Bronx It Up proposes a spectacular landscape, a local economy of produce and solar energy, and a buzzing nightlife for the Grand Concourse. Environmental, social, and economic programming intersect in our three-layered intervention: Bronx Roots, Bronx Sprouts, and Bronx Buzz.

In Bronx Roots, the streetscape is integrated in a sweeping new landscaping which connects the two parks on either end of the Concourse. Sprinkled instead of aligned, trees create dense stretches of natural planted malls. An infrastructure of bioswales lines walkways, bikeways, and public transportation corridors, while green walls occupy various site amenities.

Bronx Sprouts articulates new local economies with programmatic intersections. Orchards and a local fleet of shared, electric low-speed vehicles inhabit parking lots. Small produce farms and green markets occupy strategic and alternating locations within the center island. Meanwhile, building roofs farm grid-metered solar energy and green roofs.

Lastly, Bronx Buzz offers a vibrant nightscape which reminds us that the Bronx ain’t Paris. Home to a young and cosmopolitan population, the Grand Concourse hosts public plazas for music and dance, landscapes for roller skaters, and video walls for digital graffiti.