In the latest for City Currents, a new weekly series on the public space blog about water, a local nonprofit rethinks urban streetscapes for cooling and community comfort.

There are about 110,000 fire hydrants on New York City streets and a longstanding tradition of using them to help New Yorkers access water and cool off in summer. There is a formal process: groups can obtain a permit and request a spray cap installed by a local FDNY firehouse. Community gardens can also request permits to attach a garden hose with a reduced water pressure zone device in order to water plants. And of course, New Yorkers have always found other, informal ways to bring water to the streets, from hydrants and otherwise.

Street Lab is a nonprofit that uses a pop-up approach to transform the street-level environment of New York City, and we’ve seen all manner of water solutions over the years, especially at summer Play Streets where we work. The drenching spray from a hydrant is a joyful, familiar sight in many neighborhoods, although we’ve also observed limitations with these hydrant-based fountains. Specifically, the intense spray excludes some people in the community who can’t or don’t want to be completely wet. These folks include vulnerable populations like kids in day care without a change of clothes or seniors at the play street serving as caregivers. To address some of these issues, Street Lab began to design and prototype a variety of street water elements in 2023, culminating in the launch of OASIS, a pop-up, open-air, cooling station for NYC, which is now one of the fastest growing of our 15+ pop-up programs in New York City.

In high heat, New Yorkers are forced to retreat to indoor, air-conditioned spaces, which can be isolating as well as energy-intensive. OASIS offers an alternative: a communal, outdoor gathering space that relies on water, plants, and shade to cool people, right in the heart of neighborhoods. The pop-up features a custom-designed misting river or misting arches that encourage people of all ages to gather and cool off together, all without power. Street Lab currently deploys OASIS in neighborhoods with the highest Heat Vulnerability Index in New York City, with support from Con Edison, NYC Dept. of Transportation, and Street Lab donors. 

In designing OASIS, we reduced the volume of water flow to create mist rather than a drenching fountain. We also moved the delivery of the spray away from the hydrant to provide flexibility about where on the street or sidewalk people can gather to cool off—for example moving to the shady side of the street on a hot afternoon. Combined with Street Lab custom benches and mobile landscapes we’ve designed made of plants, NYC communities now have a portable solution powered only by a garden hose attached to a hydrant or nearby spigot.

In 2024 we launched the first iteration of our OASIS program, featuring a blue, misting river evoking long ago streams now buried under asphalt. We surrounded the river with seating and plants, and watched what happened. People young and old gathered to cool down at the misting station, alongside strangers. Parents brought their children over to examine the mobile landscape with magnifying glasses, looking at native plants in a whole new way. Using a thermal camera, we confirmed that the cooling station reduced surface temperatures by as much as 16 degrees Fahrenheit. Using Street Lab’s community engagement pop-up called IMAGINE, we learned that the misting elements also made people in the neighborhood feel calmer and sparked their curiosity, attracting people who would otherwise just walk on by. In that first year, with support from Con Edison and a Community Challenge grant from AARP, we deployed OASIS a total of 33 times across 15 locations, in some of the most heat-vulnerable neighborhoods of the city, reaching an estimated 1,400 people and specifically targeting locations in close proximity to local gathering places for older adults. This included repeat visits to the Mt Hope Place Open Street in the Bronx, directly behind the East Concourse Neighborhood Senior Center; the W 159th St Open Street in Washington Heights where resident seniors gathered for a weekly food pantry; and the Grand Ave Open Street in the Bronx, around the corner from Morris Heights Senior Housing.

In 2025, we dove into scaling up OASIS, and introduced a new, lighter-weight misting element called Misting Arches which can be transported in a single rolling bin and set up by community groups with minimal support from Street Lab. We tested the Misting Arch kit on the 34th Avenue Open Street in Queens, where it was set up by youth workers as part of a neighborhood cooling station funded by NYC Dept. of Emergency Management. 

In 2026, we’re building ten new OASIS kits and our goal is to transform even more streets in the most heat vulnerable NYC neighborhoods. We’ll be sharing an application for communities to partner with us soon. Stay tuned and stay cool!

By Co-Founder/Executive Director of Street Lab Leslie Davol

About Street Lab: Street Lab is a nonprofit that uses a pop-up approach to transform the street-level environment of New York City. There are four areas of our work. First, we operate a citywide programming circuit, deploying award-winning pop-ups that allow people of all ages and abilities to gather, learn, and create right on the street, 500+ times a year, 94% in low to moderate-income neighborhoods. Second, we partner with community groups to launch Open Streets, School Streets, Play Streets, Street Seats, and more—community-led public spaces. Third, we run youth education programs that involve young people in all aspects of our work—youth-led public spaces. Finally, we design and build pop-up infrastructure used by our team and our partners every day.

Everywhere we work is by request, and we partner with communities and city government to bring immediate benefits to residents while building support for long-term change. We do this work to improve lives, strengthen neighborhoods, and bring New Yorkers together. Pop-up that changes New York.

Street Lab was founded in 2006. Early projects focused on vacant lots and storefronts. In 2011, the organization shifted outdoor spaces like parks, plazas, and streets, launching a portable reading room for New York City that still operates today. Since then, the range of programs and services Street Lab offers has expanded and we’ve provided over 3040 days of programming in 501 NYC public spaces, reaching more than 160,000 New Yorkers. We’ve also helped create more than 40 Open Streets and shipped our designs to more than 75 other cities.

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