Stitching the Urban Seam

Located along the Gravesend Bay waterfront in southern Brooklyn, this research project investigates how large-scale infrastructure has transformed the relationship between the city and its coastline. Once defined by tidal marshes, natural beaches, and an active working waterfront, the shoreline has been fundamentally reshaped through successive phases of landfill and urban development. The construction of the Belt Parkway in the late 1930s established a continuous transportation corridor that physically separated the surrounding residential neighborhoods from the water, replacing direct access with engineered landscapes of parks, roadways, and reclaimed land.

Through historical research, cartographic analysis, and analytical drawing, the project traces the evolution of the site's morphology from a natural coastal edge to an infrastructure-dominated urban condition. Historic maps, shoreline studies, zoning analysis, public-private relationships, and transportation networks reveal how decisions made throughout the twentieth century continue to shape movement, land use, and public access today. By layering historical and contemporary information, the project uncovers the lasting impact of landfill operations and transportation planning on the physical form of the neighborhood.

The study ultimately focuses on a single pedestrian bridge crossing the Belt Parkway, reframing it as more than a piece of infrastructure. Although modest in scale, the bridge serves as the primary connection between the residential community and the waterfront, embodying the tension between human-scale movement and automobile-oriented planning. Positioned between neighborhood and park, it simultaneously reconnects and reminds users of the barrier below. Rather than viewing the bridge solely as a crossing, the project interprets it as an architectural threshold that reveals the broader consequences of infrastructural intervention and demonstrates how small civic elements can restore continuity within fragmented urban landscapes.