Imaginary Constituencies: Landscape Architecture and the Construction of an Urban Public

• In Event: 228 - Section on Sociology of Culture Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 11. Material Culture Network

Abstract

In this paper, I use archival research on the planning process of Brooklyn Bridge Park (BBP) to illustrate how design becomes political. I examine the way social structure was injected into debates concerning the material form of the space. In advocating for specific designs and defending or criticizing the plan to place housing in the park, community members constructed different “imagined constituencies”: groups of prospective users who would benefit from the space. As a result of these competing visions, the park is a collage of objects and environments, each reflecting a different specific idea about recreation and leisure – an ensemble of closed programs that may prove inflexible as Brooklyn evolves socially and economically, particularly in light of a semi-private governance structure that threatens to turn the entire park into merely a “front lawn” for luxury condominiums.

Author

• Michael Owen Benediktsson, Hunter college