In the 1950s, highway construction cut through a prosperous African American neighborhood in downtown New Rochelle, severing the community and destroying homes and businesses. To heal this rift, the LinC converts a highway overpass into an eight-acre oasis that will restore street connections, support health in the neighborhood, and help rebuild black wealth. As... Continue Reading
In the 1950s, highway construction cut through a prosperous African American neighborhood in downtown New Rochelle, severing the community and destroying homes and businesses. To heal this rift, the LinC converts a highway overpass into an eight-acre oasis that will restore street connections, support health in the neighborhood, and help rebuild black wealth. As a subconsultant to VHB, Starr Whitehouse is providing landscape architecture, urban design, and community engagement. Our designers led over 60 hours of public workshops with New Rochelle’s Department of Development to create a community-driven park design. The park adds extensive bicycle and pedestrian paths, a series of rain gardens and bioswales for biodiversity and flood protection, and verdant spaces for socializing, gathering, and play. Capping the site’s eastern spur, an amphitheater accommodates scheduled and impromptu performances. Along the western edge, underground tanks capture 750,000 gallons of stormwater beneath a multi-use sports field. Funded in part by a 2021 RAISE grant, the project leveraged Starr Whitehouse’s design to secure an additional $16 million from the Neighborhood Access and Equity Grant program. Construction is anticipated to begin in 2026.
