Biodiversity is essential for healthy communities.
In 2026, the Local Center supported three community organizations—Staten Island Urban Center, 161st Street BID, and Sunnyside Shines BID—to create greener public spaces in neighborhoods that are particularly vulnerable to extreme heat and flooding. Drawing on community vision plans, we paired these organizations with technical advisors with expertise in landscape design, horticulture, and climate resiliency, to bring improvements to their concrete public spaces.
Together, these teams increased greenery and created spaces for environmental education in parks, plazas, and public streets—beautifying their spaces while making them more vibrant and resilient.
Projects
Tompkinsville, Staten Island
In Tompkinsville, Staten Island, we paired Staten Island Urban Center with Studio HIP, a design collective of architects, designers, environmental educators, and certified arborists, to pilot climate solutions in Tompkinsville Park that also advance food sovereignty in the community. We worked with the team to realize SIUC’s vision for a greenhouse space that grows food and native plants, which are subsequently transferred to the park and surrounding blocks. Standing in tandem with the Abuelita Masala structure, the greenhouse increases biodiversity and climate resilience in the neighborhood.
The Tompkinsville greenhouse was constructed and celebrated with a community unveiling in June 2026. The greenhouse is now stewarded by a staff horticulturalist, with support from community members, and houses a series of workshops on garden education.
Team
Staten Island Urban Center (SIUC) is a community development through community involvement organization, lifting the voices of Staten Island’s most marginalized and vulnerable communities experiencing social, environmental and criminal injustices. STUDIO HIP is a design collaborative which partners Landscape Architects and Designers, Environmental Educators, Artists and Certified Arborists in the pursuit of creative place making, innovative master planning efforts, recreational open space design and implementation.
Kelly Vilar
Jennifer Nitzky
Capitol District, Bronx
In the Bronx’s Capitol District, we paired 161st Street BID with FWD Studio to increase shade and native plants in and around Lou Gehrig Plaza. Building on the 161st Street Vision Plan developed through the Local Center with community input in 2024, we worked with the team to develop a plan to increase native plants and tree cover in the plaza, and to build relationships with maintenance partners for the space.
In collaboration with Con Edison volunteers, our team brought twelve new shade-providing trees to the plaza, along with supporting pollinator plants curated by FWD. The native plants, including serviceberry, eastern redbud, echinacea, and other drought-hardy species, were selected for their ability to withstand high temperatures in the primarily concrete plaza. Alongside the SAIL shading and seating structure, developed by the BID in 2024, these plantings transform Lou Gehrig plaza into a welcoming and comfortable community space.
Team
161st Street BID was created to provide a vibrant commercial district and improve the quality of life for those who live, work, visit and shop on 161st Street in the Bronx. FWD Studio is a modern design practice focused on creating thoughtful, sustainable spaces that inspire.
Trey Jenkins
Ellen Garrett
Sunnyside, Queens
In Sunnyside, Queens, we paired Sunnyside Shines BID with Field Form, a resilient landscape design and build firm. Building on ideas articulated in the Sunnyside Public Realm Vision Plan, we worked with the team to establish a new partnership with Ixora Florists, a local business. Together, we added native plants like latris aspera and achillea millefolium to planters in Lowery Plaza, bringing biodiversity and beauty to the primarily concrete public space.
We worked with the Sunnyside Shines team to organize a planting day for native plants in the area. Together with ConEdison volunteers and Urban Design Forum Forefront fellows, the team hosted a Street Tree Care community day in October 2026, tending to more than 30 tree pits throughout the district. Alongside the Sunnyside Night Market, a previous activation of the space by the BID, Lowery Plaza has become a dynamic and climate-resilient public space.
Team
Sunnyside Shines BID works to invigorate and enrich the economic life of Sunnyside, Queens by creating a safe, welcoming and dynamic commercial district in the neighborhood. Field Form is a resilient landscape design and build firm based in the Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn.
Dirk McCall de Palomá
Samuel Robinson
Support Our Work
The Local Center is made possible with support from the Charles H. Revson Foundation, Kornfeld Foundation, and Lily Auchincloss Foundation. The Local Center is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Our programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
To learn more about supporting the Local Center, please contact Katherine Sacco, katherine@urbandesignforum.org and Lauren Nye, lauren.n@anhd.org.
