MATURE UPLAND FOREST. Forest Park, Queens

NORTHERN BOG. Mohawk State Forest, Connecticut

FRESH WATER POND. High Rock Park, Staten Island

BLACK LOCUST SAVANNA, Fresh Kills Park, Staten Island

MATURE COASTAL FOREST. Pelham Bay Park, Bronx

90 MILES

20 MILES

BIRCH, LOCUST, POPLAR FOREST, Pelham Bay Park, Bronx

FRESHWATER WETLANDS, Alley Pond Park, QueensBIRCH/MAPLE SWAMP, Bronx Park, Bronx

RESTORING AN ECOLOGICAL TREASUREAfter Ridgewood Reservoir was abandoned in 1989, approximately eight distinct ecologies spontaneously emerged across the three basins, placing a small piece of wilderness in the heart of Brooklyn and Queens. To experience each of these ecologies, one would have to travel throughout the city and as far as Connecticut.

Ridgewood Reservoir has them all in one place.

16,000 BCE Harbor Hill Moraine Formation

1664

1858

3 mil gallons/day

35 mil gallons/day

96 mil gallons/day1959

1891

1989

2017

2 5

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00

0

2 0

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0

1 5

00

00

0

1 0

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50

0 0

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wetland designation Brooklyn population

connection to NYC system

basin 3

reservoir stops operating

first European settlements

reservoir opens (basin 1 & 2)

REVEALING A CULTURAL TREASURE The site sits on top of the Harbor Hill Moraine, formed by the Wisconsin glacier in 16,000 BCE. Built in 1858, Ridgewood reservoir was the crown jewel of Brooklyn’s original municipal water system; nevertheless, following the consolidation of 1898, NYC started relying more to the Catskill water network, making the Ridgewood reservoir redundant and eventually decommissioning it in 1989. Two of its three basins were drained and its infrastructures abandoned until in 2011, when NYC Parks installed new lighting, fences and walking paths.

NYC H₂O VISIONAs part of their mission, NYC H₂O has shepherded hundreds of teachers and thousands of school children on a series of reservoir adventures. While conducting field trips at the Ridgewood Reservoir, NYC H₂O encountered an abandoned building which they realized was not an eyesore but an opportunity. The vision is to transform the gatehouse, which once controlled the flow of water to 19th century Brooklynites, into a source of knowledge and a gateway to new discoveries for their 21st century descendants.

Emergent ecologies - early successional native forest due to fluctuating water levels

Freshwater - open water with phragmites australis (common reed)

Urban wildland - black locust canopy, japanese knotweed, mugwort ground cover

Basin 1:

Basin 2:

Basin 3:

THE CAUSEWAYb

QNS

BK

view of jamaica bay

inlet 01inlet 02

start

32

1

causeway

discoverycenter

pathsin basin

outlet 01

gatehouse

outle

t 02

brooklyn waterworks

NYCH O path

existing points of interest

proposed program

a

b

2

gatehouse

influx chamber

a

2

outle

t

water exploring

a

animal observation

b

dtree discovery

c

aqueduct challenge

EXPERIENCING HISTORY FIRST HAND MARVELING AT VARIETY

WALKING THROUGH RICH WOODLANDS

A RICH EXPERIENCEProviding access to the Ridgewood Reservoir offers the children of New York City an unparalleled exposure to native ecologies and a cultural and historic treasure. No other site in the city offers this type of education and adventure.