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NEW YORK | New East River access
NY Times
Temporary Roadway for Cars May Be Transformed Into Permanent Refuge From Them http://graphics10.nytimes.com/images...park.1.600.jpg Looking south near the F. D. R. Drive at the outboard detour. It may be used for pedestrian and bicycle paths. http://graphics10.nytimes.com/images...26park.map.jpg Large ships passing beside the detour are required to use tugboats. By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS December 26, 2006 A temporary detour route on the Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive that extends 25 feet over the East River would be remodeled into a waterfront park under a plan being studied by the Bloomberg administration. The Outboard Detour Roadway, completed in 2004 from roughly 54th to 63rd Street while that section of the drive was being refurbished, had been scheduled to be dismantled last month. Now, though, city officials are pressing to use the abandoned 2,500-foot strip of roadway to extend the esplanade around Manhattan to a portion of waterfront currently inaccessible to pedestrians and cyclists. The plan, in its very early stages, calls for demolishing all but the roadway’s westernmost underwater support beams and building a new structure that would not extend as far over the river. The new park would probably be at most 20 feet wide, city officials said, enough room for bicycle lanes and a narrow pedestrian walkway. Advocates say the result would be akin to the High Line park being developed out of an abandoned elevated railway line on the West Side, although it would be much smaller, and over water. “It is on the water, it is already built, and we would like to have a nice bikeway, a nice walkway that would connect to the rest of the esplanade,” said Lyle Frank, chairman of the local community board. “This is a tremendous opportunity to do it.” The plan faces substantial obstacles. The Coast Guard and the Army Corps of Engineers have expressed concern that the design would interfere with shipping traffic, and the State Department of Environmental Conservation has voiced fears that the park would disturb fish habitats because of the permanent shadow it would cast on the water. “It’s something we are very interested in, but a lot more work has to be done to make sure it is feasible,” said Daniel L. Doctoroff, the deputy mayor for economic development. “We’re trying to find as many creative ways as we can to give people access to the waterfront.” The Bloomberg administration has made it a priority to complete an uninterrupted greenway around the waterfront of the five boroughs, particularly in Manhattan. While there is generally contiguous riverfront access along the West Side except for a stretch from approximately 81st to 91st Street, there are several significant gaps on the East River esplanade. Among them are the Consolidated Edison site from 34th to 41st Street and the United Nations headquarters at 42nd Street. The site of the proposed park also lacks waterfront access because the F. D. R. Drive extends to the river there. When a plan to refurbish the drive was proposed in the 1990s, some residents of the adjacent neighborhood worried that vehicles seeking to avoid highway delays would clog its streets, creating noise and safety problems. Because the drive, which carries about 150,000 vehicles daily, is among the city’s busiest arteries, state and city officials ruled out closing a heavily used section of the highway for several years of repairs or even blocking off a few lanes at a time for weekend and night work. Instead, the Outboard Detour Roadway was designed. The detour, which cost $139 million in federal money, is essentially a bridge built parallel to the existing F.D.R. Drive. The section from 53rd to 60th Street alone, which is entirely over the river, cost about $40 million to construct. Because the detour extended so far over the river — which at that point is particularly turbulent and only about 800 feet wide — engineers had to figure out how to ensure that the 2,100 vessels a year that pass through that stretch of water would not strike the roadway. So they designed a system of floating guardrails held in place by four anchors drilled into the bottom of the river, some as deep as 120 feet below the surface. The anchors are secured to one another by a heavy chain with links that weigh more than 150 pounds each. They keep the system in place during changing tides and currents, which moved water levels up and down by as much as six feet a day during construction. For the last two years, even with that safeguard in place, large ships have been required to have tugboats help them navigate that stretch of river. When the detour was completed in 2004, it won engineering awards for its innovation. Now, even as sections of the detour are being dismantled to allow ship traffic unimpeded access in the river, advocates for a new esplanade are wondering whether spending the estimated $50 million it would cost to build a base for a park would make sense. “We have to decide if the structure is worth the cost,” Mr. Doctoroff said. “It is too early to give odds, but if I could give odds — outside of cost — based only on our desire, they’d be pretty high.” “But,” he added, “desire is not the only factor involved.” |
There are others who want to push for beachfront along the east river...
http://newyorkharborbeaches.org/main.htm http://newyorkharborbeaches.org/image/beach13img07.jpg http://newyorkharborbeaches.org/image/beach13img08.jpg http://newyorkharborbeaches.org/image/beach13img04.jpg http://newyorkharborbeaches.org/image/beach12img04.jpg |
Meanwhile, the City has its own plans for the lower Manhattan secion of the east river waterfront...
(lowermanhattan.info) http://www.lowermanhattan.info/const...st_river_4.jpg Multiple city agencies, along with world-renowned architects Richard Rogers Partnership and SHoP Architects, are producing a comprehensive master plan for the redevelopment of the East River waterfront, stretching from Battery Park to East River Park. Images courtesy of Richard Rogers Partnership and SHoP Architects for the City of New York. http://www.lowermanhattan.info/const..._RENDER_01.jpg The Battery Maritime Building: The space in front of the Battery Maritime Building (BMB) is one of two critical gateways to the new East River esplanade. The proposed plan calls for moving the Battery Tunnel entrance 350 feet to the northeast, clearing the way for a new plaza in front of the BMB. http://www.lowermanhattan.info/const...5_overview.jpg http://www.lowermanhattan.info/const...15_closeup.jpg Pier 15: The pier will be rebuilt to provide open public spaces and a better environment for marine life. http://www.lowermanhattan.info/const..._RENDER_01.jpg New Market Building: The existing building and pier will be rebuilt to be used for community, maritime, and commercial activities. A new transient boat marina will provide a location for visiting vessels, boating enthusiasts, and amateurs to anchor. http://www.lowermanhattan.info/const...5_overview.jpg http://www.lowermanhattan.info/const...35_closeup.jpg Pier 35: This large pier will be opened to the public and will provide access to new waterfront amenities, including a boat launch, a place for family gatherings, new picnic tables, and outdoor grills. http://www.lowermanhattan.info/const...anade_over.jpg http://www.lowermanhattan.info/const...anade_over.jpg http://www.lowermanhattan.info/const...KARATE!_01.jpg http://www.lowermanhattan.info/const...DANCING_01.jpg The Esplanade: The new esplanade will consist of a recreation zone along the water's edge with seating and plantings, a program zone under the FDR Drive for pavilions and outdoor activities, and a bikeway along South Street. A system of consistent paving, seating, railings, and plantings will be used throughout. http://www.lowermanhattan.info/const...-RENDER_01.jpg Burling Slip: The current parking lot at Burling Slip will be transformed into a playground. http://www.lowermanhattan.info/const..._RENDER_01.jpg East RiverPark Connector: The area in front of Pier 42 is a crucial link to East River Park. Exiting barriers will be removed to create a wider, safer entrance into the park. Planted berms will screen the esplanade from noise and traffic generated by the FDR Drive. In the future, Pier 42 could be rebuilt to make way for a new urban beach floating above the East River. http://www.lowermanhattan.info/const...planade_sm.jpg View of the waterfront at night. |
New York Magazine
2/9/07 Beware of Riprap in Greenpoint and Williamsburg http://nymag.com/daily/intel/20070209waterfront.jpg A section of the Greenpoint/Williamsburg East River waterfront under the new plan. The city presented its latest plans for redeveloping the Greenpoint-Williamsburg waterfront Wednesday night, and — believe it or not — local activist groups liked the proposals. The new plans include boat launches, picnic grounds, wetland preserves, which are all things — like a more natural-looking waterfront, a bit of which is shown in the rendering above — community groups have been asking for. "I believe they are making a true effort to tune the plan into a community vision," said Laura Hoffman of the Greenpoint Waterfront Association for Parks and Planning. She gave props to how the plan integrates Greenpoint Terminal Market artifacts — like old ropes and bricks — into the park's design. (We like this new rendering not least because landscapers call the sort of rocky water-edge depicted "riprap.") How'd things get so lovey-dovey? Team Bloomberg persuaded three developers of waterfront high-rises to turn over open space to the city, and then the city designed with local priorities in mind. The impending towers still give some Williamsburgers the willies, and earlier renderings of the waterfront, warned Jasper Goldman of the Municipal Art Society, "looked like San Diego." But gritty riprap? That's so New York. —Alec Appelbaum |
