Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden Master Plan

JLP+D worked with an interdisciplinary team to complete a comprehensive master plan for the 83-acre Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden, located on public parkland in New York City. JLP+D’s work focused on producing a plan for increased financial sustainability, which involved extensive stakeholder engagement and considerable new programming recommendations that better capitalized on the assets of the campus. Programming recommendations seek to increase utilization and activation at the Cultural Center during daytime and evening hours year-round.

JLP+D investigated use scenarios and produced revenue projections and worked with capital cost estimators for both indoor and outdoor spaces, including analyzing the feasibility of new building investments. These recommendations included a broad array of programs, appealing to tourists and residents of the city including: a new visitor center, gift shop and expanded public restrooms, cafe, concert spaces, outdoor and indoor theater performances, agricultural facilities with educational and special events spaces linked with the site’s Botanical Gardens, recreation improvements, public art displays, and the infrastructure upgrades to support each of these.

At the completion of the design team’s work, and to help the project secure funding from the City, JLP+D prepared a separate detailed fiscal policy and economic argument report, demonstrating the ways in which capital funding support for the master plan infrastructure upgrades, building renovations and enhancements to place, which improves equity and community access, would be fiscally responsible for the city as landlord and provide significant sustained earned income potential for the Cultural Center operator. JLP+D worked iteratively with the client and the design team to project visitorship and revenue changes and quantified the fiscal impact of the proposed masterplan.