The Downtown Brooklyn Partnership has won the International Downtown Association's Downtown Achievement Award of Excellence, recognizing nearly a decade of work turning the district's car-choked streets into pedestrian-first corridors. The honor covers the Downtown Brooklyn Public Realm Action Plan, a sweeping effort that has already reshaped Fulton Mall, added new green space at Abolitionist Place, and pushed private developers to build wider sidewalks and shared streets into their projects.
According to the Brooklyn Eagle, the award was reviewed and evaluated by a jury of peer professionals as part of the 2026 Downtown Achievement Awards, and it landed in the planning, design and infrastructure category — a bucket that includes downtown master planning, streetscape improvements, sustainable infrastructure and wayfinding. The Downtown Brooklyn Public Realm Action Plan itself was developed with architecture firms WXY and BIG, according to the same outlet, and per the Eagle's report, it emphasizes pedestrian safety, sustainability and accessibility across the district.
Regina Myer, president of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, was recognized during the Downtown Achievement Awards ceremony, and per the Eagle's report, she called the plan a replicable framework for transforming spaces into pedestrian-first corridors. Myer's résumé bears directly on that claim: she previously served as Brooklyn Borough Director for the NYC Department of City Planning, where she helped direct the original 2004 Downtown Brooklyn rezoning, and later led the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation from 2008 to 2016 before joining the Partnership.
From Back-Office District to 24/7 Neighborhood
The award recognizes a transformation that has been underway for two decades. The 2004 rezoning set off a residential boom, and the district welcomed an additional 60,000 residents in the five years preceding 2019, according to the Eagle's report, turning what had been a traditional central business district into a dense, mixed-use neighborhood. The NYC Department of City Planning reports on the district's growth over the 20 years following the rezoning. A separate summary gives the number of new housing units as 23,000, while the district's office landscape also expanded.
That growth strained 19th-century streetscapes never built for so many residents, workers and students. The Downtown Brooklyn Public Realm Action Plan, as detailed by Dezeen, covers a 370-acre district stretching from Columbus Park to the Barclays Center, laying out design guidelines meant to convert vehicle-heavy corridors into pedestrian-first spaces. The plan, per the Eagle's report, incorporated input from businesses, residents, major institutions and community partners, and it introduced New York City's largest shared-street network as part of a partnership between the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership and the city's Department of Transportation.
Fulton Mall's $8 Million Makeover
One of the plan's clearest showcases sits along Fulton Mall, where an $8 million revitalization project rebuilt sidewalks with permeable pavers and added curvilinear benches and new planting areas, according to the Eagle's report. Hoodline previously covered the completion of that $8M Fulton Mall makeover, and the funding traces back to a broader municipal commitment: in July 2023, Mayor Eric Adams and city agency leadership pledged $40 million toward Downtown Brooklyn street safety, green spaces and transit upgrades, with $8 million of that earmarked specifically for the Fulton Mall streetscape, according to CityLand. The Fulton Mall project also partnered with the city's Department of Parks, per the Eagle's report, and its green infrastructure of plantings and porous surfaces has helped improve stormwater management and mitigate urban heat.
New Green Space on Ground With Underground Railroad Ties
The plan also created Abolitionist Place, a park the Eagle's report describes as 1.3 acres that now provides recreation and gathering space for residents, workers and school children. The park sits at 225 Duffield Street near the landmarked 19th-century home of abolitionists Thomas and Harriet Truesdell, and per 6sqft, it opened in 2024 after nearly two decades of planning under a site once known as Willoughby Square Open Space before being renamed in 2019 to honor Brooklyn's Underground Railroad history. Under the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs' Percent for Art program, the park includes a commissioned installation, the same outlet reports.
Developers Are Buying In
The Partnership has increasingly leaned on private developers to extend its streetscape vision beyond public rights-of-way. Signature street designs featuring pedestrian space, new plantings and generous seating areas have now been adopted at developments including the Alloy Block and The Brook, according to the Eagle's report, while the 11 Hoyt development received a full-block design pilot in partnership with Tishman Speyer. The Alloy Block has already drawn commercial interest tied to that streetscape upgrade, Hoodline reported in August.
The Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, a not-for-profit local development corporation, serves the district as a business, cultural, educational, residential and retail destination, and it oversees three separate Business Improvement Districts, according to a New York Building Congress biography of Myer. The three BIDs are part of the Partnership's local organizational structure.
National Recognition, National Ambitions
The International Downtown Association presented the award at its conference in Toronto this September, titled “Intersections: Where Districts, Disciplines and Ideas Converge,” per the Eagle's report. IDA President and CEO David Downey said the Downtown Brooklyn Public Realm Action Plan should serve as a framework for IDA member communities, according to the same account.
The recognition arrives as the district's building boom keeps redefining Fulton Street and the surrounding blocks. Hoodline has reported on development activity in Downtown Brooklyn and on other projects in the area. Together with the streetscape overhaul now drawing national attention, that activity illustrates how Downtown Brooklyn's planners and builders are still negotiating the balance between rapid growth and the pedestrian-first public realm the award was built to honor.
