The Future of Myrtle Ave. On Display

Architects will present their designs for a pedestrian plaza on Myrtle Avenue between Grand and Emerson Place on Tuesday — the next step towards making the sketchy stretch more pedestrian friendly.

The designers, from the firm AECOM, will show a variety of proposals and then solicit feedback from the public.

The pedestrian plaza will occupy the portion of the service road in front of Pratt’s Myrtle Hall building, creating a new space that designers hope will be more inviting to people on foot.

“It’s about prioritizing and improving the pedestrian experience and making the cars use space better,” said Sarah Farwell of the Myrtle Avenue Business Improvement District, which is organizing the workshop. “The sidewalks are very narrow, it’s dominated by cars but used inefficiently.”

Currently, the service-road portion of Myrtle Avenue has only narrow islands for pedestrians as they try and cross the street, and cars — both parked and moving — occupy most space.

AECOM is keeping their designs for the pedestrian plaza under wraps until the meeting, but it’s reasonable to expect seating, tables and planters similar to the arrangements at other plazas like in Times Square and 14th Street and Ninth Avenue in Manhattan.

Still, it is possible that the designs will be more ambitious; several “visualization” exercises from last year used by the architects for inspiration featured ramps, covered areas, and even strange bubble-structures along the thoroughfare.

And the plaza is only one part of the larger plan, which will renovate the entire service road-portion of Myrtle Avenue from Hall Street to Emerson Place.

Designers plan to turn the rest of the service road into more of a “driveway” with one lane of parking while also extending sidewalks and elevating pedestrian crossings. 

Construction of the project is expected to be completed sometime around August 2013.

The Myrtle Avenue Pedestrian Plaza Community Workshop will be held on Feb. 1 at 5:30 p.m. in the cafeteria of Benjamin Banneker Academy at 77 Clinton Avenue between Myrtle and Park avenues. Call The Myrtle Avenue Business Improvement District, (718) 230-1689, for more info.