'Grand' ideas in store for Plaza's redesign.

Serving as the gateway to Prospect Park, some 100,000 people are said to visit Grand Army Plaza each month. And each day, some 48,000 vehicles pass through the site.

Grand Army Plaza is no doubt a high-traffic area. But plans are afoot to make this plaza grander and accessible to even more people.

The Design Trust for Public Space and the Grand Army Plaza Coalition early this year launched an international ideas competition to solicit proposals for the plaza's redesign. From Sept. 12 to Oct. 13, the top 30 ideas will be displayed in an outdoor exhibition in the center of the plaza, which is known for its stunning architecture, the Soldiers' and Sailors' Memorial Arch and the Bailey Fountain.

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Some 200 ideas were originally received from around the world, from amateurs to professionals. The top three winners will be announced during the opening reception.

The competition is meant to "catalyze Grand Army Plaza's rebirth," said Deborah Marton, executive director of the design trust. The site, designed in 1867 by Olmstead and Vaux, has its problems.

"First of all, it's a safety issue," she said. "It's really difficult for pedestrians or people on bikes, scooters to access the plaza. It was designed prior to the advent of the automobile ... Now it has more lanes than the BQE."

Secondly, Marton said, the 11-acre plaza is not ideal for "programmable recreational space." She said having the green market and other activities there now is sort of a "jerry-rigged situation."

"Currently an underdeveloped public space, a re-design of the Plaza will invigorate and unite surrounding communities, just as reclaiming Manhattan's High Line sett off an explosion of activity in Chelsea," Marton wrote in a letter to members of the Brooklyn Real Estate Roundtable.

The competition will award the first-place winner $5,000, the second-place $2,000 and the third-place $1,000.