UPDATE: We've extended the deadline to August 30th at 5pm. If you haven't already submitted a design, you still have time!

On Myrtle Avenue, we’re serious about protecting our street trees...but, why do it like everyone else does it, right? We’ve been working with the Pratt Design Incubator to design tree guards that are both functional and durable, but also offer a ‘canvas’ that reflects the spirit of local creativity. Tree guards with a Myrtle twist.

That’s where you come in.

We’re inviting artists and designers (both amateur and professional!) to submit designs for the panels of a new Myrtle Tree Guard. Each winning design will be laser cut into the 4 panels of an individual tree guard (visit the prototype, pictured above, on Myrtle between Clinton and Waverly). We may select up to 20 unique designs for 20 new tree guards to be installed this fall on Myrtle!

Download the full application here.
Submit your design using this Adobe Illustrator template. Don’t worry if you don’t have illustrator – contact us if you’d still like to submit a concept. We’ll have a professional designer convert your design to the appropriate file format if selected.

Make sure to submit your design concepts by Monday, August 30th at 5pm (new deadline). Contact meredith@myrtlavenue.org if you have any questions.

The current ‘feels like’ on weather.com for New York City is 107 degrees! There is nothing like heat advisories and air quality alerts to make you appreciate the local street trees hard at work reducing heat and pollution. A couple of tree facts on this sweltering summer day:

• Trees can be a natural air conditioner. The evaporation from a single large tree can produce the cooling effect of 10 room size air conditioners operating 20 hours a day. (USDA pamphlet # FS-363)
• Trees clean the air. Remove dust, particulates; absorb ozone, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and other pollutants. (ISA Pamphlet, 1991)

Trees provide enormous environmental, human health and social benefits from lowing blood pressure and street crime to increasing property values and sales in local stores (you can find more facts at TreeLink.org, Plant-it 2020, and Walkable Communities). That’s why the Partnership works year-round to advocate for more trees in the area and to keep our street trees alive and healthy!

Last week, Greenzone Landscape Design cleaned, aerated, weeded, and mulched the tree pits along Myrtle and on corners of intersecting streets between Classon and Vanderbilt. And this week, they’ll begin the second phase of the project, continuing their work from Vanderbilt to Prince Street. You also may have noticed that young trees along Myrtle are outfitted with tree gators. These gators, filled once a week, deliver a deep watering by slowly releasing water into the tree’s roots and soil.

We’re sprucing up the avenue with a few new additions and a little spring cleaning. Next time you’re out, check out our work.

On the ground:
The Doe Fund (who you usually see working to keep Myrtle litter and graffiti free) came with their paint brushes - from street lights to fire hydrants- our street furniture got a new coat of paint to keep Myrtle looking fresh.

Five of the newly designed bike racks were installed on the avenue. You can find them between Vanderbilt and Clinton, Hall and Washington and at Myrtle and Classon. Next time you are locking up, try one out! Also, you can help us to free up some additional bicycle parking by taking your rusty, scrappy and abandoned bikes home!

Up above:
New, larger street signs were installed by DOT on Myrtle Avenue and all of its intersecting streets, and this week a crew came back to straighten and perfect their placement. What do you think of Myrtle's new signage?

The BID hired Urban Arborists to climb our trees to prune away deadwood, correct safety issues, remove plastic bags, and generally clean up the appearance of Myrtle's street trees. Help us keep our street trees healthy and looking good by keeping your garbage and cigarette butts out of the tree beds! We have some mulching and annual tree pit and soil care happening in a few weeks, so things will be looking even better very soon.

This is the final weekend of the ‘Designing the Myrtle Avenue Pedestrian Plaza Mini-Exhibition and Pop-up Workshop’. Please stop by 352 Myrtle this Saturday, between 12 – 5pm to view the submissions to the Call for Ideas and best practices complied by the Partnership staff, and to participate in the creation of a vibrant neighborhood public space on Myrtle.

Last weekend, during reception and gallery hours, many community members came out to review and discuss plaza designs collected through our Call for Ideas and our public space best practices. Formatted so that you can respond directly to the proposed plaza designs or use a map of the future plaza site to voice your feedback, the workshop allows you to share your recommendations for the programming and activities, amenities, greening, and aesthetics of the space and see what your neighbors are suggesting.

After the workshop, the Partnership will be sitting down to look at common requests and recommendations, compiling a list of feedback themes and frequently mentioned programs, amenities, etc. Together with the Call for Ideas submissions and best practices, the results of the workshop will be used in our first meetings with the NYC DOT selected design team, taking place in the upcoming months.

The Call for Ideas, released in August of 2009, was intended to gather plaza concepts from professional and amateur designers that would serve as a conversation starter and inform the design process. Though the official call was closed in November of 2009, the Partnership is accepting design proposals on an ongoing basis to be shared for community review online and added to our ‘Design Book’, if you are interested in contributing, you can find more information here.

