09/08/2026
🌱 PEACE GARDEN | SUMMER 2026
This summer marked our second collaboration with the Brownsville Community Justice and their youth, engaging NYC youth ages 14 to 24 through the Summer Youth Employment Program as part of our multiyear partnership with the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
Together, the youth cohort brought the Peace Garden to life through a youth driven Design / Build / Care process. Participants learned about placekeeping and the evolution of Osborn Plaza, collected inspiration for a garden space, researched native plants, and chose quotes and messages to display on a built planting bed.
The summer curriculum culminated in a planting bed prototype, designed and built by the youth and now living indoors at BCJC. This fall, Hive will return to build the second planting bed with BCJC’s Urban Agriculture youth cohort, bringing the project into its next phase. 🌿
Peace Garden moves youth beyond imagining public space to designing, building, and caring for it. Through hands on making and collective decision making, the project nurtures leadership, environmental stewardship, creative confidence, and a sense of ownership in the places young people help shape.
Because public space is not just something we design for communities.
It is something we create with them. 🌱