Alliance Recognized for Excellence in Public Design

Two Prospect Park projects have been recognized for excellence in design by the New York City Public Design Commission: the restoration of the Vale in the park’s northeast corner, and the new monument to Shirley Chisholm coming to the Parkside and Ocean Avenue entrance.

“Prospect Park Alliance is honored to be recognized for the innovative, sustainable and people-centered design of the Vale, which is the result of significant community outreach. One of the park’s historic areas and a vital woodland habitat, we are committed to ensuring the Vale is a vibrant, welcoming green space for all,” says Prospect Park Alliance President, Morgan Monaco. “We are also thrilled to be recognized alongside our City partners for the Shirley Chisholm Monument. We are honored that Prospect Park will be home to this homage to Chisholm as an iconic Brooklyn trailblazer and will serve as a beacon to welcome our community into the park.”

Along with our partners at NYC Parks, Prospect Park Alliance was recognized for the restoration of the Vale in the park’s northeast corner. Prospect Park Alliance’s restoration of the Vale transforms one of the park’s historic yet little-known landscapes in its northeast corner into a lush and vibrant community destination. This area of the park had not seen capital improvement in over fifty years, and is a gateway to the park’s core woodlands, Brooklyn’s last remaining forest, and a front door to neighboring communities of Crown Heights, Flatbush and beyond.

The project includes the historic restoration of the Children’s Pool in the Lower Vale, which reintroduces architectural details while improving habitat for hundreds of species of birds that flock to this destination. The Upper Vale, a former rose garden with three disused concrete basins, is transformed into three distinct landscapes that were conceived through an intensive community engagement process: a pollinator garden and planted arbor; a children’s nature exploration area; and a lawn with natural seating elements and small building built into the terrain with composting restrooms and a sheltered gathering space. The restored Vale will serve as a welcoming front door to the community, an essential woodland habitat for hundreds of species of wildlife, and an intergenerational gathering space for all park lovers.

Through the community outreach and design process to gather public input for the landscape, the Alliance’s award-winning team of architects and landscape architects have designed a space for nature exploration, intergenerational gathering and quiet reflection.

The Shirley Chisholm Monument by Amanda Williams and Olalekan Jeyifous was also among the designs recognized with our partners at NYC Parks, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs and NYC Department of Transportation. As the first monument commissioned as part of She Built NYC, an initiative that seeks public nominations to honor the New York City women who have changed history, the Shirley Chisholm Monument coming to the Parkside and Ocean Avenue entrance to Prospect Park will pay homage to Brooklyn trailblazer and hero, Shirley Chisholm. Following a public design competition and planning process, the City approved plans for a 32-foot-tall monument to Chisholm, the first Black woman to serve in Congress, representing her childhood neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant, and the first woman to seek the Democratic presidential nomination.

Artists Olalekan B. Jeyifous and Amanda Williams’ winning design encompasses a 32-foot-tall painted steel and bronze silhouette of Chisholm intertwined with the U.S. Capitol Dome, incorporating decorative metalwork of plants native to Barbados, where she lived as a child. The stonework surrounding the monument will include a Chisholm quote and an outline of the House of Representatives seating plan, with a bronze plaque representing Chisholm’s seat. The monument will be the first permanent public artwork in Brooklyn dedicated to a woman in history and the first to celebrate a woman and Black hero in Prospect Park.

Learn more about all capital improvements underway in Prospect Park.