New Poster Pamphlet Illustrates the Freshkills Park Project
Freshkills Park teamed up with the design studio Partner & Partners to create What is Freshkills?, a fold-out poster pamphlet that illustrates the history, engineering, and ecology of the unique 2,200-acre park in an accessible and easily distributed format.
The Fresh Kills Landfill was the largest landfill in the world before it closed in 2001. Now the City of New York is working to create a place for nature, art, recreation, and education through engineering, design, science and technology. As an educational resource, the What is Freshkills? poster pamphlet aims to increase awareness of the Freshkills Park project in classrooms, families, volunteers, and park collaborators. Through bright illustrations and typography, the pamphlet provides an overview of some of the many topics surrounding the park, including landfill engineering, waste management, wildlife, native plants, and grassland and wetland ecosystems, and folds out to a 22”x32” poster to express the future park.
In the 2,200-acre park project with a long history, there are many stories to tell, and this pamphlet focused on the current biodiversity and the site planning and engineering that make the current habitats and future park projects all possible. Designers at Partner & Partners worked closely with NYC Parks to break down complex information into engaging and friendly, yet didactic illustrations and text, which were then reviewed with landfill engineers, waste management and communication professionals at NYC Sanitation.
The publication is intended for a general audience interested in city systems, public space, and environmental stewardship in the ever-shifting human-nature relationship, and has a built-in audience of NYC students. The story of Freshkills Park is the story of New York City through ecology and design, and the story continues. Readers are encouraged to set an example of recycling, make an art or science project at the park, volunteer, visit open sections, and explore closed sections through scheduled events and programming led by NYC Parks.
NYC Parks is distributing copies of the pamphlet to schools all over New York City so teachers can integrate lessons from the park into their curriculum. The pamphlet is also available as a PDF here.
Support for this publication was provided by National Grid and Furthermore: a program of the J. M. Kaplan Fund.
