Our work at NYC Parks
New York City has one of the largest urban parks systems in the US. Parks take up nearly 14% of the city’s land, providing critical open space for residents. New urban parks initiatives around the country are raising awareness about the potential for parks to do even more, bringing people together and bridging divides. Through our work in parks, we aim to be a part of that movement here in NYC.
Since 2015, Street Lab has partnered with NYC Department of Parks and Recreation (NYC Parks) to bring its unique portable learning environments to parks designated for investment as a part of the city’s Community Parks Initiative (CPI). Through CPI, the city is working with communities to create thriving public spaces through capital improvements, enhanced public programming, and capacity-building work with local groups to care for and better use parks in low-income, dense, and growing neighborhoods that have not seen significant capital investment in a generation. More recently, we focused our collaboration on some public pools, where thousands of New York City kids receive free meals daily.
We currently schedule most of our work in parks during the summer months when kids are out of school, targeting low-income neighborhoods where the risk of “summer slide” is also greatest. Contact us if you know a park where you’d like us to pop-up, and see our calendar to learn more about our park schedule.
Our work in NYC parks has been generously supported in the past in part by Leaves of Grass Fund, and in Manhattan by Manhattan Borough President Gale A. Brewer.
Blog posts about our work in NYC Parks:
Uni Project returns to Jacob Schiff Playground with BUILD NYC
BUILD NYC is a pop-up installation that lets New Yorkers build together with LEGOs and more. Today, we set up on a plaza at the entrance of the park so people on Amsterdam Avenue could stop and join us. Today's event is part of our series called Pop-up...
EXPLORE NYC, featuring urban birds, lands at Jacob H. Schiff Playground
EXPLORE NYC is a hands-on science exhibit for all ages that brings the exploration of nature and science to the streets of NYC. Today's exhibit featured urban birds in partnership with Washington Square Park Eco Projects, and we set up at the entrance to...
Uni Project brings BUILD NYC to Madison Square Park
Our BUILD NYC program landed at Madison Square Park today, with opportunities to build for all ages. Thanks to engineers from the firm WSP for volunteering and to our host Madison Square Park Conservancy. Tomorrow, we'll be back with our weekly...
A special pop-up reading room for Madison Square Park
We've created a special pop-up reading room, curated to accompany the art exhibit Delirious Matter by Diana Al-Hadid in Madison Square Park. Find us near the North reflecting pool every Thursday through August 2. In the weeks ahead, some of our other...
BUILD together in Astoria Heights Park
Our newest program BUILD NYC landed in the recently renovated Astoria Heights Park. Thanks to our host Friends of Astoria Heights Park and NYC Department of Parks and Recreation. BUILD NYC is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City...
An open-air reading room and more for Union Square Park
On Sat, June 2, the Uni Project created a special, pop-up reading room for Union Square Park. We put together a collection focused on sustainability and urban nature, and we also deployed our EXPLORE program, inviting people to learn more about urban birds...