Freshkills Park Blog

After learning about Freshkills Park through tours and presentations, Saint Adalbert teacher Donna Dawson assigned a final project for her 8th graders to create an interpretive model of the park’s future, encouraging the use of recyclable materials. The students assumed the role of urban park planners, conducted research, constructed practical visions of the park, and wrote accompanying reports.

Freshkills Park offered a Discovery Day event on May 15th from 11am to 4pm. During this free event, 700 acres and eight miles of trails in the otherwise closed site were open, providing opportunities to explore and learn about the landfill-to-park project.

On June 21st, Freshkills Park will take part in Inside the Bird Chorus, a project conceived by the philosopher and artist David Rothenberg as a dialogue between musicians and bird populations of New York City. The 21st of June is the summer solstice, making it the longest day of the year.

Freshkills Park is excited to introduce and welcome Win Shanokprasith, the new Visual Design Intern, to the team. Win is a recent graduate from the Maryland Institute College of Art, and he is an artist, designer, and arts educator.

NYC Parks and the Freshkills Park Alliance have issued a Request for Qualifications (RFQ)  for skilled designers to develop a digital project that will engage New Yorkers across the five boroughs with the evolving Freshkills Park on the west shore of Staten Island. 

In spite of slightly chilly temperatures and some dramatic weather, Freshkills Park volunteers helped host 1,500 people at the May 15th Discovery Day. Visitors, who got to experience the Park in a variety of different ways, were awed and inspired by the landscape. 

Freshkills Park will participate in the 6th Annual Green and Clean Festival on June 8th. Organized by the Staten Island Economic Development Corporation (SIEDC), the festival is the largest event on Staten Island combining sustainability and industry.

The SI Green & Clean Festival brings together over 400 sustainable businesses, green innovation and technology companies, efficient energy experts and local residents interested in sustainable living.

Once an abandoned area, Brooklyn Bridge Park slowly transitioned into a model destination for environmental science, green design and public recreation. In September 2015, Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy opened the Environmental Education Center located at 99 Plymouth Street.  The Center features interactive programming related to the park’s historic identity, sustainable construction and ecological implications with noteworthy highlights such as the touch tank and the structural model of the Brooklyn Bridge Park.

It’s so inspiring to see how people are photographing Freshkills Park. That’s why there’s the new Fresh Look: Freshkills Park Photo Contest, inviting people to share their images of the unique landscape.

Between now and July 5th, photographers can submit their images to photo@freshkillspark.org

Photographers can enter a contest for the chance to have their portrait of Freshkills Park published in the Staten Island Advance. Winning photographs will also be displayed for the public at the Staten Island Arts Culture Lounge at the St.

On Saturday, May 7th, Freshkills Park’s Manager for Programs, Arts and Grants Mariel Villere moderated a panel at NADA New York called “Models of Practice: New territories and frameworks for public art.” The speakers were La Casita Verde President Brooke Singer, Container Artist Residency founder Maayan Strauss, and NYC Department of Cultural Affairs Digital Communications Manager Diya Vij.

Freshkills Park will offer a Discovery Day event on May 15th, 2016 from 11am to 4pm. During this free event, 700 acres and eight miles of trails in the normally closed site will be open, providing opportunities to explore and learn about the landfill-to-park project.

As invasive species become a greater problem and harder to deal with, New Yorkers are looking to more creative solutions to control their presence. Parks in the area incorporate a wide array of methods to control invasives including manual removal, pesticides and even controlled burnings.

As Freshkills Park develops from the world’s largest landfill into a sustainable urban park, New York City is working towards sending zero waste to landfills by the year 2030. This 0x30 Initiative is under the April 2015 initiative known as One New York: The Plan for a Strong and Just City (OneNYC).

On Saturday April 16, 2016, twenty-five energetic New York Cares Volunteers arose early and took the bus from Manhattan to Staten Island to help the Freshkills Park Team get ready for spring.

One group removed the disheveled piles of dead grasses from Schmul Park and left behind a carpet of mulch through which peeked  small clumps of new green growth.  

Freshkills Park will offer a Discovery Day event on Sunday, May 15th from 11am to 4pm. Thanks to the support of program partners, sponsors, and collaborators, there will be lots of ways to discover the landfill-to-park project.

5K Run/Walk
Just before Discovery Day begins, the Mid Island Rotary Club of Staten Island will host a 5K Run/Walk at the park starting at 10:30am.

Transportation Alternatives’ April 17th “Bike the Boros: Staten Island” event will include special access to Freshkills Park. Those who enjoyed the popular Tour de Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island series will love the new “Bike the Boros” series. This series is built on the same premise, to celebrate NYC streets by biking on them with gusto, with each event covering a different borough.

The upcoming Staten Island Unlimited Triennial Talk at the Alice Austen House will include a discussion and Q&A with Michael McWeeney, whose photograph of Freshkills Park is included in the photography exhibition.

McWeeney has been photographing Freshkills Park as part of Capturing Change, a series of photo essays in collaboration with Urban Omnibus that invites small groups of photographers to the site to document the engineered landscape’s evolution.

Freshkills Park’s Manager for Science & Research Development Dr. Cait Field will participate in a panel discussion at Rutgers University on Wednesday, April 27th. Called Re-envisioning Post-Industrial Public Landscapes, the discussion will include panelists from Freshkills Park and Liberty State Park in Jersey City.

The New Springville Greenway on the eastern edge of Freshkills Park is included in the New York City Department of Transportation 2016 NYC Bike Map. This 3.2-mile fitness path is part of the seven new miles of off-street bike lanes in New York City.