Ashley Scott Kelly, along with former Univ Michigan studio-mate Rikako Wakabayashi, recently won first prize in an international design competition for a vision to revitalize a 26,000 acre national park along New York City's waterfront. The Gateway National Recreation Area, encompassing Jamaica Bay and parts of the greater NY Harbor, is in a state of disrepair, plagued by vanishing wetlands and ranks lowest of all national parks on the NPCA's natural resource scale.

The design creates an iconic vision for New York City that interfaces instead of opposes the natural processes of this estuarine ecosystem, and which suggests shaping a new public attitude about our urban parks.

The competition is supported by the National Parks Conservation Association, Columbia University and the Van Alen Institute. A presentation to the National Park Service is slated for early 2008. The six finalists have been posted to the NPCA's website and are open for public opinion and voting.

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