A blockbuster crowd packed a church in Brooklyn Heights Wednesday night to hear proposals for the replacement of a crumbling 1.5-mile section of the BQE.
The turnout was unprecedented. Every one of historic Plymouth Church’s 1,000 seats was filled, and additional attendees were crowded four deep at the back.
Taking center stage was a plan unveiled by DUMBO’s Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) for a sweeping new Brooklyn Queens Park, or “BQP.”
BIG’s plan was remarkably similar to a design proposed by Mark Baker, who came up with a proposal to create an almost identical decked-over BQE and convert the triple cantilever into a Tri-Line park. Baker introduced Siegel from BIG and passed him the baton.
“I was surprised when I learned that BIG had been working on their own proposal like mine, with a vented box covered with a park,” he said.
“It felt like my baby had grown up and gone to college.”
THE TRI-LINE 