The Rail-Arts-River planning team, including representatives from the LRWP, coLAB Arts, Rutgers Landscape Architecture and Middlesex County Department of Planning, have been busy working on the framework for Rail-Arts-River’s Year One impacts and are ready to share the work that came out of spring and summer development.

Please join us on Thursday November 12 at 9:30 AM when we will share planned deliverables through summer 2016 and engage you with that work.

Where: Middlesex County Administrative Building, at 75 Bayard Street, 5th Floor Conference Room

When: Thursday, November 12 at 9:30 AM

If needed, parking is available at the Robert Wood Johnson Wellness Center Parking Deck located at 95 Paterson Street (Level 5 and higher) – attendees should bring their parking tickets to the meeting for validation.

Short-term impacts for 2016 are outlined as follows:

1. Watershed Sculpture Project – our ongoing visual art project that incorporates refuse from the watershed into pieces of public art. We just finished our second round of commissions, and unveiled them last week. The project was recently honored by the Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions. Next steps are to organize Woodbridge and Perth Amboy arts groups to adopt this program in their respective towns.

2. Rutgers Landscape Architecture Praxis Studio – work with residents and community organizers to identify areas in New Brunswick that aren’t part of city or university development plans, but are opportunities for cultural and environmental design.

3. The Run Off – a large community event/flash mob that will serve as a press opportunity at the end of the spring, that illustrates the movement of water through the city, by way of moving physical bodies through the city. As with the digital kiosk, New Brunswick would be our pilot, with Woodbridge and Perth Amboy to follow.

4. Digital Kiosks – pilot the installation of a physical interactive digital kiosk that incorporates the story and data about the watershed, and how New Brunswick interacts with it ecologically and through municipal access. The kiosk is also an opportunity to further engage the public with the history of New Brunswick and downtown business. New Brunswick would be the first post and feature local business sponsors. Woodbridge and Perth Amboy locations, with local content, would follow.

5. Commercial Avenue green infrastructure pilot – facilitate partnership with the Rutgers Safety Building and city DOT to install creative and artistic opportunities for rain capture and water remediation, and provide wayfinding opportunity down Commercial Avenue towards Boyd Park.

We will also present our concept plan for a long-term impact in Boyd Park, a plan that developed out of the June 2015 Sustainable Cities Design Academy:

Boyd Park wetland pilot – a long-term version for the impact of Rail-Arts-River in New Brunswick, is to create a destination performing arts space at Boyd Park that incorporates the natural environment of the river and riverbank into its design. This pilot wetland project is meant to demonstrate the design, infrastructure, beauty, and scientific curiosity that can be introduced into the park.