Two urban parks—one in Brooklyn, New York, and the other in Wellston, Missouri—have been selected as winners of the 2020 ULI Urban Open Space Award. The award recognizes outstanding examples of vibrant public open spaces that have been instrumental in promoting healthy, sustainable, and equitable outcomes in communities. “Equitably accessible quality open spaces are increasingly understood as vital to the physical, social, and economic health of urban neighborhoods,” says Antonio Fiol-Silva, jury chairman and founding principal of SITIO architecture + urbanism in Philadelphia. “In their own particular contexts, Domino and Trojan parks are two brilliant examples of the profoundly positive impact that such spaces can have in the lives of their communities. That both civic spaces are the product of private-sector initiatives makes them even more remarkable.”
Domino Park is part of the critical transformation of the former Domino Sugar Factory site into a vibrant mixed-use space within an area that previously had one of the lowest ratios of open space to people in the city. Inspired by community input and the site’s rich history, the five-acre (2 ha) park reconnects the Williamsburg neighborhood to the East River for the first time in 160 years.
Trojan Park is a one-acre (0.4 ha) community park in Wellston, Missouri, that gets an estimated 20,000 visitors per year. It is a key destination as part of the St. Vincent Greenway, which stretches across four towns in the St. Louis region, connecting major parks, schools and universities, public transit, job centers, and neighborhoods.
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