curbed.com
New Boss for Williamsburg Waterfront Parks, McCarren Pool? http://www.curbed.com/2007_02_WburgEsplanadeSmall.jpg Friday, February 9, 2007, by Robert Someday, maybe 2030, there will be a 1.6 mile "esplanade" along the East River in Williamsburg and Greenpoint, built by developers putting up all those waterfront highrises. If developers build the open space per city guidelines and if they turn it over to the city to run, it looks like the city, in turn, will hand it off to a conservancy run by the Open Space Alliance for North Brookyn. Or something like that. That same conservancy will also run McCarren Pool, starting next year. A deal is in the works to channel "any money from concert promoters" staging events at the pool (we take as a hint that more big shows are coming this summer) into a fund to "improve the green space in Williamsburg and Greenpoint." The Alliance has been looking for a new director, too. Job duties listed include managing "newly acquired park properties" and designing plans "for interim uses of McCarren pool for the duration of its reconstruction." Interesting bit of information. _____________________________________ A look at Williamsburgh's new waterfront (posted on curbed.com) http://www.curbed.com/2006_07_SouthW...Waterfront.jpg http://www.curbed.com/2006_07_shaeferlanding2.jpg |
Just looking at this picture:
http://www.lowermanhattan.info/const..._RENDER_01.jpg And knowing for how many years the The Battery Maritime Building sat abandoned and now its going to be revitalized and an expansive park is going to be put infront to boot. Everything Bloomberg touches turns to gold, everything he does is good for the city, and the city has never been better for it. If Guiliani was still in office I'm sure there would be no East River Park, he probably would have petitioned the Battery Maritime Building to be demolished as well. I really wish Bloomberg could run for another term, he in my opinion is the best mayor in the city's history. |
Probably the most significant of the East River developments, Brooklyn Bridge Park has been in the works for a while...
http://www.brooklynbridgepark.org/in...FFCF51D62FC0BF The future 85-acre park will stretch 1.3 miles along the East River from north of the Manhattan Bridge to Atlantic Avenue. The Park includes Piers 1 - 6, each approximately the size of Bryant Park, and their uplands. Brooklyn Bridge Park will transform this underused and inaccessible stretch into a magnificent public space filled with lawns, recreation, beaches, coves, restored habitats, playgrounds and beautifully landscaped areas. The Park will connect visitors to the waterfront and NY Harbor in extraordinary ways with floating pathways, fishing piers, canals, paddling waters and restored wetlands. This is the most significant park development in Brooklyn since Prospect Park was built 135 years ago. http://www.brooklynbridgepark.org/images/01_Cover.jpg http://www.brooklynbridgepark.org/im...erviewmapW.jpg http://www.brooklynbridgepark.org/images/pier_6.jpg http://www.brooklynbridgepark.org/images/pier_5.jpg http://www.brooklynbridgepark.org/images/piers_3_4.jpg http://www.brooklynbridgepark.org/im...ier2upland.jpg http://www.brooklynbridgepark.org/images/pier_2.jpg http://www.brooklynbridgepark.org/images/pier_1.jpg |
amny
New life pouring into the waterfront http://www.amny.com/media/photo/2007-03/28688032.jpg A development just south of the UN, looking east across the East River. By Michael Clancy and James Fanelli March 30, 2007 Short, blue-collar and industrial, the East River has always been outshined by the majestic Hudson River. It's not even technically a river, but a brackish strait connecting the Long Island Sound and upper New York harbor. But second billing for the East River may soon change. Its banks -- on both the Manhattan and outer borough sides -- are undergoing a profound transformation from underutilized industrial shoreline to the city's new Gold Coast. "There is more land available and being developed now than perhaps any time in the city's history," said Kent Barwick, president of the Municipal Art Society. "More than urban renewal. More than Robert Moses. It's just an unbelievable amount of change." More than 1,000 acres of East River shoreline are being redeveloped or slated for change as housing, parks and office space, creating millions of square feet of commercial, retail and office space along the river. The sweeping changes represent an enormous opportunity to reclaim the waterfront -- a hallmark of the Bloomberg administration -- but advocates warn there is only one chance to get it right, to create an accessible waterfront that the whole city can enjoy, not just residents of luxury developments. East River Waterfront Plan A beach on the East River? That's just one of the new amenities planned for two miles of the neglected East River waterfront, from the Battery Maritime Building on the southern tip of Manhattan to the Lower East Side, which is slated to be revitalized with $150 million of federal 9/11 aid. Parking lots, dilapidated piers and Department of Sanitation depots will give way to esplanades, walkways and even a sandy beach on the East River as the city reconnects the South Street Seaport, the financial district and Chinatown with the East River. The city is working to get access to some of the properties, designing other portions, and moving other parts through the public review process, said Rachaele Raynoff, spokeswoman for the Department of City Planning. Raynoff said to expect an announcement in the coming weeks that one of planned recreation spots will be open this summer. Even the FDR drive, which hugs the East River, will get new lighting and sound-dampening material attached to its underside so that it looks and sounds a little better as New Yorkers pass under it to get to the river. Pier 17 While the new leaseholders of South Street Seaport's Pier 17 haven't unveiled any final plans for the riverside site, it is nearly definite that some type of larger structure -- perhaps a high-rise -- will be proposed for the pier, which sits in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge. Meeting with Community Board 1 for the first time earlier this month, General Growth Properties outlined a rough vision for the pier and the former Fulton Fish Market buildings, which would include razing the mall, relocating the landmark Tin Building, shoring up the pier, and building a new mixed-use structure -- possibly a tower that rises 50 stories tall. East River Science Park A California-based firm that specializes in laboratory spaces, Alexandria Real Estate Equities plans to break ground next spring on the $400 million East River Science Park, a 1.1 million-square-foot complex that will house laboratories and office space for life sciences businesses and researchers. The lot currently houses a Bellevue Hospital Center building and a parking lot. The science park will be built on 3.5 acres of city-owned land between 28th and 29th streets and First Avenue and the FDR Drive. It is envisioned as an incubator for pharmaceutical and biotech businesses, which would find natural partners with NYU Medical Center, Columbia University, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center among others. The first tenants are expected to occupy the facility by 2009. The city is expected to kick in about $14 million for infrastructure improvement, and the developers, who have a 49-year lease with two 25-year options, are expected to get tax breaks and other incentives worth more than $250 million. Con Edison plant area Along three empty parcels of East River waterfront, stretching from 35th to 41st streets, eight skyscrapers, some as tall as 69 stories, are planned as part of Manhattan's second-largest development after the World Trade Center site. Developer Sheldon Solow seeks to build 3.54 million square feet of residential space, 1.3 million square feet of commercial space, 28,000 square feet of retail space and 120,000 square feet of 'community space' on the tracts, one of which used to be the site of a Con Ed power plant. Renowned architects Richard Meier and David Childs are working on designs for some of the skyscrapers. A total of 3,000 new units is envisioned. The developer is preparing his final proposal to begin the zoning approval process. After hearing Solow's initial plans, Community Board 6 asked that the development be scaled back and include more open space, commercial space, affordable housing and a school. "It's a question of scale and what is overdevelopment," said Community Board 6 land-use chair Ed Rubin. United Nations Renovation Long delayed by bureaucratic red