SUMNER SENIOR
LOCATION: Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, Brooklyn, NY
PROGRAM: Landscaping
TOTAL AREA: 75,000 SF
CLIENT: New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA)
The site for Sumner Senior is situated in an open field. Shifting, linear foot paths traverse the expanse of the field, as a way for residents to flow freely from one place to the next within the Sumner Home complex. Children sprint unfettered across the green from one playground to the next while a mother pushes a stroller at a slower pace. A small dirt foot path has even been carved leading from one crucial route missed by the original surface layout. These routes buffer a small, central gathering place and playground. Here, a variety of age groups and activities are supported under the shade of a grove of large trees: a cluster of chess tables, benches facing every direction, and a small jungle gym.
The landscape is designed to layer various scales of space on an active, open green. It weaves into those spaces healthy activity coming from all sides; events such as theater performances, gardening, chess playing, multi-generational exercise, cooking, painting, and dancing. It maintains focus on the center – surrounded by green - as a flexible gathering place for any and all to use. It aims to bring the pedestrian through the active building and into this space that supports a thriving neighborhood and the movement it generates.
As a place where the passer-by, the by-stander, and the playful can co-mingle, the design stitches the NYCHA community back into surrounding Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood.