The Groop Project
Grass Roots Planters
From a $5,000 grant from Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, we brought together an impressive group of community and agency stakeholders to support ten talented high school students from Urban Assembly Maker Academy in designing beautiful, resilient and multi-use planters for the community. We call them GRooPs (Grass Roots Planters)!
Inspired by the El-Space Initiative led by NYC Department of Transportation in collaboration with Design Trust for Public Space, our GRooPs will turn some of the challenges of our unique spaces under the Brooklyn Bridge overpasses into community benefits!
DESIGN GOALS
The planters will be heavy lifters!
Here are some initial design goals:
- Filters and retains rainfall and water runoff
- Ease of intergenerational gardening
- Senior-friendly seating for planters in passive recreation areas
- A skate-friendly edge for planters in active recreation areas
- A self-watering system
- Easy to clean and maintain
- Supports native vegetation
- Unfriendly to rats and other pests
- Moveable with a forklift
- Could be locally produced in mass quantities
- Preferably made of eco-friendly, cool materials
- Easy to level on sloping spaces
- Super sturdy to provide protection that welcomes the community
THE GROOP GROUP
We are enormously grateful to the community stakeholders, officials and experts who have generously devoted their time, resources, skills and experience to bring this project to fruition:
- The Office of Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine
- Gerry Irizarry, Melissa Giroux and the talented GRooP student team | Urban Assembly Maker Academy
- Monica Palta and her students, Alexis Larreategui and Antonia Patti | Pace University Department of Environmental Studies and Science
- Alice Shay, Somto Uyanna and Ubaldo Escalante | Buro Happold
- Tei Carpenter | Agency-Agency
- Nick Pettinati | New York City Department of Transportation
- Jordan Salinger | Mayor's Office of Climate and Environmental Justice
- Sergeant Martin Wingert and Officer Brandice LeGrange | NYPD Counter-Terrorism Department
- John Brock, Miki Urisaka and Amy Motzny | New York City Department of Environmental Protection
- Steve Rodriguez | Brooklyn Banks skateboarding community
- Alec Beck | The Skatepark Project
- Matthew Clarke | Design Trust for Public Space
- Aixa Torres | Alfred E. Smith Houses Residents Association
- Mariely Cerda, Alano Baez and senior volunteers | Hamilton Madison House
- Alice Blank | Manhattan Community Board 1
- Kwesi Joseph | Cornell Cooperative Extension (Harvest NY)
PACE UNIVERSITY ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Led by Professor Monica Palta, undergraduate and graduate environmental science students at Pace University have developed recommended native plant lists for the planters and citizen science activities for environmental monitoring once our prototypes are in place.
We’ll be updating this page with their interactive STEM activities for all ages this summer!
Community Programming
Once our final prototypes are in place this summer, we’ll be partnering with some of our community stakeholders to create intergenerational gardening and STEM programming around the planters. Our aim is to eventually place GRooPs below each of the dozens of scuppers as well as elsewhere throughout the site, which will provide robust opportunities for environmental and horticultural enrichment activities and data collection.
STUDENT CONCEPT DESIGNS
On May 12, 2023, the student interns from Urban Assembly Maker Academy presented their concept designs to our team of GRooP advisors and other community stakeholders for feedback. Take a look below at the elegant and thoughtful designs they've created and click the images to read more about the students' designs and provide your own constructive feedback within our community-driven design process!
(Feedback will be collected through May 31.)
Half a Bagel
Rain Usage Bench (RUB)
Rain Usage Bench (RUB)
Rebeca Meza and Noumou Diallo
This semicircle planter has both seating and interchangeable skate elements to serve our diverse communities!
Rain Usage Bench (RUB)
Rain Usage Bench (RUB)
Rain Usage Bench (RUB)
Jack Berger and Lil Barber
This self-watering planter has modular seating and skate elements that contain tanks to capture stormwater!
Stairs to Eden
Rain Usage Bench (RUB)
Stairs to Eden
Angelica Concepcion
and Jaden Ynoa
This terraced design for below our scuppers was inspired by furniture, because New York is our home!
Half a Donut
Cat in the Hat
Stairs to Eden
Luna Ramos and Julia Rodriguez
This semicircle planter was designed with details that add convenience and accessibility for our senior community!
Cat in the Hat
Cat in the Hat
Cat in the Hat
Muzic Attmore and Quajir Nanton
This terraced planter captures and filters stormwater while providing skating and seating elements!
SUPPORT THIS PROJECT!
Our generous volunteer advisors have supported the students in their design work - now we need your financial support to fabricate, install, plant, maintain and test the prototypes this summer!
Gotham Park is a 501(c)(3) public charity. Our EIN is 86-1317846. All donations are tax-deductible as permitted under federal tax law.
