friendly neighborhood in New York City. The competition was divided into three parts: architecture, urban planning and development, and entrants were to devise a multi-disciplinary approach for reintroducing the bicycle as the primary mode of transportation in the area.
 
HOK Sport's proposal focused on transforming the landscape of the city to reintroduce the bicycle as viable transportation and a cultural alternative to the automobile.

• The scheme transformed unused MTA land under the elevated subway line into an artificial landscape upon which all variety of cycle activities would take place from track cycling on an external velodrome to extreme BMX 'street' course and a mountain bike course.
• Under the artificial terrain, cycle-related activities from retail, rental to design studios and workshops for cycle designers and manufacturers would be housed.
• At one end of the Bikescape an iconic 'storage wheel' would house a large scale cycle storage that could be rented for short periods for daily commuters or longer periods for residents without storage space for cycles. The storage wheel encircles the elevated subway line, visible from surrounding areas acting as a visual marker of the Bikescape and as a symbolic marker of Red Hook's new status as the 'cycle center of New York.'
• Finally, the proposal established a new masterplan to prioritize cycle path in the neighborhood, linking these to existing paths in surrounding areas. The design of the Red Hook cycle path network would be used to expand landscape through the Red Hook neighborhood.

"Our scheme focuses on building a community through inventive urban design and progressive architecture. This has been the founding principal of our work over the past 25 years throughout the world," said Christopher Lee, Senior Principal and Managing Partner of HOK Sport's New York design studio. "We believe it is the responsibility of architects to enrich the built environment in order to have a profound effect on the social and cultural aspects of our communities; what greater challenge do we currently face than redefining personal transportation in our cities?"

With more than 200 entries from firms in 18 countries, the design was competitive, said Lisa Chamberlain, Executive Director of the Forum for Urban Design.

Judges for the competition included an impressive list, including Metropolis magazine architecture and design critic Philip Nobel; New York Department of Transportation Director of Pedestrian and Bicycle Programs Ryan Russo; New York City Transit Chief Architect Judith Kunoff and New York City Department of Planning Chief of Urban Design Alexandros Washburn.

HOK Sport will open two famous New York landmarks in 2009 – the New Yankee Stadium and Citi Field, new home of the New York Mets. Additionally in 2009, the firm will announce its official buyout of its parent company, HOK, and will take on a new corporate name.
 

For further information please contact
Gina Leo Stingley at Populous (Kansas City)
Telephone: +1 816 221 1500
Facsimile: +1 816 221 1578
 
Email media@populous.com