Dolly’s Park Gowanus: Transformation Through Reclamation

Dolly’s Park, a pocket park in the Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn is an expression of community process and engagement at all stages. The park, outdated and in disrepair, became the focus of attention in 2020 as the neighborhood was looking at redevelopment. With much of the block slated to be replaced, community members were concerned about the park’s future in this rapidly changing landscape. Assemblage and the Park Board began to breathe new life into the park with a design that hints at the neighborhood’s past while embracing its value as a valuable green resource for today. 

The new design transformed Dolly’s Park into a place for rest and rejuvenation within the community. seating, gathering, and native plantings to enhance the park as “soft” refuge from the hard edged surroundings of the urban environment. With the addition of elements including permeable surface materials, storm-water filtration gardens, and a gently sloping lawn, the updated design captures the park’s potential to function ecologically as a living landscape

Involvement with the community has been continuous right through the selection of materials  and the installation and planting process. As part of the new design’s not to neighborhood history, materials have been salvaged from nearby buildings replaced with new construction. Beautiful large timbers reminiscent of forests hundreds of years past, are rescued from the former casket company around the corner, repurposed as benches. And bricks, from the warehouses that once dominated the vertical plane, are finding new life as the material for walking paths.

Encapsulating the whole process is the involvement of volunteers from start to finish!

written by Lori Ball Horton for Assemblage Landscape Architecture