tape, political wrangling and the search for temporary office space, a new building should begin to rise this year as a $1.9 billion renovation gets underway on the iconic United Nations landmark Secretariat and General Assembly buildings. After unsuccessfully searching for temporary 'swing space' in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens, the U.N. chose to build that swing space on the northern part of its own campus. The specific dimensions of the new building are still being hashed out, said U.N. spokeswoman Soung-ah Choi.The renovation, to be done in phases and completed in 2014, presents an opportunity to allow better public access to the waterfront -- a move lauded by open-space advocates but which poses security challenges. BROOKLYN In Elias Kazan's 1954 film classic, "On the Waterfront," Marlon Brando plays a guilt-stricken dock worker in a corrupt union who does nothing to prevent a mob rubout. During the course of his torment, Brando's Terry Malloy delivers an elegiac speech about his washed-up boxing career, indelibly whispering, "I could have been a contender." Malloy never got that chance at the title, but the inspiration for the film's backdrop, the gritty Brooklyn waterfront once filled with bustling wharves and smoking factories, has a shot at the big time. Multiple projects are breathing life into miles of fallow land along the East River's edge, ultimately transforming the rundown piers and vacant factories into a tantalizing waterfront destination for thousands of residents and park-goers. Fueled by sweeping city and state incentives and unprecedented public-private partnerships in Williamsburg, Greenpoint and land near the Brooklyn Bridge, the projects will bring as much as 12,210 units of new housing and 121.1 acres of parkland and esplanades to the borough's waterfront and surrounding area. Though no time frame has been hammered out, the city also envisions an interconnected series of parks, esplanades and bike paths on the waterfront that will stretch between Newtown Creek in Long Island City and Owl's Head Park in Bay Ridge. "We do have a vision for a continuous connection of parks and greenways," said Joshua Laird, assistant commissioner of planning at the city Parks Department. The Herculean overhaul is not without its opponents. Critics have scrutinized some of the city's deals as too favorable to developers. Others like the Manhattan-based Project for Public Spaces, a nonprofit that has consulted on waterfronts around the world, warn that the emphasis on residential developments will ultimately keep people away from the parks. "It's the suburbanization of Brooklyn," said PPS vice president Ethan Kent. "Residential buildings, especially high rises, are not really compatible with a waterfront. It may look nice and preserve a lot of parkland, but because of the residential adjacencies, they are preventing the parks from being used by the public." But in an age where tight budgets and few dollars are readily available for public projects, city and state agencies argue that private housing is the most cost efficient and least intrusive way to spur the river's revitalization. Here's a look at few of the projects: Williamsburg-Greenpoint: In May 2005, the city green lighted a wholesale makeover of two miles, or about 175 blocks, of Williamsburg and Greepoint. Its inlands already rife with development projects, the neighborhoods' waterfronts were now open game to the real estate boom. The rezoning of land to mixed-use will bring luxury condos where weeded vacant lots, old warehouses and factories now stand. Further rezoning also allows for residential developments in the neighborhoods' upland area. In total, 11,000 new housing units will be created, according to the city's Housing Preservation and Development. There is a tradeoff to allowing 30-story-plus high rises on the waterfront. Of the 11,000 units, 33 percent will be affordable. On the waterfront, 1,563 of the housing units will be for middle and low-income residents. Twenty-three months after the rezoning, the waterfront vision is taking shape, with 459 affordable units that have begun or are about to begin construction, according to HPD. L & M Equities has already started work on the first phase of its development, Palmer's Dock, which will bring 294 units, with more than a third of them affordable. The other community benefit of the rezoning is the creation of 44.1 acres of esplanades and parkland. Among the amenities will be boat launches and stone edges that slope into the water, allowing closer access to the East River. Though each waterfront developer will build their own section, the Parks Department said it's working with the developers to a make a seamless, interconnected esplanade. "We want to ensure that it not just be a daisy chain of unrelated esplanades," said assistant Parks Commissioner Laird. Further incentives make it favorable for developers to deed over the esplanade in exchange for the city taking on liability. The city will also collect fees from developers that will pay for the parkland's upkeep. While the city has insisted it has been updating the community on its progress, some Community Board 1 members and neighborhood groups say they've been left out of the loop about the rezoning and land being gobbled up by developers. "There should be greater input in our end," said Christopher Olechowski, the Community Board 1 liaison to the mayor's advisory board on the Brooklyn and Williamsburg rezoning. Other critics have voiced concern about the indefinite timeline for the creation of esplanades and parks since "The esplanade won't be developed until the developments are completed," said Marisa Bowe, economic coordinator at Neighbors Allied for Good Growth, a North Brooklyn advocacy group. "That could be 20 years before it's completed." Brookyn Bridge Park: After more than 20 years of debating what to do with 1.3 miles of unused piers and empty land between Jay Street and Atlantic Avenue, the city and state agreed in 2002 to give $150 million to help create a scenic park that cuts under Brooklyn Heights' bluff, through the Brooklyn Bridge and ends at the Manhattan Bridge. But the final product, which includes a marina and a bike path, hasn't settled well with some of the residents in the borough's toniest section or its surrounding neighborhoods. While the Brooklyn Bridge Park will have 77 acres of parkland, eight acres will be set aside to develop as much as 1,210 luxury condo units, a hotel and other retail space. Brooklyn residents had expected a portion of the park's upkeep to be paid for with private development, but some had expected it to be in keeping with a 2000 planning document that limited commercial space to restaurants and retail stores. "This is the first time in the history of the state that private housing has been allowed inside the park borders," said Judy Francis, president of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Defense Fund, which is currently appealing a judicial ruling that upheld the project. She said the earlier park plan provided for a skating rink, a pool and other amenities that have been scrubbed. She added that the 2000 plan would have had an annual operating cost of just over $9 million. Those costs would have been covered by a mixture of philanthropy and small commercial space, she said. But the Brooklyn Bridge Development Corp., the state agency in charge of executing the plan, said costs would run higher. The state has pledged $85 million and the city $65 million to build the park, but annual maintenance and operation costs will be $15.19 million. "The uses included in that 2000 Plan could not have covered the annual maintenance and operations of the Park," said agency spokesman Errol Cockfield. He added that out of all the self-sustaining park plans that BBDC examined, a mix of housing and a a small hotel was the most cost-effective. "Housing occupies the smallest amount of land while generating the highest return," he said. Domino Sugar Factory: The Greenpoint-Williamsburg may have been a sweet deal for housing along the waterfront, but it does have its sticking points, including the preservation of a historic building in the neighborhood. Built in 1884 and shuttered in 2004, the Domino Sugar factory remains an icon in Williamsburg for its illuminated curlicue sign. But because of its historical significance, the building has spawned a housing battle as its current owner, CPC Resources, determines how to turn the former factory into a residential development. While some advocates want CPC Resources to build the maximum amount of affordable housing, others want the developer to preserve the factory as much as possible. "We're trying to develop something that's responsible in terms of affordable housing and in terms of preservation," said Richard Edmonds, a spokesman for the CPC Resources, a subsidiary of Community Preservation Corp., an affordable housing developer. Edmonds said the developer will unveil its plans in the coming weeks. However, he did say that more than 20% of the development's units will be affordable housing. |
I'm extremely impressed with NYC being able to conserve and create public access to the waterfront - it goes a long way in quality of life for residents, especially when you consider how expensive that piece of land is.
