WNYC's Cityscapes Project kicked off the first of its guided get-togethers with a tour of the Newtown Creek Nature Walk last Thursday. The tour, which was inspired by previous guided tours given by park designer George Trakas, was also a way to bring amateur photographers out to the relatively underutilized park in North Brooklyn and collect a plethora of different images in one Flickr account.

The Cityscapes project was created to showcase some of the innovative uses of public and private, closed and open space throughout New York City with a special emphasis on unknown or underused architectural marvels. The Newtown Creek Nature Walk, which opened two years ago to the delight of Greenpoint residents who know about it, is a beautifully designed and innovative park on the shore of Newtown Creek.

But located as it is in an industrial section of Greenpoint and its premise, that of a nature walk associated with one of the most polluted and industrialized bodies of water in New York City, it is not one of the more prominent attractions in the neighborhood, though it may deserve to be.

Trakas designed the park to take specific advantage of its industrial setting, capturing both the natural and business uses of Newtown Creek in his design. A tour conducted by Trakas and Urban Omnibus inspired the Cityscapes organizers, working with radio personality Brian Lehrer, to conduct a second tour of the park for the radio station's listeners.

The tour brought together a much larger turnout than its organizers could have anticipated, and the dozens of interested neighbors huddles around Trakas to hear him describe the ideas behind and construction of the nature walk.

He explained that the park incorporated both the natural and urban history of the area, and the design includes references to the industry, scientific pre-history, evolution, ecology, and the Native American cultures that populated the area.

Trakas admitted that while science teachers and their students love the obscure terms etched into the concrete and marble of the nature walk, many visitors find them confusing, and that explanatory plaques are being built and installed around the park.

In addition to the tour, WNYC's organizers encouraged visitors to snap photos of the park during the tour and to upload the photos to the Cityscapes Flickr group in order to create a community image pool of the experience.