WE HAVE A WINNER!!!

Today, Gowanus by Design honors the six winning designs of our inaugural design competition, Gowanus Lowline: Connections.

The competition attracted the interest of a wide range of individuals from a number of disciplines on local, national and international levels. Projects were submitted by 188 applicants from 14 countries around the world including Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, England, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Korea, Lithuania, the Netherlands and the 
United States. Applicants from the U.S. submitted from 14 states including California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, and Pennsylvania. There were 25 submissions from Brooklyn.

The jury reviewed 98 finalists to select the 1st and 2nd place winners as well as four honorable mentions. All six award winners along with a selection of Idea Leaders selected by Gowanus by Design’s executive committee and three winners from the Brooklyn School for Collaborative Studies (MS 448) will be exhibited at the SET Gallery in the second week of September.

Gowanus Connections is our inaugural international ideas competition, inviting speculation on the value of urban development of postindustrial urban lands, and the possibility of dynamic, pedestrian-oriented architecture that engages with the Gowanus Canal and the surrounding watershed. This competition, the first of a series, focuses on the design of connections in and around the canal, and the residual moments around these connections.

One of Gowanus by Design’s objectives is to generate a discourse about urban issues that are currently relevant to the Gowanus Canal community. The competition was designed to generate a spectrum of possible solutions.

The applicants were judged by award-winning practitioners including landscape architect, Julie Bargmann of DIRT Studios; architects David J. Lewis of LTL Architects and Greg Pasquarelli of SHoP Architects; urban planner Richard Plunz of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservations; Andrew Simons of the Gowanus Canal Conservancy and Joel Towers, Dean of the Parsons School of Design. The jury’s criteria included designers who explore their own design sensibilities while tackling complex urban challenges specific to the canal.

The Winners


First Place Prize:
Project: Gowanus Flowlands
Team: Tyler Caine, Luke Carnahan, Ryan Doyle, Brandon Specketer
Link to project


Second Place Prize:
Project: [f]lowline
Team: Aptum/Landscape Intelligence
Members: Gale Fulton, Roger Hubeli, Julie Larsen
Link to project

Honorable Mentions


Project: Domestic Laundry: Flush Basin Curtain Mattress Pillow
Team: Agergroup
Members: Jessica Leete.Claire Ji Kim, Shan Shan Lu, Winnie Lai, and Albert Chung
Link to project


Project: Made in Brooklyn: Bridges For Local Artisans & Industry
Team: Nathan Rich and Miriam Peterson
Link to project


Project: B.Y.O.B. (Build Your Own Bridge)
Team: Austin+Mergold LLC
Members: Jason Austin, Alex Mergold, Jessica Brown, Sally Reynolds
Link to project


Project: Gowanus Canal Filter District
Team: burkholder|salmons
Members: Sean Burkholder, Dylan Salmons
Link to project

The competition and exhibition are supported by the Gowanus Canal Community Development Corporation, Soho Reprographics and SET Gallery.