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Creating public access to the waterfront is one of the most important liveability issues in New York right now, as far as I'm concerned.
All of these visionary plans are great news |
The many waterfronts have always been the city's greatest asset, so it's good to finally see it being turned over to the public with such great projects.
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I have seen no movement of Brooklyn Bridge Park. What's the deal? Is there a groundbreaking thats still to come?
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http://www.brooklynpaper.com/section...n_bridge_park/ |
http://www.nysun.com/article/55880
Six Architects To Compete For East River Esplanade Design Rights By ANNIE KARNI June 5, 2007 As the city mulls an expansion of the United Nations campus onto city park space and the state moves forward with plans to rebuild the Midtown segment of the FDR Drive next door, elected officials and community members are seizing the opportunity to open up access to the East River with a new waterfront esplanade. Six prominent landscape architects, including the architect of the High Line, the architect of the Museum of Modern Art roof garden, and the architect of the Brooklyn Bridge Park, will participate in a design competition on Friday to create a sweeping vision for a waterfront park that would stretch to 63rd Street from 34th Street along the East River. The proposed 35-story U.N. office tower would be built on the current site of the 1.3-acre Robert Moses Playground. The loss of parkland would require the creation of more open space nearby, and officials have said a new waterfront esplanade would be an appropriate trade. A new tower would require approval by the state Legislature, and the esplanade would require approval from the developer of the former Consolidated Edison power plant site just south of the United Nations, Sheldon Solow, who owns the land. Officials from the state's Department of Transportation and from the city's parks department, as well as representatives from Mr. Solow's office, are expected to meet on Friday for a briefing on the proposed waterfront esplanade. The 12-hour design competition is being sponsored by elected officials who represent the Upper East Side, including Assemblymen Jonathan Bing and Brian Kavanagh, state Senators Liz Krueger and Thomas Duane, and numerous civic groups. The winning design is expected to be unveiled to the public on Sunday and would serve as a makeshift blueprint for future construction. State support for the city's plan to expand the U.N. campus has been hard to come by. "I don't believe the Senate's there," a state senator of Brooklyn, Martin Golden, said in an interview. "One would have thought the city would have moved on at this point. The U.N. doesn't curry favor with us. They are a useless group that is at best anti-American." |
How important/active are the ports that Brooklyn Bridge Park would replace?
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Which 6 architects are going to compete??? I know that the high line is being done by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, but which are the other ones?
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http://www.nysun.com/article/56250
Plan Envisions Park Along East River By ANNIE KARNI June 11, 2007 East Side residents could soon enjoy close to 30 blocks of new park space along the East River, under a new plan unveiled yesterday by the Municipal Art Society. While the United Nations seeks to expand its campus into what is now a local park and the state rebuilds the Midtown segment of the FDR Drive next door, community members and their elected officials are using the opportunity to lobby for park space in their dense neighborhood. The park would stretch between 34th and 63rd streets, on the site of the abandoned Consolidated Edison waterside plant. The plan unveiled yesterday includes an elevated urban terrace over the FDR Drive, a wooded hill that would offer a new vista of the river, a ferry terminal, modern commercial development space, and waterfront access. The blueprint provides the first unified vision for development of the area and was created by six architects in a 12-hour closed-door brainstorming session organized by the Municipal Art Society and Council Member Daniel Garodnick, who represents the district where the park would lie. "It's not a substitute for a planning process, but it's a way to show people some really exciting ideas," a staff member of the Municipal Art Society, Jasper Goldman, said of the speedy design session. The plan would need approval from the developer and owner of the Con Edison site, Sheldon Solow, to move forward. The landscape architects — including a designer of the High Line, Ricardo Scofidio, the designer of the Museum of Modern Art roof garden, Ken Smith, and an architect of the planned Brooklyn Bridge Park, Matthew Urbanski — worked together to create the first coordinated vision for a park that could make up for the loss of Robert Moses Playground, a 1.3-acre space on which the United Nations is seeking to erect a new office tower, with the city's support. While strong opposition in the Legislature is likely to hold up the expansion of the U.N. campus, officials said the new esplanade project could move forward independently. Construction on the former Con Edison site could begin within months, according to officials from the Municipal Art Society. |
^ You didn't include the eye-porn:
http://www.amny.com/media/photo/2007-06/30426042.jpg Current East River look. http://www.amny.com/media/photo/2007-06/30426025.jpg Rendering of possible East River plans. http://www.curbed.com/2007_06_eastriver1.jpg As a "vision" exercise, they lacked no expense. Why tease people when the expense of this vision is beyond practicality and couldn't be built near any reasonable cost? Already estimated at a couple hundred millions of dollars, the costs of this dream will only escalate. Richard Rodgers should be invited to submit his recommendations, since he is designing the East River esplanade to the south, as well as some of the waterfront in LIC as part of his Silvercup towers. (This vision is a red herring in vain hopes of killing Solow's Con Ed development.) |
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The park above is a bit reminiscent of the $85 million sculpture park in Seattle, opened recently that bridges Belltown over an active railway and highway to the waterfront... the real-estate along the riverfront that will be developed for this (East River access) will likely be worth FAR more money than the park will cost, so just do a little TIF funding, and boom! You're done. Either that or get a few private donors like Seattle did. |
^ Your comments are greatly appreciated, but you miss the point. The "park" is proposed for land already owned and cleared by the developer Solow. If the park proceeds according to plan, Solow pays for it and doesn't have the land to develop, land that is already zoned for tall buildings. The situation is very different from Seattle, where that fabulous park greatly increased nearby property values. This is Solow's property, not public property except for the ventilation tower for the Midtown Tunnel and the very small asphalt parcel known lovingly as Robert Moses Park. By the way, your home might make a lovely park. You should tear it down and build something nice for your community.
