JACX Plaza

Formerly an open and undeveloped light industrial site, an opportunity for public space expansion and revitalization became and identity provoking part of a dual commercial tower development. The site’s wedge shape “left-over” space adjoins multi-laned streets and Queens elevated and noisy subway trestle. The plaza design prioritizes safe pedestrian movement by using existing barriers and its limited entry points to direct safe foot traffic. Large, mounded planting zones as vegetative boundaries create visual clarity for these “desire-line” routes to direct movement away from possible vehicular traffic crossings. Positioned along the streets and trestle edges, towering groves of Metasequoia trees with their seasonally robust under plantings attenuate buffer the neighboring noisy transit activity. A mitigating inward focus emerges to initiate social gathering and community engagement. A single row of ‘Autumn Gold’ Ginkgo trees distinctly register against Metasequoia forest as trail markers to further direct movement through the space. Places to congregate and meet within a spatial landscape context demonstrates the transformative value of using nature’s resources to create a neighborhood haven and memorable public space destination.