In 1948, the City of New York opened the 2,200-acre Fresh Kills Landfill along a marshy shore of Staten Island. By 1955, it was the world’s largest waste depository — a claim to fame that infuriated the borough’s residents, who lobbied fiercely to close the stinky dump. At its peak, 29,000 tons of trash arrived daily.
Environmental regulations ultimately led to the landfill’s closure in 2001. That same year, the city put forth an ambitious proposal to transform the site into a beautiful green space that would be almost three times as large as Manhattan’s 843-acre Central Park. A design competition was launched, and six teams were invited to conceive a master plan.
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