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Juror summary: maps out an impressive array of infill opportunities for Hempstead Village with the goal of balancing community needs with needed repair of the threatened Hempstead Plains ecology.
To reclaim is to save or recover something that has been affected by wrong doing or error and return it to its rightful course. The title of this project, "Reclaiming Community," refers to the goal of reclaiming two important communities within the Village of Hempstead: a sense of community among its residents, and an ecological community. The populous village has a wealth of cultural diversity, a government presence, and in close proximity to the site of the Lighthouse Project, a proposal for a new semi-urban community and Coliseum for the New York Islanders. These factors earn the village the opportunity for positive change and smart growth.
This proposal seeks to grow vertically instead of horizontally, maximize use of brownfield sites, establish educational programs, provide desirable affordable housing, explore new ways of transit and mobility, restore the Hempstead Plains, and provide a sustainable urban agricultural enterprise. These urban design strategies and programmatic elements can cultivate a diverse demographic profile, enriching and providing opportunities for multi-generational and multi-cultural social interaction.
The village can benefit if offered support from the Lighthouse Project and its efforts to provide a community of mixed-use, offices, sport complexes, and hospitality. Rather than fabricating new environments from the ground up, the project can focus on retrofitting and re-purposing the established downtown and expand upon its existing transportation and infrastructure system.
Balancing the built form and the ecology will strongly impact individuals and their community and has a sensitive awareness that can transcend to inspire all of Long Island.
Key themes: retrofitting auto infrastructure, transit-oriented development, supporting diversity, ecological repair, suburban agricultureCollaborators: Courtney Embrey, Michael Narciso