In case you missed the reception, you can view pictures of the event (and see workshop attendees in action) online; the eight designs on display can be seen on our Flickr site as well. We encourage everyone to stop by 352 Myrtle this Saturday, between 12-5pm and if you can’t make it, please leave your comments on our Flickr, the project’s facebook page or email them to sarah@myrtleavenue.org.

Maybe you noticed a new addition to the tree pit on Myrtle between Waverly and Clinton, just between Karen’s Body Beautiful and Owa’s African Market – a stylized, unique tree guard! This prototype is the result of a street furniture design process that began in 2007 with the Pratt Design Incubator. We’re in the ‘hard prototype’ stage with this piece, which means what you see here is very close to the final design, but we’re still making small tweaks here and there.

We’re hoping to install up to 25 new tree guards along Myrtle this year, with more to come in future years. Initially, we’ll prioritize younger trees, given that they are especially fragile during their first few years and face perils like errant motor vehicles and heavy bike chains.

This is not your ordinary, average cookie-cutter tree guard! Form and function marry here with an opportunity for artists and aspiring graphic designers to submit ideas for panel designs. Check out the panels in this photo – we’ll have the opportunity to laser cut unique patterns into panels, and no two tree guards will be exactly alike! The small sign post on the front of the tree guard will credit the person who submitted the idea, as well as offer information on the tree species in that particular pit. Stay tuned for more information on this, and an open call for ideas later in the spring!

Clear your calendars! You are invited to the “Designing the Myrtle Pedestrian Plaza – Pop Up Exhibition and Workshop” from February 5th – 13th.

We are happy to announce that a property owner of 352 Myrtle has given us access to their vacant commercial storefront where we will be hosting a brief pop-up exhibition and workshop displaying submissions to the Designing the Myrtle Avenue Pedestrian Plaza Call for Ideas, along with best practices collected by our staff.

In response to our Call for Ideas , we received many submissions from local and international designers. The entries were diverse and creative, featuring permanent canopy structures, amphitheaters, climbing walls, outdoor markets and more.

Along with the renderings and images, we will have maps and plaza plans where attendees can contribute their ideas for the design, programming and management of the space. Come checkout the submissions, give your feedback and chat with MARP staff about a new, vibrant and inclusive public space for Myrtle Avenue.

Location: 352 Myrtle between Carlton and Adelphi
Friday, February 5th, 5pm – 8pm: Opening Reception*. Light refreshments will be served.
Saturday, February 6th and 13th, 12pm – 5pm: Open gallery hours.
Monday-Friday, February 7th-12th, 10am-5pm: Group tours and workshops available by appointment*.

Work by the following designers will be on display: Aaron Follet, Christopher Peli, Rodriguez Studio, Edit Leventon, Jaime Roberts Studio, Jonathan Joseph, Gregór Nemitz-Ziadie, Lee Norsworthy, Juliana Schafer and Raza Ali Dada.


*Please RSVP to Sarah@myrtleavenue.org OR at the facebook event page!

By now we hope you've heard about the upcoming pedestrian plaza on Myrtle between Emerson and Grand. Our plaza, along with five other plazas that will be created by the PlaNYC-initiated NYC Plaza Program, is eligible for funding through the city's Percent for Art program for commissioning permanent works of public art. Each plaza has $100,000 allocated for permanent public art to be incorporated into the public space. The Department of Cultural Affairs has released a Request for Qualifications, which is open to all artists and collaborative artist teams, based locally, nationally, and internationally. Make sure you register by February 22nd if you're interested!

The deadline for the Designing the Myrtle Avenue Pedestrian Plaza Call for Ideas is just around the corner. It’s not too late to break out the sketch book and jot down some ideas! So far, we’ve received several inquiries and even a couple of early bird proposals. If you are just getting started on your submission or are putting the finishing touches on your designs, check out the frequently asked questions from the last weeks and a few links that may be helpful in completing your project.

Questions:
1. Can people outside of the neighborhood / NYC area / USA participate in the Call for Ideas? Yes. We welcome Fort Greene/Clinton Hill locals and internationals in the imagining and improvement of public spaces in our community. We are requesting original designs and best practices, so if you are an international participant, feel free to share examples of great public spaces from your community as well as any design work.
2. What is the entry fee? Entry is free, just email or drop-off documents by November 16th and you’re in!
3. What is the award? Designing the Myrtle Avenue Pedestrian Plaza is structured as a call for ideas, not a competition. Though there is not a formal award, the contributed designs will be reviewed by the Partnership’s staff of professional planners, the Plaza Design Advisory Committee and will be put on display online and locally to gather feedback from the community.
4. What are the geographic boundaries for intervention? The plaza will be situated on the service road adjacent to Myrtle Avenue (south side), between Grand and Emerson. Designs should address, at a minimum, this area. Designers, however, may incorporate streetscapes and intersections immediately connected to the plaza site or introduce design elements that can be installed or incorporated elsewhere on the avenue.

