Freshkills Park Site Tour Guide
2009. Our development team at the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation gave hundreds of tours per year of the Freshkills Park site. Visitors had so many questions, and while we could speak to their questions, we found that answers really landed better if they were printed and could be read and absorbed at the visitor's own pace. There were many common questions: about the plans and timeline for park development, but also about landfill infrastructure and environmental protections, about wildlife and plant life on site, about precedents for transforming landfills into parks. We found ourselves distributing several handouts on every tour. But then we would see these handouts crumpled in people's pockets, or flying across the landscape, or stuffed into a garbage can. These images of waste ran counter to the identity we were trying to develop for the site of a reclaimed landfill.
I condensed and synthesized the content of all of the handouts and designed a more comprehensive Site Tour Guide that could fit comfortably in hands and coat pockets. It was made of recycled paper stock thick enough to withstand light weather and some mistreatment during the tour. The guide was a single, accordion-folded sheet that ensured no pages came loose and flew away while providing a continuous sense of guidance and explanation to site visitors.
Tags: Strategy, Graphic Design, Illustration, Writing, Urban Planning