Gowanus Lowlands

The Gowanus Lowlands Master Plan envisions a new generation of waterfront parks, ecological edges, and civic spaces that address the neighborhood's most pressing challenges—from combined sewage overflow and coastal flooding to a historic lack of accessible open space—while honoring the industrial character and community identity that make Gowanus unlike anywhere else in New York City.

The Gowanus Lowlands embodies much of the history and opportunity of New York City today. The Gowanus Canal once hosted an extensive industrial neighborhood, which left it one of the most polluted bodies of water in the country. In 2010 the canal was declared a Superfund site, and in 2021 the City of New York rezoned the area to incentivize the construction of 8,500 affordable and market-rate residential units to address the city's ongoing affordable housing crisis.

The Gowanus Canal Conservancy has united a coalition of diverse stakeholders to create a community-based vision for how these developments can truly serve existing and future residents. SCAPE is advancing this vision by planning and implementing a network of parks and waterfront spaces that are adaptive, ecologically diverse, and accessible for all.

Inspired by the historic hydrology of the Gowanus as a tidal marsh fed by freshwater creeks, the Gowanus Lowlands proposes design concepts that solve for multiple issues at once: the urban heat island effect and lack of tree canopy; sea-level rise, coastal flooding, stormwater management, and an outdated combined sewer system; and the lack of connectivity and equitable access to open space across the neighborhood.

A toolkit of materials enables a cohesive public realm that will be built incrementally by many public and private parties over decades. Some materials were standardized as requirements for landowners, while others remained as recommendations, allowing a collage of open spaces to emerge along the water's edge. Throughout, visitors learn about the region's historical ecology through integrated landscape interpretation: signage, a tide clock, and public art woven into the fabric of the public realm. Learn more about creating Learning Landscapes.

At the heart of the vision is a thriving waterway knit into a network of green open spaces, defined by high-quality civic spaces, a restored waterfront edge, and a cohesive material palette that preserves the unique identity of the neighborhood.

The Gowanus Lowlands Master Plan has directly informed the design of dozens of sites along the canal, including the design and implementation of three recently completed privately-owned public landscapes by SCAPE, introducing a new generation of water-based public space to New York City.

Embracing a culture of canal living, the Sackett Community Hub is a sequence of outdoor gathering spaces for the neighborhood's growing mixed-income community. Existing neighborhood residents expressed a clear desire for inclusive, family-oriented spaces at the water's edge. The result is a shaded picnic area, an oyster-inspired play space, and a "get-down" that enables people to safely approach the water while complying with the bulkhead requirements of the Superfund cleanup.

The Gowanus Lowlands embraces the canal as a living system in recovery. Carroll Eco Basin at 420 Carroll Street creates an ecological edge rarely seen on housing projects: terraced landforms, a floodable "get-down," a planted tidal shelf, and a lifted boardwalk. The landscape reinterprets historic freshwater-saltwater gradients through a "street creek" that filters stormwater toward the canal, reducing the burden on CSO infrastructure and connecting visitors to the hydrological systems working beneath the surface.

At the base of the iconic Smith-9th Street bridge, the Huntington Tidal Terrace at 300 Huntington Street landscape connects active industrial areas and new mixed-use development. Textured concrete blocks, granite cobble pavers, and metal lattice work weave an industrial past into an ecologically restored future. Adjacent to Gowanus Canal Conservancy’s native plant nursery, the site serves as a living demonstration of a climate-adapted plant palette suited to the canal’s demanding urban conditions.

The Gowanus Lowlands Master Plan and its initial built esplanades are part of nearly two decades of city and community advocacy in the neighborhood. Today, the project is entering a critical phase of investment and development. As a new generation of public realm unfolds along the canal, the Gowanus Lowlands continues to function as a potent advocacy tool and a demonstration of what design-led collaborative planning can achieve. The work continues to realize an equitable, vibrant, and resilient Gowanus.