Two Trees Management
Since its founding in 1968, Two Trees Management Company, a Brooklyn-based real estate development firm, has owned, managed and developed a real estate portfolio worth more than $3 billion, including more than 6,000 market and affordable-rate apartments and over 3 million square feet of office and retail space. Two Trees currently owns more than 4 million square feet of commercial, industrial and residential real estate in New York City. Two Trees is known for its singular role in transforming the Brooklyn neighborhood of Dumbo from a neglected industrial waterfront into a vital mixed-use community with innovative technology companies, art galleries and performance venues.
Through its development of sites throughout the city such as DUMBO and the former Domino Sugar Factory site with Domino Park, Two Trees has an established record of advancing collaborative long-term planning processes, prioritizing cutting-edge design and architecture, community input, sustainability, waterfront connectivity and delivering on its promises to the community.
“Elevating the standard for coastal resiliency in the region, the River Ring plan is a breakthrough in urban, resilient development which honors Two Trees’ commitment to cultivating dynamic, community-centered neighborhoods. In the wake of Sandy, this project will mitigate the potential impact from future storms while transforming New Yorkers’ relationship with the water through wading, boating and other waterfront activities.
Building off Domino Park’s success, this project delivers another privately-funded, world-class public space far larger than is required by zoning regulations and offers comprehensive community benefits to the East River waterfront.”
Jed Walentas, Principal
Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG)
BIG is a Copenhagen, New York, London and Barcelona based group of architects, designers, urbanists, landscape professionals, interior and product designers, researchers and inventors. BIG’s architecture emerges out of a careful analysis of how contemporary life constantly evolves and changes, not least due to the influence from multicultural exchange, global economical flows and communication technologies that all together require new ways of architectural and urban organization. BIG delivered the striking mixed-income VIA 57 building in Hell’s Kitchen, and developed the BIG U proposal that protects Lower Manhattan from floodwater, storms, and other impacts of a changing climate.
“Our proposal closes one of the last remaining gaps in the continuous transformation of the Williamsburg waterfront into a post-industrial natural habitat….The radical transformation of Copenhagen’s port into a swimmable extension of the public space that we helped pioneer two decades ago, now seems to be knocking at the door in Williamsburg and the entire East River. The River Loop will be the first of many invitations for New Yorkers to dip their toes in the water.”
Bjarke Ingels, Founding Partner & Creative Director
James Corner Field Operations
James Corner Field Operations is a leading-edge urban design, landscape architecture and public realm practice based in New York City. The practice is renowned for strong contemporary design across a variety of high-profile project types and scales, from large urban districts and complex post-industrial sites, to small well-crafted, detail design projects. There is a special commitment to the design of a vibrant and dynamic public realm, informed by the interactive ecology between people and nature. The firm’s work includes the High Line in Chelsea, the Cornell Tech campus on Roosevelt Island, and Domino Park in Williamsburg.