The Yard sits behind a security perimeter that dates to its naval past, with historic brick, wrought iron, chain link, and concrete running along its borders with five neighborhoods. At Cumberland, a large brick wall cut off sight lines for drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians at one of the Yard’s most walked intersections. The East River Ferry shuttle stop lands immediately adjacent. A CitiBike station sits across Flushing. Pedestrians passed through a turnstile while trucks queued in a lane a few feet away. The gate didn’t feel or read like a welcoming front door to what is now a modern manufacturing campus.

The Cumberland Gate rethinks the area as a single, legible threshold that connects Flushing Avenue with the Yard and welcomes those working and learning at BNY alongside those living nearby. A clear pedestrian passage separates people from truck queuing, and the reorganization gives commercial vehicles their own defined space with sight lines that account for the bike route. A parklet carves out room for the public at the foot of the gate, turning what was a blank brick wall into a place for congregation, with views into the Yard for the first time. The park has a permeable surface that can handle excess stormwater that once pooled in the area during heavy rain.

A new security booth is climate-controlled for staff comfort, with bird-friendly frit on the glazing. Material and form draw from the Yard’s industrial context and express BNY’s mission of urban manufacturing, replacing a patchwork of inherited surfaces with one coherent identity.

WXY’s design for the gate extends a relationship that began with the 2018 BNY Master Plan Exercise and Rezoning. A conceptual design first reached the Public Design Commission (PDC) in May 2020, and after COVID paused the process, the team returned with a revised approach that answered PDC feedback on scale, color, performative design, timelessness, and signage integration. WXY leads the work with Thornton Tomasetti, Sam Schwartz, ONELUX Studio, Applied Wayfinding, and EKLA, refining each move through iteration with BNYDC and Commission review.

The Cumberland Gate gives one of the Yard’s busiest pedestrian corners a clear identity, a defined threshold, and a piece of public space where there was none. The material, form, wayfinding, and public realm decisions tested here will carry into the forthcoming gates, so the campus reads cohesively, instead of five disconnected entries.