Resources:
1. Maps and Street views - for the number of contributors designing remotely, we encourage taking a moment to explore the larger neighborhood context via Google Maps .
2. Images - for updated images of the Myrtle Avenue Pedestrian Plaza site and images of pedestrians enjoying the future plaza space this September, check our Flickr .
3. Facebook - a Facebook group was created where participants and community members can share relevant links, best practices, site images and ideas. As the call for ideas and plaza design progresses, we will share updates via Facebook. You can join the Designing the Myrtle Avenue Pedestrian Plaza Group here and/or become our fan here .

As always, if you have any questions about the neighborhood, the structure of the Call for Ideas or would like to request the CAD file of the Street Geometry, you can email sarah@myrtleavenue.org or call 718-230-1689.

Good news! You've still got time to pull out the sketch pad, the camera, the laptop, and whatever other tools you like, to submit initial design ideas for the planned Myrtle Avenue pedestrian plaza between Grand and Emerson. Now that the location and geometry of the plaza are more or less set, it is time to focus on the actual features, amenities and landscaping that the community would like to see there.

In the coming months, NYC DOT will assign a professional design team that will work us and the community during an approximately year-long design phase. In the meantime, we are issuing a Call For Ideas (PDF document, about 1.5 MB) to ensure that we have as many creative concepts and best practices at our disposal during the very first meetings with the design team, allowing us to have a better sense of the community's priorities for the plaza. Submissions are due by November 16th, with the full details and instructions explained in the Call for Ideas PDF document. Photos can also be uploaded and shared via our Plaza Design Group if you become a fan on Facebook.

We want to be sure that this new plaza results in a truly well-designed and well-loved public space for the neighborhood. We are asking professional designers and amateurs alike to contribute original design concepts for the Myrtle Plaza, or to submit compelling photos of features from existing public spaces that you particularly like. The Call for Ideas aims to involve the community in the creation of a great public space on Myrtle Avenue, generating design and programming concepts that are progressive and sustainable and that support a variety of user groups and activities while capturing the energy, diversity and dynamic character of our neighborhood.

All entries will be compiled and reviewed by urban planners on the Partnership staff, as well as by the Myrtle Avenue Plaza Advisory Committee, made up of local stakeholders. A selection of the submissions will be posted on our website.

The Myrtle Avenue Pedestrian Plaza is the result of a multi-year community planning process that began in the fall of 2005, where improving the avenue's public spaces became a major emphasis as individuals expressed their desire to have public spaces to sit, eat, relax, people-watch, and to otherwise create a better sense of place. This year, the Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership was awarded participation in the first round of the NYC Plaza Program for our proposal for a plaza between Grand Avenue and Emerson Place on two blocks of the existing service road.

The design and development of the Plaza will be made possible by funds committed by NYC DOT, City Council Member Leticia James, Borough President Marty Markowitz, the US Department of Transportation's CMAQ program, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership BID.

If you have any questions regarding the Call for Ideas, or would like CAD files of the street geometry, please contact sarah@myrtleavenue.org

Tomorrow is Park(ing)Day and this year, Myrtle will be celebrating with not one, but TWO temporary public spaces for the Avenue. In case you aren't familiar, Park(ing) Day NYC is an international event that reclaims and reimagines parking spots as mini-parks, engaging public spaces and, as Transporation Alternatives describes, “breaths of relief from the auto-clogged reality of New York City” that “spark dialogue about our valuable public space and how we choose to use it.” This will be the third year that the Partnership will participate - you can check out pictures from previous years above and find more on our Flickr. Come out, see the action, enjoy the activities and added green space in the neighborhood and participate in an international car detox and public space appreciation day! Myrtle Parks:

Littlejohn Park –
Isaac Littlejohn Eddy , NY Times Local blog cartoon-journalist, will join forces with the Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership and move his Fort Greene studio onto the street. At LITTLEJOHN PARK Isaac will be interviewing, illustrating, and animating passersby all day to showcase what it means to be a citizen journalist and a non-fiction cartoonist.
There will be an area with paper and markers at LITTLEJOHN PARK for people to sit, people-watch, and try out a little non-fiction cartooning themselves and a gallery of the work produced throughout the day. Stop by to learn more about non-ficiton cartooning, check out the gallery (updated throughout the day), imagine city life with more open space and relax outside Kiini Ibura and Tres Elegante!
Where: Between Clermont and Vanderbilt
When: 9:00 – 4:30

Gnarly Vines Park-
Participating for their first year, Gnarly Vines, featuring Kosher Wine & Bike Repairs:an Unorthodox Pairing for Park(ing) Day. Bring your bike and taste some kosher wine! Bike mechanics from Lit Fuse Cyclery (our new neighbors on Willoughby & Walworth) will be hanging out in our Park(ing) spot from 1-4pm to provide a free diagnosis, quick adjustments, tune your wheels and even fix your flat (while supplies last)!
Where: 350 MYRTLE AVE between Carlton & Adelphi
When: 1 - 4