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The renderings are from a different article. The city may be leaning towards building the waterfront esplanade, though it may be in a different form than what is shown here. As far as Solow goes, his plan has already been altered to give the NIMBYs more space on site. |
http://www.nysun.com/article/57360
Floating Public Pool To Open on East River http://www.nysun.com/pics/57360_main_large.jpg The Floating Pool under construction at a Brooklyn pier near Brooklyn Heights. By ERIN DURKIN June 27, 2007 Starting next week, New Yorkers looking to escape the heat will have a new option — a pool floating on the East River. The Floating Pool at Brooklyn Bridge Park Beach will open July 4 on a barge moored between Piers 4 and 5 on the Brooklyn waterfront. It will be open to the public, free of charge, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., seven days a week through Labor Day. A free shuttle bus will carry swimmers from surrounding neighborhoods. The 25-meter, seven-lane pool can fit 174 people. On the barge's steel decks is a spray pool for children. Translucent murals depict the history of marine life on the New York waterfront. The pool is docked at a 43,000-square-foot "beach," a parking lot transformed by sand brought in from Red Hook. " Brooklyn's trying to give Paris a run for its money," the president of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy, Marianna Koval, said, referring to similar pools on the Seine. "To take a swimming lesson in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty, it's pretty incredible," she said, noting that the pool's opening would mark the first time in 200 years that residents could access the previously industrial area for recreation. The floating pool is the brainchild of Ann Buttenwieser, an urban planner who described herself as "a big proponent of opening the waterfront for recreation." "When I started this," some 20 years ago, Ms. Buttenwieser said, "there was nothing on the waterfront. We didn't have Hudson River Park. We didn't have Brooklyn Bridge Park." The Neptune Foundation, a nonprofit organization Ms. Buttenwieser founded to pursue the project, bought a decommissioned cargo barge in Louisiana in 2004. Construction on the Floating Pool was delayed for five months by Hurricane Katrina, but it was ready for its 10-day voyage to New York by October 2006. After hitting a storm off Cape Hatteras, N.C., Ms. Buttenwieser said, "the pool arrived with a lot of water in it." For the past seven months, it has been anchored at nearby Pier 2 as finishing touches were added. "It's unique. It's something new. There is just something wonderful about being in the water in the water," Ms. Buttenwieser said. Though the pool will be a novelty to today's swimmers, it is not unique in the city's history. According to Ms. Buttenwieser's research, at the turn of the 20th century there were 15 riverside pools. People often stood in line for hours for a chance at 20 minutes in the packed pools, which had separate days for men — who generally swam nude — and women, she said. But unlike today's Floating Pool, which has filtered water, they were filled with river water and gradually abandoned after it became clear they were contaminated with sewage. " Manhattan Island is surrounded by water, and yet people can't swim in it," the CEO of American Leisure, which will manage the pool, Steve Kass, said. The pool is offering the next best thing, he said, and will host activities ranging from swimming lessons to beach volleyball games. After spending this summer in Brooklyn, the pool is expected to be moored at communities around the city in the future, perhaps visiting the South Bronx for 2008. |
awesome. now if they towed the pool around Manhattan, it would be the coolest thing in the world
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http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories...atingpool.html
Everybody in the barge By Dana Rubinstein June 30 – July 7, 2007 http://www.brooklynpaper.com/assets/...tingpool_z.jpg The floating pool — with faux beach — along the Brooklyn Heights waterfront. The floating pool will finally open for swimming, soaking, and general relief-seeking on July 4, sources told The Brooklyn Paper. The barge-borne pool is the dream of Ann Buttenwieser, the urban planner who concocted the idea for the so-called “Floating Pool Lady” nearly three decades ago and raised funding for it through her Neptune Foundation. That barge is now anchored at the foot of Joralemon Street, a mere eight blocks from Borough Hall. The splashy news was as welcome as a sprinkler on a steamy summer day. “We’ve been looking forward to it,” said Judy Stanton, executive director of the Brooklyn Heights Association. “We hope that people enjoy it, and that it doesn’t become a noise issue.” On the shoreline will be one-acre, man-made beach, where visitors will be able to rent umbrellas, chairs, and munch on Schnack hot dogs. The pool will be able to hold 174 swimmers at a time, with another 226 on the platform. If all goes swimmingly, the pool will be open every day from Independence Day through Labor Day, from 11 am to 7 pm. And like all city pools, admission is free. ©2007 The Brooklyn Paper |
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/30/ny...on&oref=slogin
Brooklyn, Your New Floating Swimming Pool Is Almost Ready Now http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/...on/pool600.jpg Jonathan Kirschenfeld, the architect of the pool in a barge, was helping with construction details on Thursday. Public opening is set for next week. By ETHAN WILENSKY-LANFORD June 30, 2007 The barge was a buzz of activity. Crews were halfway done with a half-dozen projects. Siding was being put on locker rooms. A checkerboard of paving tiles was being laid out on the deck. Metal panels still had to be hung from the railings. In the center of it all, a large aquamarine pool glimmered, tantalizing everybody on board. “I want to jump in that pool right now,” said Tommy Farrell, 39, a construction worker from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, whose face was red and sweaty in Thursday’s midmorning heat. He won’t have to wait much longer. On Wednesday, Independence Day, if all goes well, a dream born over a quarter century ago, a floating pool built on a barge, will finally be ready for bathers and bobbing off the Brooklyn waterfront in Brooklyn Heights. Eventually, the site will be part of Brooklyn Bridge Park. The pool is 25 meters long, or just over 82 feet, is 4 feet deep and has 7 lanes. Admission will be limited to 175 and will be free. The Floating Pool Lady, as it is called, has not been easy or cheap to put together. The idea for the barge was conceived in the early 1980s by Ann L. Buttenwieser, a former parks department official, who was attracted to the notion of floating pools by studying the history of New York. She found that there were once dozens of bathhouses on the water, used more for sanitation than for recreation. Ms. Buttenwieser started a nonprofit group, the Neptune Foundation, to finance her pool project. So far, it has spent $4 million in donations and Ms. Buttenwieser has spent $1 million in borrowed money to pay for the pool. Ms. Buttenwieser said that when she approached the parks commissioner, Henry Stern, in 1999 or 2000, he told her he was interested in helping her but could not afford the pool’s upkeep. The city did give her an old garbage barge, but it sank. The mayor of Hoboken, N.J., said his city wanted a pool, but he left office. So Ms. Buttenwieser and her team looked south, and in 2004 bought a decommissioned cargo barge in Louisiana called the New Orleans. In a bit of good luck, Hurricane Katrina did not damage the 85-by-300-foot vessel, but it did delay the first stages of conversion. The barge with its pool-shaped hole arrived in Brooklyn last fall, where governmental hurdles were added to the remaining construction challenges and even threatened to sink the project. A big question, Ms. Buttenwieser said, was whether the barge was a building or a ship. “There are multiple layers of jurisdiction here, because nobody knows what it is,” she said. “Is it a structure, or is it a vessel? Does the Coast Guard need to be involved?” Ms. Buttenwieser said it took seven licenses and agreements to get the project approved. And yes, the Floating Pool Lady may be the first swimming pool that required a sign-off from the Coast Guard. Once the barge was docked off Brooklyn Heights, a new round of work began. The earlier work done in Louisiana was rough shipbuilding; now that had to be made to work with precision blueprints for the pool. “When you take something built in a shipyard and you add an architect on top of that,” said Steven Spivak, a construction supervisor, “what you get is a rigid world landing on a slightly irregular world.” He and the pool’s architect, Jonathan Kirschenfeld, had just discovered one problem: 400 short aluminum cylinders, needed to install metal panels evenly around the edge of the barge, were a fraction of an inch too long. That was one reason why getting the Floating Pool Lady ready for its debut was going to be a close call. Despite the remaining hard work, some of the few people who have seen the pool up close are enthusiastic about the project. One of the construction workers, Alfred G. Baker, from Canarsie, Brooklyn, was thrilled that he could take his three children on a New York outing that would not cost him anything. “Even my little daughter’s going to be excited about it,” he said. “When it’s time to go, she’s going to say, ‘Oh, Daddy, no! Can I spend a little more time?’ “ A shuttle will be available to take people to the pool, with stops at Cadman Plaza and Borough Hall and in Brooklyn Heights. And shiny gangways will reach from shore to barge. There are locker rooms. The pathways to the pool from the locker rooms pass large translucent seascape murals. Next comes a spray-pad, where children can get wet without swimming, and a sitting area for adults. Lifeguards will watch over the swimmers, and in the background is the Manhattan skyline, a view all can behold. |
curbed.com (via mcbrooklyn.blogspot.com)
http://www.curbed.com/2007_07_bargepool.jpg gothamist.com Floating Pool Update: Tilted Barge, Pool Closed For Now http://gothamist.com/attachments/jen...floatpool1.JPG July 5, 2007 The Floating Pool opened at Brooklyn Bridge Park yesterday to visitors (a "decent sized" crowd showed up) . However, there are some lingering issues, thanks to yesterday's rainy weather. Reader Drew went to visit the pool today and wrote to us: Unfortunately, after being open only one day to the public, it was closed. The director, a very nice woman, explained that the rain from yesterday flooded some of the ballast tanks and tilted the entire barge. So basically one end of the pool had 2 feet of water, and the other end was overflowing. They did let some of the public on the barge to check it out and take some pictures, but the pool is closed all day while engineers attempt to fix the problem. We'll see if this gets resolved by tomorrow. He also included this photograph - you can see the tilt if you look at the level of the pool in the photograph. If they can put a man on the moon, then we're sure engineers can fix the problem. |
double
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http://archrecord.construction.com/n.../070709fdr.asp
Is Kahn’s FDR Memorial Back on Track? http://archrecord.construction.com/n...070709fdr1.jpg Shortly before his death, Louis I. Kahn designed a memorial to Franklin D. Roosevelt that occupies 2.8 acres at the southern tip of Roosevelt Island in New York City’s East River. Work on the project began during the 1980s but was halted by budget problems. Rendering by Christopher Shelley, photo by Amiaga, courtesy the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute http://archrecord.construction.com/n...070709fdr2.jpg The FDR Memorial will culminate in a granite-walled room that will feature views of the United Nations—an organization the president helped create. The site has already been graded and shaped; it only requires the granite blocks to be laid. Photo: © James Murdock http://archrecord.construction.com/n...070709fdr3.jpg Kahn’s 1973 sketch of the memorial. Rendering: © University of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission / Louis I. Kahn Collection July 9, 2007 by James Murdock It doesn’t take much to envision what Louis I. Kahn’s memorial to Franklin D. Roosevelt will look like if it is eventually finished. It occupies a triangular, 2.8-acre site at the southern tip of Roosevelt Island in New York City’s East River. Construction crews have already shaped the earth into the exact dimensions and contours that Kahn specified in 1973: a raised lawn, to be flanked by two groves of trees and granite steps, that gently slopes down and culminates in an open-air, granite-walled room overlooking the United Nations. These walls will bear quotes from the president’s powerful Four Freedoms speech. “Most of the memorial is already there,” says Gina Pollara, executive director of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial—Four Freedoms Park project of the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute (FERI). “We only need to plant the trees and lay the granite blocks.” Easy as that sounds, there is still the challenging matter of finding money to make it happen—something that FERI has struggled with since proposing a memorial in the 1960s. But the project just received a big boost. In June, it earned a letter of support from New York’s new governor, Eliot Spitzer. FERI also received an anonymous $2.5 million donation, helping jump-start fund-raising efforts on a $40 million capital campaign. These developments are the first in a dozen years. Although Mitchell/Giurgola Architects prepared construction documents following Kahn’s death in 1974, the state and city’s legendary budget crisis sidelined the project. Construction finally began during the 1980s—until money problems, coupled with a change of governors, once again stalled it. Great monuments often take years to complete, but Pollara is now feeling pressure from a competing scheme pegged for the same site. The Roosevelt Memorial occupies an overgrown area known as Southpoint, which also includes the ruined Smallpox Hospital, designed by James Renwick in 1854. It is the last substantial open space on the island—neé Blackwell’s Island, then Welfare Island—which the state has redeveloped according to Philip Johnson and John Burgee’s 1969 master plan. At the request of then-governor George Pataki, the Trust for Public Land began reenvisioning Southpoint in 2003. It engaged Mark K. Morrison Associates, which, with input from island residents, created a plan titled “Wild Gardens/ Green Rooms.” It calls for stabilizing the Renwick ruins and maintaining Southpoint’s feral quality with pocket-sized forests and lawns. Absent is a Roosevelt memorial. A team led by WRT Planning & Design is now preparing construction documents for the scheme’s $10 million first phase, which encompasses roughly 8 acres from the Renwick ruins north. Andy Stone, director of the trust’s New York program, expects to break ground by summer 2008. He says that decisions regarding the remaining portion of Southpoint will depend on fund-raising—and the Roosevelt Memorial’s fate. Although Pollara is energized by her recent successes, this optimism is tempered with pragmatism. Relying purely on state support again would be a mistake, she says. But if FERI is unable to raise a substantial chunk of money from private sources within a year, the memorial will likely remain unbuilt—which Pollara says would be a shame. “Roosevelt Island was renamed because the memorial was going to be put there. Many people today don’t even know who Roosevelt was, but his definitions of freedom are more important than ever.” |
Never having been to Roosevelt Island beyond the tramway's terminal, don't know what the south tip looks like. But the FDR-memorial looks elegant and like a nice placer to be. Having it instead be fake wilderness... no.
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the southern tip has been closed off to everyone but the ballsiest of trespassers for a couple years now. you cant get to the ruins either
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http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories...atingpool.html
Pool with a view http://www.brooklynpaper.com/assets/...tingpool_z.jpg July 21, 2007 The Floating Pool Lady barge at the foot of Joralemon Street in Brooklyn Heights is welcoming Brooklynites like Amanda, Rob and Matthew Rowan, to its cool water and skyline view.But the 174-person-capacity pool’s sojourn off the Brooklyn coast is fleeting. After Labor Day, the pool will close; next summer, it may open in the South Bronx, which sought the pool this summer, but lost out to operators of the Brooklyn Bridge Park waterfront development. The state-run project is under pressure to demonstrate that it will be a park first and a luxury condo neighborhood second. |
FDR Memorial
There's a cheesy movie with Michael J. Fox called For Love or Money where he wants to renovate one of the old hospital buildings at the tip of the island into a lux hotel. That was 1993 and nothing has happened to the actual site since a fictitious scenario 15 years ago.
