The Department of Design and Construction (DDC) is the City’s primary capital construction agency, with projects spanning renovated structures, such as libraries and courthouses, to designing and improving vital infrastructure, such as street reconstruction, water mains, sewers, and pedestrian ramps. To successfully meet construction goals, DDC collaborates with City agencies and communities to incorporate their needs and goals into projects.
For the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation, DDC will manage the design and construction of a new 67,000-square-foot recreation center at Roy Wilkins Park in St. Albans, Queens. DDC’s Design-Builder (DB) is responsible for Community Engagement and through the Design-Build contracting process, which allows for deeper collaboration across stakeholders, will work with the Office of Community Outreach and Notifications and Community Construction Liaisons (CCLs) to inform residents and businesses by presenting projects to community boards to keep the larger community informed about the construction progress. DDC is interested in technologies that can enhance community engagement throughout the build process.
Opportunity: inCitu, a New York City-based augmented reality (AR) software company, fosters collaboration around urban development between builders, engineers, architects, and the community. inCitu bridges the gap between urban planning concepts and the public’s understanding by overlaying future cityscapes onto current surroundings to help communities visualize the future of their neighborhood. Members of the community will have the opportunity to utilize the InCitu platform and visualize the building design in AR with a life-size model projected onto the physical park space via the device’s screen. inCitu also has a public engagement survey for citizens to share their thoughts with the developers.
Methodology: inCitu will collect NYC Department of Building’s permits data along with any necessary data pertaining to the Roy Wilkins Recreation Center, process it, and create an AR rendering for the public. The rendering will be available through the use of QR codes placed strategically around the construction site, and in supportive marketing materials such as web-map, website, brochures, social media posts, etc. Separate QR codes about community engagement events will be used in flyers and other online materials to foster further engagement.
Signage: In production
Project Timeframe: February 2025 – June 2026
| Stakeholders |
| Department of Design and Construction (DDC) |
| Office of Technology and Innovation (OTI) |
| inCitu |
| Community members of St.Albans, Queens |
| Project Category |
| Augmented Reality (AR) |
| Artificial Intelligence (AI) |
| Buildings |