The Vitality of Public Space: Rosa Chang’s Manhattan Density Vision

Nine acres of long-vacant land beneath the Manhattan Anchorage of the Brooklyn Bridge is slowly reopening to the public, with four of them already under management by the non-profit Gotham Park.

Behind the project is Rosa Chang, who firmly believes that density makes public space a necessity rather than an amenity.

Chang co-founded Gotham Park in 2021. She told The Urban Developer that her philosophy on urban development began when she looked from a Lower Manhattan terrace, over a skyline built entirely by human effort.

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“All of it, imagined, financed, constructed, maintained by humans,” she said.

“Why couldn’t we imagine it to create a framework and foundation for human thriving, rather than what it is today, a foundation that is falling apart from neglect and a lack of imagination?”

Chang said there were two misconceptions common to the sector.

“People think of parks and public space as a luxury. They also think of these spaces as being publicly funded and managed. Both assumptions are incorrect in our case,” she said.

Less than 2 per cent of Gotham Park’s funding comes from public sources as more than 98 per cent is raised privately.

The adjacent Brooklyn Bridge carries more than 11 million pedestrian crossings annually, averaging 30,000 a day, Chang said, and 47,000 people live within half a mile (800m) of Gotham Park.

Municipal parking and vehicle storage dominated the site before Gotham Park began reclaiming it. The organisation opened its first accessible acre in May, 2023 on the 140th anniversary of the Brooklyn Bridge opening.

Gotham Park now offers more than 5500sq m of greenspace and serves thousands of people each year through free wellness classes and major events suchg as the Community Block Party.

It’s a good start, but a factor somewhat familiar to Australian developers also informs Chang’s views on the pace of change in her home city.

“We are definitely not building it fast enough, at least in New York we seem to be hobbled by regulation paralysis,” she said.

Her vision of a future city is a 24-hour model that integrates commercial and residential space in each neighbourhood.

“It intentionally creates space for joy, discovery, wonder and whimsy,” she said, adding that it should have sufficient housing for its occupants and work with nature rather than against it.

Instinct guides Chang’s approach to leadership more than analysis. Asked about the hardest decisions she has faced as a business leader, she talked of the difference between logic-driven calls and those made on gut feeling.

“Whenever I have led with my brain and failed, I have had enormous regret,” she said. “Whenever I have led with my heart and failed, no regret. So now I lead with my heart and follow with my brain.”

▲ Gotham Park director Rosa Chang with co-founder Steve Rodriguez and chief operating officer Megan Brosterman.

Long hours come with the territory, Chang said, but so does purpose.

“My to-do list and email inbox keep me up at night,” she said. “What gets me out of bed despite the exhaustion is: Who gets to do something this magical? I mean, I get to dream so crazy big, and then every day is about how do I make it real.”

A student exchange to Paris at age 16 was the biggest influence on Chang’s career.

“It expands your perspective, makes you open to considering that your view is not the only or the right view,” she said, adding that the trip changed her understanding of culture and design.

Chang said adaptive reuse was the most significant shift in her sector of the past five years.

“Cities are reimagining existing spaces and infrastructure and adapting them for current needs,” she said.

“In the US this is still relatively new, we have a tradition of tearing things down and starting all over, but there is a richness and a creative opportunity in adapting existing infrastructure to modern-day needs.”

Chang’s view of the greatest untapped opportunity in the built environment can be summed up in one word: density.

“Working within existing dense urban locations, where there is established demand, need and infrastructure that results in the density, but also the complexity and risk of existing conditions can be daunting,” she said.

“As density implies, we are literally living on top of each other, with the vast majority without access to private outdoor space. 

“Parks are, for many of us, our living rooms, our front yards, our dining rooms and even sometimes our kitchens.

“They are a basic necessity that makes life liveable in a dense place like Lower Manhattan.”

Rosa Chang will talk about her work reclaiming underused urban land at Urbanity-26, joining a program of speakers addressing adaptive reuse and public realm strategy across the property sector.