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View of Manhattan from Roosevelt Island...
http://www.roosevelt-island.ny.us/im...slandview2.jpg roosevelt-island.ny.us The tram ride over only seems to take about a half a minute, though some people got stuck up there for hours during an incident last year... http://gothamist.com/attachments/jak...sevelttram.jpg gothamist.com http://weblogs.nrc.nl/weblog/newyork...6/dec/tram.jpg http://polisnyc.files.wordpress.com/...velt-tram.JPG? polisnyc.wordpress.com |
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/26/re...te&oref=slogin
Counting on a River to Entice http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/...00-posting.jpg The Edge, a development in Williamsburg. By C. J. HUGHES August 26, 2007 THE East River is still polluted, from sewage runoff and a long-ago oil spill, according to the city’s Department of Environmental Protection, so it is probably not quite fit yet for doing the backstroke. But that hasn’t altered its role as a selling point for developments springing up along its banks in Brooklyn and Queens, where a recent rezoning has allowed housing to take the place of warehouses. How popular are developers expecting the waterfront to become? Well, the sheer size of some projects provides an indication. Take the Edge, a mixed-use development going up in the Northside neighborhood of Williamsburg. It is to span more than two full city blocks, or seven acres, between North Fifth and North Seventh Streets, from Kent Avenue to the river. Plans call for 1,432 units, with 1,085 condos and 347 rental apartments, spread among five buildings from 8 to 30 stories high, said Jeffrey E. Levine, the chairman of Queens-based Douglaston Development, the developer. Other partners in the $1.2 billion project include UBS, the investment bank, and Louis Silverman, the former owner of the site, which used to house a trucking business. A would-be city-in-miniature, the Edge will be crisscrossed by streets lined with 60,000 square feet of retail space. Residents will have access to 34,000 square feet of parks; 27,000 square feet of indoor recreation space, including a spa and a video-game room; and two garages, for 550 cars. But under the terms of the new zoning, the Edge, like neighboring developments, must also provide parkland for nonresidents, and so 21,000 square feet of the property, mostly on two piers, will be open to the public, Mr. Levine said. The state attorney general has not yet approved the Edge’s offering plan, but Mr. Levine said prices had already been determined. The smallest studios, about 600 square feet, will cost $600,000, and the largest two-bedrooms, with about 1,075 square feet of space, will run about $1.08 million, he said. Finishes throughout include oak floors, quartz kitchen counters and Miele appliances. In addition, the city’s 421a tax-abatement law requires 20 percent of the units to be priced for people with lower incomes, so the rental apartments, one- and two-bedrooms, will cost $800 to $1,200 a month, Mr. Levine said, adding that the first round of closings is set for the summer of 2009. Housing directly on the water “is desirable in other cities like Chicago or Paris,” he said. “There’s no reason it can’t be here.” Reconnecting people with the East River, especially in a park-starved area, is a noble undertaking, said Roland Lewis, the president of the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance, which advocates for greater waterfront access. But, he said, “you have to be careful about what’s promised and what’s delivered.” Many of Manhattan’s vest-pocket parks, which were often created by builders in exchange for greater development rights, are often poorly maintained or locked, Mr. Lewis said. “It’s one thing to cheat the public out of a pocket park,” he said, “but it’s another to cheat them out of access to a river.” |
Thought this was funny. Posted on curbed.com
Introducing the Roosevelt Island Tower of Death http://curbed.com/2007_08_deathtower.jpg We have absolutely no idea where the hell this YouTube video came from, but it might be the finest architectural vision for New York City, and Roosevelt Island in particular, we've ever seen. You must watch it immediately, and this must be built. Make it so. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkLPoUoGZOg |
Not the east river proper, but close enough...
http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories...aturewalk.html Nothing stinks about this nature walk http://www.brooklynpaper.com/assets/...ntnature_z.jpg A mother and daughter enjoy the new Newtown Creek Nature Walkway at its formal opening on Saturday. By Sarah Rivette October 6, 2007 Turns out, that new “nature walk” along side the Newtown Creek sewage treatment plant on Provost Street doesn’t smell like the Port Authority men’s room. The much-mocked walkway, which is the only park space in the northern part of Greenpoint, opened to raves from the residents last weekend, and, most important, didn’t smell as bad as they thought it would. “It’s better now than the old days,” said Ed Arlowski, who was sent by his congregation, the Church of the Ascension on Kent Avenue, to report back on the walkway. Arlowski, who has lived in Greenpoint on and off for the past 30 years, found the area “gorgeous” and commended those involved for “doing a great job on the waterfront.” The nature walk runs along the shoreline of the Newtown Creek and, indeed, borders the wastewater plant. Where Paidge Avenue ends, the futuristic stainless steel railings usher pedestrians up stairs that lead down a path guarded on the right side by a 20-foot wall separating the path from the plant. To the left is a small field of large metal containers, scrap metal and varying construction equipment that lay between the path and the creek. Once reaching the edge of the creek, there are tiered steps that go straight into the water, and the granite stairs, as well as many of the granite slab benches, are engraved with names of Indian tribes that once populated the area. The path leads to a circular area, where the centerpiece is a marble engraving of what the original tributaries of the creek looked like before being filled in for development. When it rains, the engraving fills with water and flows toward the East River, as the tributaries would naturally do. The path then extends inland, towards the plant and the infamous large egg shaped units, where there is a loading dock for kayaks and boats for access to the water, and railed areas for fishing. Helen Geist, a Greenpoint lifer, brought her children to take part in the scavenger hunt organized by the Department of Environmental Protection, which runs the site. “It’s nice to see something developed nice,” Geist said. “It’s nice to come down here and get away from it all.” The Newtown Creek Monitoring Committee worked with DEP to complete the $3.2-million walkway, which was conceived over a decade ago as a way to ensure water access and cleaning of the creek. “This will raise environmental awareness,” said Laura Hofmann, a member of NCMC. “The more people that use the waterway, the more it will improve.” This section of the walkway is the first of three phases that will eventually ring the entire sewage plant. Given that location, plenty of people joked on local blogs about the manure-smelling nature walk. But that snarkiness did little to cub the enthusiasm of NCMC Co-chair Barbara Milhelic. “[Thanks to this path] I will be able to dance from one end of Greenpoint to the other!” she said. |
http://www.therealdeal.net/breaking_...1191615528.php
