The Gowanus Lowlands: From Industrial Canal to New Civic Landscape

Building on decades of city, state, and federal planning efforts, the Gowanus Lowlands is a community-based vision for a restored public realm centered around Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal—a federal Superfund site and former marshland in a neighborhood recently rezoned for over 8,500new housing units.

Anticipating a neighborhood in transition, a local stewardship group commissioned the Gowanus Lowlands as an action plan for positive change. The plan envisions an ecologically resilient and socially robust park network across public and private sites along the canal. Since the release of this urban design framework, three new privately-owned public landscapes have opened, introducing a new generation of water-based public space in New York City.

History

The Gowanus Canal has a complex ecological history, shaped by centuries of industrial use that transformed a thriving tidal creek into one of the most polluted waterways in the U.S. 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 NYC’s affordable housing crisis.

The Gowanus Lowlands Planning Process

In response to these contrasting agendas, a local nonprofit conservancy initiated the Gowanus Lowlands planning process in 2017. Through extensive engagement and proactive design, the plan transforms the industrial waterfront into an ecologically and culturally rich area. It coordinates the disparate actions of separate landowners into a cohesive waterfront park built over time, while addressing social and environmental justice concerns of contamination, combined sewage overflow (CSO), and degraded air/water quality. Extensive collaboration with NYC Planning ensured the 2021 rezoning incentivized features of the plan, including floodable landscapes, waterfront access, and community programming.

Today, the plan has directly informed the design of dozens of sites along the canal (by many firms), including the design and implementation of three new canal waterfronts open to the public (by the submitting firm).

Reviving Marsh Ecosystems: 420 Carroll

The Gowanus Lowlands embraces the canal as a living system in recovery. 420 Carroll, one of the few remaining low-bulkhead sites along the canal, creates an ecological edge rarely seen on developer projects, with terraced landforms, a floodable “get-down,” a planted tidal shelf, and a lifted boardwalk. The landscape reinterprets historic freshwater-saltwater gradients with a “street creek” that filters stormwater toward the canal, reducing the burden on CSO infrastructure.

Canal Living: Sackett Place

During engagement, the community desired inclusive, family-oriented spaces on the water. The Gowanus Lowlands at Sackett Place brings rich social spaces in the form of outdoor “rooms”: a shaded picnic area, an oyster-inspired play space, and a “get-down” that enables people to safely approach the water while complying with bulkhead requirements of the Superfund cleanup. Landscape interpretation in the site narrates the region’s ecological history.

Industrial Character: 300 Huntington

The Gowanus Lowlands proposes a cohesive material palette to unite disparate land uses. The truss guardrail reflects the canal’s history and is required by zoning for all new projects. Elements like benches and planting are chosen from a flexible matrix, meeting varying landowner needs while promoting district cohesion. At 300 Huntington, textured concrete blocks, granite cobble pavers, and metal lattice work weave an industrial past into an ecologically restored future. Adjacent to a native plant nursery run by the local conservancy, the site is a living demonstration of aclimate-adapted plant palette suited to the canal’s urban conditions.

Long-Term Action

As a new generation of public realm unfolds along the canal, the Gowanus Lowlands continues to be a potent advocacy tool and illustrates the success of design-led collaborative planning. The local conservancy is in the process of forming a Parks Improvement District to maintain these public spaces in alignment with the Gowanus Lowlands values—a new model for parks advocacy, stewardship, and long-term maintenance.

• Gowanus Canal Conservancy, Client (Gowanus Lowlands)
• SCAPE, Urban Design and Landscape Architect (Gowanus Lowlands, 420 Carroll Street, Sackett Place, 300 Huntington Street)
• Arup, Gowanus Lowlands Planning
• Ben Margolis, Gowanus Lowlands Planning
• Biohabitats, Gowanus Lowlands Planning
• Langan, Gowanus Lowlands Planning
• Natural Systems Utilities, Gowanus Lowlands Planning
• OptiRTC, Gowanus Lowlands Planning
• Sherwood, Gowanus Lowlands Planning
• Thread Collective, Gowanus Lowlands Planning
• The New York Community Trust, Gowanus Lowlands Planning
• NYC Department of City Planning, City Agency (Gowanus Lowlands Planning)
• NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, City Agency (Gowanus Lowlands Planning)
• NYC Department of Environmental Protection, City Agency (Gowanus Lowlands Planning)
• NYC Department of Transportation, City Agency (Gowanus Lowlands Planning)
• Domain Companies, Client (420 Carroll Street)
• FX Collaborative, Architect (420 Carroll Street)
• Langan, Civil Engineer (420 Carroll Street)
• Desimone Consulting Engineers, Structural Engineer (420 Carroll Street)
• One Lux Studio, Lighting (420 Carroll Street)
• Gowanus Canal Conservancy, Maintenance (420 Carroll Street)
• Property Markets Group, Client (Sackett Place)
• SLCE, Architect (Sackett Place)
• Langan, Civil Engineer, Structural & Marine Engineer (Sackett Place)
• Moey, Tide clock & oyster sculptures (Sackett Place)
• Monadnock Development, Client and General Contractor (300 Huntington Street)
• Dattner Architects, Architect (300 Huntington Street)
• Bernheimer Architects, Architect (300 Huntington Street)
• Philip Habib & Associates, Civil Engineer (300 Huntington Street)
• Flux Studio Ltd., Lighting (300 Huntington Street)
• Gowanus Canal Conservancy, Maintenance (300 Huntington Street)

• M Fine Lumber – reclaimed timber benches
• NY Ornamental Custom Metalworks – steel for benches
• Landscape Forms – movable furnishings and bike racks
• Fermob – movable furnishings
• MMCite – movable furnishings
• Josam drains
• Zurn drains
• Tetra Steel Corporation – custom Gowanus guardrail and secondary guardrail
• A&S Steel Contractors Ltd. – custom Gowanus guardrail
• Elite Builders – custom Gowanus guardrail and custom steel edging
• Jakob mesh guardrail
• Baseline Systems
• Netafim
• Superior valves
• Hunter Industries
• Dura
• Accoya - wood decking
• Lumbercon - concrete plank decking
• DuraEdge - steel edging
• Curv-rite - aluminum edging
• The Dirt Company - Northeast
• Ori Supplies
• Blackhill Granites
• Vermont Stone Art
• Granite Scape
• Magniflood - Gowanus lightpole
• Bega
• Selux
• LEDPax