Ashley Scott Kelly, 22, and partner Rikako Wakabayashi, 23, took first place among 230 entrants from 23 countries with their project "Mapping the Ecotone."
The concept addresses rising sea levels and global warming, which we didn't feel that any current waterfront parks are doing anywhere around the world," said Kelly, who moved to Prospect Heights from Michigan last year.
In early May, the National Parks Conservation Association, which co-sponsored the competition, ranked Gateway, which sprawls for 26,000 acres from Jamaica Bay to Sandy Hook in New Jersey, the nation's worst national park in a study evaluating natural resources.
The duo's plan is designed to draw New York City's eyes to its rising sea levels, and the pair's sketches feature shoreline paths and low footbridges that will encourage visitors to get up close and personal with the ecosystem.
"It gives New Yorkers a place to observe the changing tides and shifting sea levels from a series of jetties and piers," Kelly said.
Kelly and Wakabayashi, who lives in Astoria, met as architecture majors at the University of Michigan, of which they are both 2006 graduates.
"We've pretty much been critiquing each other's work for the past four years," Kelly said. They won $15,000 for the "Ecotone" plan, their first collaborative effort.
A jury picked "Ecotone" as the winner among six finalists, although the public can comment on all designs and vote for their favorites online through September -- when both the winner and all Web feedback will be presented to the National Park Service for consideration.
"It's a inspiring design that highlights the natural features of the park while retaining a strong presence of its historical past," said Alex Brash, regional director of the National Parks Conservation Association, parks advocacy group.
Created in 1972, Gateway is home to more than 330 species of birds, including the endangered piping plover, and 71 species of butterflies.
The NPCA, the Van Alen Institute, and Columbia's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation coordinated the competition, which was funded by a $500,000 grant from The Tiffany & Co. Foundation.
Kelly and Wakabayashi's design for Gateway not only puts people in direct contact with the water and marshland, it's also a time capsule of sorts.
"If there is a sea level rise, it will be a time marker," Kelly said, noting that much of the park would be submerged. "We wanted to give Gateway an iconic identity that would last all its life."
