Reimagining the Rose Garden: A Community-Driven Design Process
Over the past six months, Prospect Park Alliance has encouraged locals to participate in a community-driven design process aimed at Reimagining the Prospect Park Rose Garden, a little-known 2.5-acre landscape located in the Park’s northeast corner.
As a first step towards strengthening the area and making it more accessible, Prospect Park Alliance teamed up with Hester Street, a non-profit organization that works to ensure neighborhoods are shaped by the people who live in them, to engage local communities in the future vision of this little-known area.
"We’re excited to be working with Prospect Park Alliance on this project because of their commitment to take an inclusive, equitable and community-driven approach to re-envisioning the Rose Garden," said Nisha Baliga, Hester Street's Participatory Planning Director, who has been deeply involved in the project.
Give your input: take the Rose Garden survey today!
Prospect Park Alliance and Hester Street have engaged over 2,200 community members and local stakeholders in a visioning process that began in April 2017.
Thousands of ideas for the reimagined Rose Garden have been gathered through a series of interviews, focus groups, "pop-up" events, in-person and online surveys and workshops. Due to the area’s location on the east side of the Park, a targeted effort was made to include the voices of residents in adjacent communities such as Flatbush, Crown Heights and Prospect Lefferts Gardens.
Give your input: take the Rose Garden survey today!
Throughout this community-driven design process, Prospect Park Alliance and Hester Street were guided by principles of diversity and equity, and worked to ensure that Brooklynites who are traditionally more difficult to reach had a voice in the process.
An emphasis was placed on reaching families with young children, non-English speakers, youth and young adults, recent immigrants and low-income residents. Prospect Park Alliance and Hester Street also partnered with local community-based organizations and faith-based institutions to connect with their members, and drive to large public workshops held in both June and October and November.
The community input process is now wrapping up, but it is not too late to share your input.
Take our Rose Garden survey by November 20 to make a difference in your Park!
The community-driven design process is coming to a close, but there is still time to shape the future of the Prospect Park Rose Garden!
Your input will directly impact its design and program so share the survey with friends and family to ensure that the future Rose Garden reflects and serves your community! Hester Street will then review all the feedback collected throughout the process to develop recommendations for the future of this vital green space.
This project is generously supported by the Altman Foundation.