SCAPE: The Gowanus Canal has a complex ecological history, shaped by centuries of industrial use that transformed a thriving tidal creek into one of the most polluted waterways in the United States. In 2010, the canal was designated a Superfund site. A decade later, in 2021, the City of New York rezoned the surrounding area to incentivize the construction of 8,500 affordable and market-rate residential units, responding to the city’s housing crisis while accelerating redevelopment along the waterfront.
The Gowanus Lowlands emerged in response to these intersecting environmental, social, and development pressures. Initiated by a local nonprofit conservancy in 2017, the planning process uses extensive community engagement and proactive design to envision the industrial waterfront as an ecologically and culturally rich public realm. Rather than treating individual development sites as isolated projects, the plan coordinates the actions of disparate landowners into a cohesive waterfront park that can unfold over time, while addressing the canal’s longstanding challenges of contamination, combined sewage overflow (CSO), and degraded air and water quality.
The Lowlands planning process also demonstrated how design and advocacy could directly shape policy. Through extensive collaboration with NYC Planning, the 2021 rezoning incorporated incentives for key elements of the plan, including floodable landscapes, public waterfront access, and community programming. Today, the framework has directly informed the design of dozens of sites along the canal by multiple firms, including three new publicly accessible canal waterfronts designed and implemented by the submitting firm.
Reviving Marsh Ecosystems: 420 Carroll
At 420 Carroll, one of the few remaining low-bulkhead sites along the canal, the Lowlands vision takes shape as an ecological edge rarely seen on a developer-led project. Terraced landforms, a floodable “get-down,” planted tidal shelf, and lifted boardwalk create a dynamic relationship between people, water, and landscape. A “street creek” reinterprets the historic freshwater-saltwater gradients of the Gowanus, filtering stormwater toward the canal and reducing the burden on CSO infrastructure. The site embraces the canal as a living system in recovery, using landscape to restore ecological processes while creating new opportunities for public access.
Canal Living: Sackett Place
At Sackett Place, the design responds to community desires for inclusive, family-oriented spaces along the water. A series of outdoor “rooms” creates places to gather, play, and engage with the canal, including a shaded picnic area, an oyster-inspired play space, and a “get-down” that allows people to safely approach the water while complying with the bulkhead requirements of the Superfund cleanup. Interpretive elements throughout the landscape reveal the ecological history of the Gowanus and reconnect visitors to the waterway’s past and evolving future.
Industrial Character: 300 Huntington
At 300 Huntington, the Lowlands’ vision for a cohesive waterfront is expressed through a shared material and planting language. A truss guardrail reflects the canal’s industrial history and is required by zoning for new waterfront projects, while benches, planting, and other landscape elements draw from a flexible design matrix that can respond to the needs of individual landowners while reinforcing district-wide cohesion. Textured concrete blocks, granite cobble pavers, and metal lattice work weave the canal’s industrial past into an ecologically restored future. Adjacent to a native plant nursery operated by the local conservancy, the landscape also serves as a living demonstration of a climate-adapted plant palette suited to the Gowanus’s urban conditions.
Long-Term Action
Together, these projects demonstrate how a shared vision can transform a fragmented industrial waterfront into a connected public realm. As a new generation of public spaces unfolds along the canal, the Gowanus Lowlands continues to serve as both a design framework and an advocacy tool, illustrating the potential of collaborative, design-led planning to shape long-term environmental and social change. The local conservancy is now working to establish a Parks Improvement District to maintain these spaces in alignment with the Lowlands’ values, advancing a new model for parks advocacy, stewardship, and long-term maintenance.
Data
Landscape Architecture: SCAPE
Other designers involved in the design of landscape:
New York City Agencies, community stakeholders, and many other partners
Photo credits: Ty Cole & Courtesy of SCAPE
