The DUMBO Improvement District has released a Request for Qualifications seeking a design team to create what they're calling "DUMBO Circuit," a one-mile pop-up fitness loop on eight park spaces that surround the tangled mess of bridge on-and-off ramps accessing the BQE, Brooklyn, and Manhattan bridges.
The RFQ says that design can "play a crucial role in combating the biggest public health epidemics of our time: obesity and related chronic diseases," backing up lofty goals with hard cash. The DUMBO Improvement District, with support from the City's Neighborhood Challenge award, is offering $40,000 to a design team for implementation, design, and exercise equipment to be placed along the route.
The planned route. (via Dumbo Information District)
Signage and creative design/wayfinding seem to be the principal challenges: dusting up the boring concrete will bring DUMBO into the forefront of what some have called the New Public Sites movement, reusing and repurposing spaces left over by car culture for pedestrian purposes.
