Highway capping, the intervention of building a deck bridge over a major roadway, can create new parkland in urban areas, stitching together formerly separated neighborhoods and mitigating negative environmental impacts of open roadways. Recent federal efforts such as the Reconnecting Communities Pilot Grant Program within the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act highlight the reparative power of highway caps in cities scarred, often along racial lines, by mid-century urban renewal. 

Yet the barriers to realizing these large-scale infrastructure projects are many: from the challenges of transportation planning for major thoroughfares, to sustaining public and private support over extended timelines, to the complex design decisions about both the structure of the deck itself and of community placemaking in this reclaimed urban landscape. The program will explore the process of realizing these large-scale infrastructural projects and evaluating the transformative potential of highway caps to create a more equitable, shared public realm. 

Following an introduction to the structural considerations of deck bridges by engineer Nat Oppenheimer of TYLin, landscape architects Mary Margaret Jones (Hargreaves Jones) and Chuck McDaniel (SWA Group) will present on their firms’ in-progress highway capping projects across the country, followed by a panel discussion and audience Q&A moderated by Juan Camilo Osorio, professor at Pratt Institute’s Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment.

Projects discussed will include:

• Southern Gateway Park Funded by the Reconnecting Communities Grant Program, Southern Gateway Park will cap Highway 35 in southern Dallas with a public green designed by SWA Group, rejoining two sections of the historic Oak Cliff neighborhood which the highway’s construction divided over fifty years ago.
• Penn’s Landing Park Designed by Hargreaves Jones, this 12-acre green infrastructure project decks over the I-95 highway and Columbus Boulevard in Philadelphia, creating a new park that connects the central city to the Delaware River.
• The Stitch Funded in its first phase by the Reconnecting Communities Grant Program, this highway cap would create approximately 14 acres of urban greenspace designed by Hargreaves Jones atop a new, 3⁄4-mile platform that reconnects downtown and midtown Atlanta in the formerly African-American “Buttermilk Bottom” neighborhood, which was razed in the 1960s to make way for urban redevelopment projects.

About Hargreaves Jones

Landscape architecture and planning firm Hargreaves Jones works on projects around the world designed to transform the public realm, including urban sites, waterfronts, and campuses. Founded in 1983, the firm’s work has been widely exhibited, published, and recognized by over 100 national and international awards, including the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award and the American Society of Landscape Architecture Landmark Award. Hargreaves Jones’ offices are located in New York City, San Francisco, and Cambridge.

About SWA Group

SWA Group was founded in 1957 as Sasaki Walker & Associates. Following its 1973 transition to SWA Group—the same year as the firm became 100 percent employee owned—the practice has grown from a single office in Sausalito, California, to seven offices across the U.S. and a location in Shanghai, China. Working across landscape architecture, planning, and urban design, SWA’s diverse portfolio spans public parks, urban developments, waterfronts, and ecological restorations.

Speakers

Mary Margaret Jones is president and CEO of Hargreaves Jones, heading the firm’s three offices. A leader in landscape architecture and planning, Jones has over 30 years of experience with major public realm projects. She is a fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects, fellow of the Urban Design Forum in New York, and senior fellow of the Design Futures Council.

Landscape architect and urban designer Chuck McDaniel leads SWA Group’s Dallas office. With more than 40 years at the studio, McDaniel has designed projects that have significantly shaped the city’s public realm, from the 1999 reenvisioning of the Katy Trail to more recent projects such as Pacific Plaza and Victory Park. He is a fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects.

Nat Oppenheimer is the senior vice president and Building Sector Leader at TYLin. Oppenheimer joined the firm in 1988 and has extensive experience in the areas of new construction, renovation, and historic preservation. He is the principal in charge of much of the firm’s institutional, private residential, and educational work.

Moderator Juan Camilo Osorio is an Associate Professor at Pratt Institute’s Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment. He serves as a member of the New York City Planning Commission, appointed by the Brooklyn Borough President, Antonio Reynoso, to leverage 16 years of professional experience working as an architect and urban planner in collaboration with grassroots leaders locally and abroad. In his own words, his work “explores the tension between cities and the political economy of climate action and disaster recovery, where socio-economic and environmental inequality exacerbate each other at all stages of the planning process.

Support

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

The event is organized and co-presented by Pratt School of Architecture.