Artist Profile: Michael Van Valkenburgh and the Poetic Beauty of ‘Brooklyn Bridge Park’

Despite over two million people living in the borough of Brooklyn, New York had not seen a new major park built since the 1870’s, when Olmsted’s Prospect Park was constructed. To Michael Van Valkenburgh, renowned architect and educator, and his team, these people were the heart of a new, marvelous design project: the Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Valkenburgh’s recent publication, “Brooklyn Bridge Park,” serves as a testament to the 25 years of relentless work that came with the park’s transformation. Re-imagining what was previously an industrial wasteland, Valkenburgh details the incredibly dynamic process of brainstorming, refining, and construction within the book.

“There were strong opponents to the park,” Valkenburgh said. “But we were focused, of course, on this incredibly diverse set of aspirations that people had.”

His raw creative process is evident throughout the book, from its imperfect sketches and captivating models to photographs of materials to vibrant life within the completed park.

Valkenburgh said the interview made him think of how, in constructing the park, it was most important to deliver an engaging and varied experience.

“Much more important than some overbearing aesthetic agenda or even organizational notion that was formal in nature,” he said.

In “Brooklyn Bridge Park,” Valkenburgh explains that the park’s design is an attempt to reconcile our ecosystems, both natural and social. The book traverses through the many challenges, but also the subsequent heartwarming reward, that come with building such a deeply impactful space.

He said that the community athletes were “persistent, but also extremely well mannered” in pushing for athletic courts during public meetings. It was something that he did not intuitively think about, but loved when it was suggested.

“I had no idea. I'm not particularly athletic. I’m not. I wasn’t a jock in high school, you know?” Valkenburgh said.

Valkenburgh also believes that all creative endeavors are full of surprises and discovery, even when they’re complete.

“It's the joy of seeing it going on. It's a little bit like that dish that you ordered and you're like, oh my god, I had no idea that I was going to like this one so much,” Valkenburgh said.

The hills, the wetlands, the birds and birdwatchers — Valkenburgh carefully considered every aspect of the community during construction. Valkenburgh embraced the landscape’s towering hills as nature-made sound barriers and chose specific plants that embodied resilience to floods, climate change, and other natural disasters.

Valkenburgh also revealed that one of his favorite spots within the park was a “very long incline with no steps,” he said, where people with mobility limitations can climb to the top.

Valkenburgh’s fascination with sustainable design stems from his upbringing in upstate New York, where he was immersed in agriculture. Since completing his landscape architecture MFA at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he and his firm’s notable projects have included Teardrop Park in Lower Manhattan, Maggie Daley Park in Chicago, and a Harvard Yard Restoration.

The architectural uniqueness in Valkenburgh’s work comes from how he truly honors the spirit of the spaces he handles. “Brooklyn Bridge Park” outlines the previous post-industrial landscapes of the Brooklyn borough, abandoned and under-utilized. Brooklyn Bridge Park also serves as a rejuvenation, bringing human life to an area once devoid of it.

Valkenburgh also recognized a particularly defining moment of the project. At a public meeting, one old woman spoke up:

“She says, ‘I’m retired. I don’t have a lot of money anymore. I can’t take vacations. When I go down to Brooklyn Bridge Park, I want to go down there at night and dip my toes into the East River and feel the water and see the reflection of the moon,’” Valkenburgh said.

“We're talking about an abandoned waterfront,” he said. “We're talking about the East River, which was only beginning to have water that was clean enough to dip your toes, and she's elderly and female and she wants to go down there alone and put her feet in the water.”

This was a “paradigm shift” for him and his associates — he realized that parks are not just viewing experiences but whole-hearted, and deeply emotional pieces of the community.

As a designer, Valkenburgh believes that beauty exists in many different forms. While he acknowledges universal aesthetic beauty, he finds a deep love for pragmatism appreciating things the way they are.

Indeed, Valkenburgh said he was able to see in the industrial wasteland of Brooklyn a poetic beauty, like “a tragic beauty about ruins.”

“I don’t mean tragic in the most pessimistic sense of that, just the fleeting nature of life and how we spend our time and the things we do,” Valkenburgh said.

Valkenburgh held a clear goal in writing “Brooklyn Bridge Park:” to not only record the aesthetic beauty of the park but also serve as a guide for people aspiring to help build a park. In documenting his 25 years of work and 15 years of neighborhood advocacy, he hopes that he can inspire future designers and architects in their developmental endeavors.