Chinatown Seeks Ideas For Neighborhood Landmark

CHINATOWN, NY — The city is looking to design, fund and build a neighborhood landmark for Chinatown, and this week opened its submissions box for anyone to submit their ideas. (For more New York City news, subscribe to Patch news alerts here.)

The city's transportation department announced on Wednesday its new "Gateways to Chinatown" initiative, a joint project with the Chinatown Partnership and the Van Alen Institute.

City officials want to create an iconic landmark for the Chinatown neighborhood, one that will reflect the community and also demarcate the area. The city opened submissions this week for design teams to start brainstorming ideas to create a permanent landmark for the historic neighborhood.

"This project responds to a widespread desire for an iconic district marker and is a result of decades of neighborhood advocacy and planning," the initiative's leaders said in a statement.

The structure will be built on the Canal Street Triangle, a triangular traffic island as the intersection of Canal, Baxter and Walker streets. The triangle serves as a sort of intersection for the Chinatown and Little Italy neighborhoods. The design team will get a $900,000 to make their ideas come to life, and the city says that work will begin with the community in 2018.

Wellington Chen, the executive director of the Chinatown Partnership, said the Gateways to Chinatown structure would mark one of seven key entryways to the neighborhood.

"Chinatown’s labyrinth of streets came into being long before the grid, and after September 11, a web of security zones, checkpoints, underpasses and other barriers made them even more complex to navigate," Chen said in a statement. "In response, the Chinatown Partnership, which is dedicated to bolstering community identity and economic development, identified seven key entries to the neighborhood, resulting in the ’Take Me to 7-Points’ Gateways to Chinatown strategic framework."

The ideal design will honor the neighborhood, feature green space and incorporate interactive technologies, the city said in a statement.

"This initiative is an essential part of a community-focused process to create a new public space that will encourage residents and visitors alike to explore all that Chinatown and Little Italy have to offer," said Council Member Margaret Chin, who represents Chinatown. "I encourage everyone who cares deeply about these iconic city neighborhoods to engage in the Gateways to Chinatown project to ensure that this central location reflects the Chinatown and Little Italy that we love and wish to share with others."

Design teams can submit their project proposals here.

Lead image courtesy of the NYC Department of Transportation.