Queens Plaza
Long Island City, New York

The structure of the elevated, which now appears as a tangle of steel, has been transformed by Marpillero Pollack Architects into an elegant lantern-like series of sculptural spaces suspended above the flow of people and traffic below. A broad swath of Ironwood trees arcs along the elevated at JFK Park, enfolding the refuge-like park landscape. A river of understory trees meanders within the park, and then along the medians, down to the river. This immersive green landscape radically challenges the conventional notion of an urban park and streetscape as hardscape.