50 Years of Women in Hip Hop | DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN PARTNERSHIP & BRIC MEDIA

Commissioned by the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership (DBP), BRIC Media, and April Walker to design-build the 50-years of Women in Hip Hop public art and lighting installation for Downtown Brooklyn.

WE-DESIGNS’ Approach

Celebrating the future of female in music, design, and creativity, our design-concept of a lenticular activation “FUTURE/FEMALE” brings together the community of Brooklyn to punctuate Hip Hop’s interdisciplinary reach. Inside each font are names of celebrated female Hip Hop artists and visionaries curated by April Walker, carefully designed and CNC-fabricated by our team.

Program Objectives
• Activate a public plaza with a dynamic sculptural installation that brings together visual art, multimedia and lighting.
• Amplify the voices of female music artists, DJs, producers and other culture-shifting women in the Hip-Hop community.
• Connect the worldwide celebration of Hip-Hop’s 50th anniversary to Downtown Brooklyn, a neighborhood that has played an important part in the Hip-Hop story.
• Improve perceptions of safety and enhance the sense of place and community in an underutilized plaza.

Project & Site Context
Fox Square is a 10,000 square foot triangular plaza located at the intersection of Fulton Street and Flatbush Avenue. Reconstructed by NYC Economic Development Corporation in 2015, the space has never lived up to its promise as a DOT public plaza, having been partially closed or hampered by construction on adjacent buildings and properties. This project will activate an underused public space and provide a critical gateway between Fulton Mall businesses and the Downtown Brooklyn Cultural District, while illuminating the district’s deep ties to Hip-Hop street culture and entrepreneurship.

Team Credits

Fabrication & Design Team
Design Direction: Wendy W Fok
Lead Designer: Jessica Marquez
Design Assistants: JJ Jin, Thomas Wang
Onsite Production/GC: Brian Pindell, Eduardo Yanez
CNC Fabrication: Seth Eshelman (STAACH)
Materials (Wood Suppler): Jeff Cohen (Cambium Carbon)
Video Editing: Wendy W Fok, Thomas Wang

Engineer
AKT-II: Edoardo Tibuzzi, Hanif Kara
SGH: Paul E. Kassabian (NY State Structural)
Fabrication Consultants: Gilad Dor, Zyia Zhang

Partnership & Collaborators
Downtown Brooklyn Partnership (DBP)
BRIC Media: Chris Torres
April Walker (Walker Wear)

ClientDowntown Brooklyn Partnership & BRICLocationBrooklyn, New YorkYear2024StatusDesign-Build (Construction)