Chinatown Design Lab shows plan for LES park.

There was a time when the PR tools of a community group were limited to photocopies, poster board and magic markers. A project unveiled last week in Chinatown proves that those days are long gone.

The Rebuild Chinatown Initiative (RCI) hosted a community forum during which they unveiled designs for the East River Waterfront; a park project the city has already committed $150 million toward.

To be clear, it was not the city that was presenting it's professionally produced renderings to the hundred or so gathered community members, it was the RCI's Chinatown Design Lab--a panel of architects, artists and community activists--who were unveiling their own, independent interpretation of what the city's next waterfront park should look like.

"As far a I know this is unique," said Robert Weber, director of the Rebuild Chinatown Initiative. "It's not often [community] groups have access to their own architects ... But we secured funding and found enthusiastic people."

With money from a New York State Council for the Arts grant and the backing of sponsor Asian Americans for Equality, RCI was able to partner with Weisz + Yoes Architecture in 2005 and form the Chinatown Design Lab.

"The design lab sought to create a park that reflects how unique the community here is," said Marisa Yiu, one of the architects on the design team. "You have so many influences here: Chinese, Italian, Jewish communities ... We wanted to connect with these people and that history."

The results from the design lab are conceptual park drawings featuring ethnically themed public art and sweeping overhead access points to help connect the Lower East Side and Chinatown communities with the waterfront.

The City, whose early renderings, produced by SHoP Architects, present a park reminiscent of that built over the last several years along the Hudson River, said they are in consultation with RCI, but have not decided what to do with the plans proposed by the Chinatown Design Lab.

"From the beginning, community input has been welcome on this project," said Jennifer Torres of the city's planning department. "We're always willing to consider new ideas."

Bob Lee, director of the Asian American Arts Center in Chinatown and a member of RCI said his group doesn't see anything wrong with the city's proposed park, but that it would be a "missed opportunity" not to instill in the park a neighborhood-specific feel.

"The city did a great job with the park on the west side ... and now they want to do a great job on the east side, where you have Chinatown and Little Italy and Jewish neighborhoods [and] blacks and Puerto Ricans," Lee said. "We want the waterfront to have that ethnic flavor."

Lee added, "We're not talking gates and dragons here. In fact, we don't want stereotypical stuff like that. We just want good outdoor art that reflects who lives here and can bring those people down to the water."