Envisioning Gateway

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About Envisioning Gateway

This group is a collection of photographs about and taken at Gateway National Recreation Area. It was created in conjunction with Van Alen Institute and the "Envisioning Gateway" public design competition in 2007. For more information about the competition, please visit: www.vanalen.org/gateway.

Created in 1972, Gateway National Recreation Area (Gateway) stretches across 26,607 acres of the New York-New Jersey harbor and coast. It was one of the first units in the U.S. National Park System established to sustain both natural and urban ecologies while providing recreational opportunities for more than 22 million residents in the tri-state region. The park is a key sanctuary on the migratory flyway where more than 330 bird species have been observed, and it contains an array of estuarine wildlife habitats. Simultaneously, Gateway is home to public beaches, historic U.S. military forts and navigational facilities, New York City's first municipal airport, and regional infrastructural systems.

Comprised of as much water and marsh as land and field, this urban national park stands as one of the region's greatest opportunities. Gateway's size and scope, however, present a set of fundamental challenges. The great number of visitors and diverse wildlife at the park attest to its undeniable potential, but because it lies in two different states and serves three different city boroughs it faces competing physical, cultural, and economic demands. Additionally, Gateway's identity as part of the National Park System is not known to many of its surrounding communities. Waste and water treatment facilities historically sited at Gateway also warrant attention and reclamation.

The partnership of Van Alen Institute, National Parks Conservation Association and Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture Planning and Preservation invites designers worldwide to play a vital role in Gateway National Recreation Area's future by generating innovative, visionary and compelling proposals that celebrate the unique potential of the park as both a significant regional resource and a national environmental treasure.

Van Alen Institute also invites the public to post photos here taken at Gateway National Recreation Area or about Gateway National Recreation Area. There is also a group devoted to Sandy Hook, NJ that can be viewed here: flickr.com/groups/70638221@N00/. Thank you for your participation in this dialog.