DOT, Parks and NYU propose Bleecker Street entry redesign to link Bleecker landscape

City agencies and NYU presented a schematic plan to refurbish the small public entry area on the southwest corner of Bleecker and Mercer Streets, adjacent to the public atrium at 181 Mercer, at the Community Board 2 Parks and Waterfront Committee meeting in June 2020.

Rachel Belsky (project consultant) and Michael Van Valkenburgh partner Paul Seck described a design intended to continue the tree canopy, widened “double” sidewalk and planting-bed character used elsewhere on Bleecker Street. “The major idea here is to pull the Bleecker Street landscape and the plant beds … and pull that same feeling to create some continuity,” Seck said.

The proposal covers a DOT-owned public space and was prepared in collaboration with DOT’s urban-design and wayfinding staff and Parks’ Manhattan landscape team. Major features include four shade trees (swamp white oak), wider-than-standard concrete sidewalks matching the existing Bleecker streetscape, raised planting beds with coordinated railings to match existing materials,…