The QueensWay Met Hub project is designed to connect communities and provide important outdoor amenities for the public. It improves pedestrian access to Forest Park, links to the adjacent existing ballfields, and adds 47 acres of new public open space. Using creative deployment of NYC Parks and NYCDOT standard materials, finishes, and plantings,the QueensWay Met Hub weaves urbanity and industrialization with the power of natural systems. The project creates new and inviting places of arrival, unveils history through materiality, and creates moments for outdoor gathering, learning, play, and respite.

Through its design, the QueensWay Met Hub weaves together an expression of the glacial geology of the area, its history as a rail line, and the emergent vegetation that reclaimed the site after it was abandoned in 1962. Glaciers shaped the landscape through which the trainline cut a linear path, creating a datum in plan and section against which nature emerged, and now against which a new set of program spaces can evolve.

The QueensWay Met Hub elements include signage, sheet pile walls, lighting, and vertical structures inspired by the materials and forms of the railroad. Distinctive paving patterns reinforce different themes related to their location. Boulders and larger rocks representing glacial moraines and erratics are used as grounding signature elements at entries, to define more intimate seating areas, and to punctuate moments along the path. Rocks and native plantings create microclimates and accentuate habitat along the trail. The design embraces the rare opportunity of creating a park through a mature landscape, removing non-native and invasive species, and carefully replanting to accentuate the tension and beauty of the site’s wildness.

Visit the thequeensway.org for more information and updates.