Mayor Bill de Blasio and the city’s Public Design Commission honored design projects in each borough Thursday for achieving artistic and environmental advances in their communities.
The 35th annual awards for Excellence in Design ran the gamut from green upgrades to street redesigns.
“The best public projects are purposeful and use design to build a sense of community and civic pride,” the mayor said in a statement.
The commission’s panel, which includes architects, sculptors and cultural institution leaders, reviews “permanent works of architecture, landscape architecture and art proposed on or over city-owned property.”
Here are this year’s winners:
Greenpoint Library and Environmental Education Center
Norman Avenue, Greenpoint.
The LEED-silver-certified building includes labs, reading spaces and an outdoor plaza with native plants.
“Double Sun” at McCarren Park Play Center
776 Lorimer St., Greenpoint
The art installation designed by Mary Temple greets pool visitors at the northeast and southwest corners of its archway entrance.
Downtown Far Rockaway Streetscape
Central Avenue, Mott Avenue, Beach 19th Street, Beach 20th Street, Beach 21st Street, and Beach 22nd Street
Several city agencies came together to improve the streets that were damaged by Superstorm Sandy with stronger material, wayfinding devices, a new plaza and additional trees.
TLC Woodside Office, Garage, and Inspection Facility
24-55 Brooklyn-Queens Expressway West
The city-inspection location can handle 200 cars a day and has a planted outdoor space that helps absorb rainwater.
Bomb Squad Building
100A Rodman’s Neck Path, Pelham Bay Park
The NYPD’s training facility received a big upgrade following Superstorm Sandy with “cast-in-place concrete walls” and vents that allow floodwaters to flow through without damaging the building.
Treetop Adventure Zipline and Nature Trek
Bronx Zoo
The new attraction allows visitors to zip across the Bronx River and navigate an obstacle course in the borough’s green space.
FIT New Academic Building
28th Street between Seventh and Eighth avenues
The ten-story, 110,000-square- foot building includes a facade with “woven metal panels deployed as an ornament to express the creative activities within the college.”
The Cubes Administration and Education Building
Socrates Sculpture Park
The park’s first permanent structure is made up of 18 shipping containers, a shout-out to Long Island City’s industrial past and a call for reuse.
