Street Lab at Strauss Open Street

Brownsville, Brooklyn

2023 – Present

In the spring of 2024, Street Lab began working with the Riverdale Ave Community School (RACS) to create an Open Street on Strauss St in Brownsville, Brooklyn. We started by providing a safe route for the Brownsville Bike Bus led by East Brooklyn Bike Club and the Brownsville Health Action Center. Then, we helped the school operate the Open Street every Friday after school as a place for students, families, and caregivers to gather alongside neighbors. Most recently, we created two new designs—Play Pods and Arena Benches—for the school to use in the school yard and on the Open Street. We then worked with the school to clean up an underutilized area beside the school where we designed and installed a Street Lab Pathways Mural. These new elements were created through a process led by Equity Design, with input from administrators, teachers, parents and students, as part of the NYC Health Department’s Active Design in Schools program. Taken together, these Active Design elements are intended to encourage physical activity and positive social interactions that can lead to better health outcomes. The Open Street is set to return in 2026.

A group of students posing together on the street.

Our Community Partner

Riverdale Ave Community School is a public elementary school in Brownsville, Brooklyn.

This work is part of Street Lab’s Open Street Development initiative.

A view of people spending town on an open street
Children playing with straw building structures on the street.
Mom with a child and another older child writing things on the paper on a wooden table on the street.
A map showing three NYC boroughs (Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens) with a dot in the Bronx.

Strauss St from Riverdale Ave to Newport St

An adult and a child playing chess on the street.
Mom with a child and another older child writing things on the paper on a wooden table on the street.
A wooden chalk board that has "Imagine with Decatur" written on it.

Play Pods, Arena Benches, Pathways Mural

A view of adults and children spending time together on the street.
A child and an adult playing with magnatiles on the street.
A child and an adult playing with magnatiles on the street.
A child and an adult playing with magnatiles on the street.

How Street Lab supported Strauss St

  • Planning and permits for new NYC DOT Open Street
  • Consistent activation and programming
  • Community engagement
  • Technical support and capacity building
  • New designs for play/seating and mural
  • Helping create an Open Streets Admin Team, including students, teachers, and staff
  • Photography, evaluation, documentation

This work is part of Street Lab’s Open Street Development initiative.

A child and an adult playing with magnatiles on the street.
People planting on the street.
People planting on the street.
People planting on the street.
A collage of blue and yellow photo cards with photo & text.
Children and adults playing with jump rope on the street.