NYC to connect Grand Army Plaza and Prospect Park with car-free pedestrian space
New York City wants to close a chaotic street between Grand Army Plaza and Prospect Park, connecting the plaza to the 585-acre green space with a new car-free pedestrian space. Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Monday announced a proposal to remove the four-way crossing next to the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Memorial Arch and ban cars from Union Street to Eastern Parkway along the plaza’s southern edge. The redesign also includes new bike lanes and bus priority upgrades aimed at improving service on the B41 and B6, two of Brooklyn’s busiest routes.
Grand Army Plaza was designed in 1867 by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux as the formal entrance to Prospect Park.
Those who visit the plaza’s iconic arch and Prospect Park are familiar with the hectic experience of crossing the wide avenue between the landmark and the green space, where Park Slope and Prospect Heights converge, and the main entrance to the park.
Residents and advocacy groups have complained about traffic in the area for decades. In 1955, one publication described the traffic circle as “the only concrete asphalt and roulette wheel in the world,” according to the New York Times. Between 2021 and 2025, there were 219 traffic injuries along the plaza’s roadways and outer ring.
The proposal seeks to address these long-standing concerns by making the experience of visiting the arch and park less stressful. The redesign would add roughly three-quarters of an acre to the 14-acre plaza, a 42 percent expansion, and reduce the number of pedestrian crossings from 39 to 24.
Redesigning the roadway would also improve bus speeds, the Department of Transportation (DOT) told the Times, as the project would ease congestion in and around the circular roadway. The effort would be complemented by the ongoing redesign of Flatbush Avenue, which connects to Grand Army Plaza and includes center-running bus lanes.
“Grand Army Plaza is the gateway to Brooklyn’s backyard, Prospect Park—and it should welcome New Yorkers with street design that puts safety first,” Mamdani said.
“Anyone who’s tried to cross here knows how dangerous and chaotic the streets can be. This redesign is long overdue and will provide a sense of ease and enjoyment to one of Brooklyn’s most important public spaces.”
Plans to redesign the plaza began circulating in 2022 under former Mayor Eric Adams, but have since stalled. The project has now been revived under the Mamdani administration. The selected plan would remove cars from the plaza’s southern edge and divert traffic to adjacent streets.
In 2024, workshops showed substantial community support for the project, with over 85 percent of the 3,600 survey respondents supporting a plan that would better connect the park and plaza to the arch.
“We’re ecstatic that NYC will be connecting Grand Army Plaza’s arch to the rest of Prospect Park,” Ben Furnas, executive director of Transportation Alternatives, said. “This is a major step forward for everyone who visits Brooklyn’s backyard, and a restoration of Olmsted’s original vision for his favorite park.
Furnas added: “With this proposal, one of Brooklyn’s most confusing and harrowing intersections will transform into a new marquee public space for all to enjoy—on foot, on a bike or on the bus.”
The DOT will finalize the project’s design through a series of public workshops beginning April 23. More information and a public survey will be posted online on the day of the workshops and will be available online through May 31.
Once capital project scope development concludes this year, the DOT will explore ways to reconstruct the roadway to include new pedestrian and cyclist amenities.
The April 23 workshop will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. at the DOT tent south of the archway in Grand Army Plaza. In case of rain, the event will move to the Grand Lobby of the Brooklyn Public Library. On April 25, another workshop will take place at the same location from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
On April 29 from 6 to 7:30 p.m., the DOT will host a virtual workshop on Zoom. You can register here.
Last summer, the city and the Prospect Park Alliance announced the completion of a $8.9 milion renovation of the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Memorial Arch. As 6sqft reported, the project replaced the arch’s roof, cleaned the brick and stone structure, repaired interiors, like the cast-iron spiral staircase, and added new lighting. The landscape surrounding the arch was also revitalized with new plants, trees, paving, and an accessible curb cut.
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