Imagining the day lighting of Tibbetts Brook

After several decades of advocacy by organizations like the Bronx Council on Environmental Quality, the Van Cortlandt Park Alliance, Community Board 8, and the Coalition for Daylighting Tibbetts Brook the NYC Department of Environmental Protection is now moving forward with efforts to daylight Tibbetts Brook by bringing it to the surfaces along an abandoned rail-bed that stretches from Van Cortlandt Park to the Harlem River.

Over the past five-plus years CALL/City as Living Laboratory has conducted WALKS, WORKSHOPS, and supported artist/designer led PROJECTS in the neighborhoods surrounding Van Cortlandt Park to address sustainable development. We have gained insights and momentum with the guidance of our BRONX Advisory Committee whose members include: Robert Fanuzzi, Jacki Fischer, Eileen Jeng Lynch, and Christina Taylor.

A 2015 CALL community workshop helped seed Juanli Carrion’s Outer Seed Shadow Marble Hill (OSSMH) Community Garden at the Marble Hill Houses OSSMH. It also sparked a series of artist/designer-led initiatives that focused on Tibbetts Brook. In Summer/Fall 2018 CALL commissioned projects by SLO Architecture and Bob Braine to help build awareness of the benefits of daylighting. These projects traveled to 5 sites in Van Cortlandt Park and surrounding neighborhoods.

The purpose of the 11/9/19 workshop will be to discuss and brainstorm strategies to:

• Build awareness of the benefits of daylighting Tibbetts Brook in partnership with artists, scientists/experts and local stakeholders;

• Bring the community’s support to the attention of NYC municipal leadership and CSX, which owns the rail bed (the proposed site for daylighting Tibbetts);

• Develop goals and strategies for community input on the park’s design; and

• Suggest preliminary goal and strategies for the long-term stewardship and activation of the park.

In preparation for the WORKSHOP we will conduct a WALK along sections of the proposed route of daylighting, 1PM, Saturday November 2nd.