City takes Williamsburg waterfront properties for park Octoboer 5, 2007 http://www.therealdeal.net//breaking...ages/12061.jpg A rendering of the planned Bushwick Inlet Park. The city has taken two Williamsburg waterfront properties by eminent domain for the planned 28-acre Bushwick Inlet Park park, officials said. The city took titles to two properties bounded by the East River, North 9th and North 10th Streets and Kent Avenue. Brooklyn judge Abraham Gerges approved the taking by eminent domain last month, said Lisa Bova-Hiatt, Department of Law deputy chief of tax and bankruptcy. Now the city must pay for the properties, one owned by 9th Street Equities and the other by 50 Kent Associates. The sales prices will influence the price tags for the other three parcels needed to complete Bushwick Inlet Park, named for the waterway that divides Greenpoint and Williamsburg. The other properties are bounded by North 15th Street, North 10th Street and Kent Avenue. A judge will determine the price the city must pay to the former owners. Mark Lively, Massey Knakal director of sales for Greenpoint and Williamsburg, said the properties' zoning allows for retail and commercial development. While they could fetch at least $200 per buildable square foot on the open market, he predicted the city would pay only around $100 per foot plus relocation expenses, based on comparable sales figures. Louis Silverman, a 9th Street Equities principal, said he wanted a fair compensation for the company's four acres. "They have taken the property from us. All we are looking for is the fair market value of the property," Silverman said. The three outstanding properties will not be acquired easily. One owner, TransGas Energy Systems, is in litigation with the city. TransGas wants to build an underground power plant there with parkland above ground. A judge has issued a stay on the city's land-taking until a state commission rules on the proposed 1,000 megawatt power plant. Another landowner, Norman Brodsky, chief executive of CitiStorage, is negotiating with the city over a price and relocation arrangement. The third property, north of the inlet, is owned by an organization called the Greenpoint Monitor Museum, which plans to build a museum dedicated to the USS Monitor on an acre of property donated by Motiva Enterprises in 2003. The famous Civil War ship was built and launched on that spot in 1862. "We are fighting it. It was donated and we are not giving it up," said Janice Lauletta-Weinmann, president and co-founder of the Greenpoint Monitor Museum. "It is a disgrace." The city wants to instead make the property part of the park and has offered to relocating the proposed museum off the waterfront and onto an undetermined street, she said. Silverman said he already sold other properties that will be part of the park to the Trust for Public Lands in 2000. Government agencies have been on a land-grabbing binge lately, said attorney Michael Rikon. Big planned takings include Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn, Willets Point in Queens and the Second Avenue subway sites in Manhattan. New Jersey Transit is seeking land for a tunnel on Manhattan's West Side. "There is a tremendous amount of eminent domain going on throughout the city of New York," said Rikon, a partner at the firm of Goldstein, Goldstein, Rikon and Gottlieb. "I can't remember as many takings." By Adam Pincus |
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/06/ar...on&oref=slogin
Artwork, Assembled at the Last Minute, Explores the Long Ago http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/...06tent-600.jpg Thom Sokoloski’s installation artwork, “The Encampment,” has been assembled on the southern tip of Roosevelt Island. By MELENA RYZIK October 6, 2007 At about 7 last night, “The Encampment,” an installation of 100 19th-century-style tents by the Canadian artist Thom Sokoloski, was to open in an empty field at the southern tip of Roosevelt Island. “The Encampment” A year in the making, the tents represent the patients who once lived in the island’s smallpox hospital, the remains of which loom nearby. Inside each, volunteers would arrange artifacts to memorialize patients and other island residents. As a final touch, the tents were to be illuminated from within, so “The Encampment” would be visible from both sides of the East River, a glowing link to the area’s history. But first, it had to be finished. In the 80-degree weather of yesterday morning, a dozen volunteers showed up to help; most encountered a locked gate. Though Mr. Sokoloski spent months assembling the proper permits, security had been a constant issue: the site, part of what will become Southpoint Park, is usually closed to the public. Homeland Security officials were on high alert because of the United Nations General Assembly meeting just across the East River, and the police threatened to shut things down because of a miscommunication. By noon only a dozen tents had been set up, and few were filled. Mr. Sokoloski’s partners, Jenny-Anne McCowan, a choreographer and outreach coordinator, and John McDowell, a composer, busied themselves marshaling the volunteers. Even the construction supervisors — four Canadian military re-enactors, with extensive experience in putting up tents — were sweating. The exhibition, part of the annual Openhousenewyork weekend, was several hours behind schedule. But Mr. Sokoloski, a Toronto-based artist who seems younger than his 57 years, remained calm. A former theater director (he worked at La MaMa in the 1980s) and location scout for movies, he is adept at making big projects work, like an opera he staged in Toronto’s main train station in 1992. “It’s one thing after another, but you get used to it,” Mr. Sokoloski said. “You just keep going till the last moment, because who knows what will happen tomorrow?” “The Encampment” is the second in a series of tent-based installations Mr. Sokoloski has planned. A smaller-scale version was erected in Toronto last year for Nuit Blanche, an arts festival, and he hopes to create a larger version elsewhere in Canada next year. Each project is devoted to exposing an urban past that’s usually kept hidden: the history of mental health and addiction treatment in Toronto, the confinement and isolation of the many sanitariums that once dotted Roosevelt Island. The idea, Mr. Sokoloski said, was to create “an archaeological dig into the collective memory of a space.” To enhance that collective spirit, he enlisted about 70 “creative collaborators” — artists, students and patients from the island’s Coler-Goldwater Memorial Hospital — to research and compile art for the tents. Some people took on more than one tent. The interior objects — drawings, dioramas, mannequin heads, flowers — had to be small enough to be boxed up, though Mr. Sokoloski was not to know what they were. The volunteers had only two hours to install their work. Ronit Muszkatblit, 32, a theater director from the East Village, was inspired by the story of Ernest Otto, an asylum patient who died in 1894 after choking on rice and bread. Her installation included a human silhouette buried in rice. “I love site-specific work,” Ms. Muszkatblit said before dragging a cart laden with props to her tent. “The energy, the adrenaline, the rush of the last moment, the not sleeping and carrying everything back and forth.” Mr. Sokoloski knows all about it. On Wednesday the tents — seven-foot-long canvas A-frames — were still at the manufacturer, the Fall Creek Suttlery, of Lebanon, Ind., which usually supplies tents for military re-enactments, because Mr. Sokoloski didn’t have the money to pay for shipping. By the time the funds materialized, he needed the tents shipped overnight— at a cost of about $4,000. “I said, ‘I can’t pay that much,’” Mr. Sokoloski recalled. (“The Encampment” cost about $150,000, financed mostly by him, Ms. McCowan and donations.) He asked Andy Fulks, the company’s owner, for a cheaper alternative. Mr. Fulks came up with one: a guy named Wayne. So Wayne, a local resident, packed the 100 tents into his pickup and drove straight through from Indiana to New York, delivering the tents at 2:30 on Thursday afternoon. Then he turned and drove home. The construction cavalry — Canadian re-enactors who specialize in the War of 1812 — arrived early Friday morning, hauling a trailer filled with 100 pounds of 10-inch nails and 300 beams to erect the tents. But the beams were the wrong size. So hours before opening, volunteers had to cut them to fit, using the trailer’s fender as a sawhorse. Mr. Sokoloski savored the momentum. “I find there’s a kind of excitement when you do it this way,” he said of his last-minute art. “It’s not a Cartesian way to achieve results. But there’s this other level of energy, of spontaneity.” In the end they were able to erect only 90 of the tents on Friday. (Ten more will follow today.) But the lights went on just after 7. http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/200...HOW_index.html http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/...tentslide2.jpg Early Friday morning, the construction cavalry arrived with 100 pounds of five-inch nails and 300 beams, to help erect the tents. http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/...tentslide1.jpg A view of the tents being constructed. The idea, Mr. Sokoloski said, was to create “an archeological dig into the collective memory of a space.” http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/...tentsnight.jpg The are tents illuminated from within. |
http://tribecatrib.com/news/newsnov0...aterfront.html
CB1 Sees Latest Waterfront Concept http://tribecatrib.com/photos/news/n...rEsplanade.jpg http://tribecatrib.com/photos/news/n...ion%20copy.gif http://tribecatrib.com/photos/news/n...RiverPier1.jpg http://tribecatrib.com/photos/news/n...ion%20copy.gif By Nick Pinto POSTED NOVEMBER 2, 2007 Architects for the city revealed their most detailed plans yet for remaking virtually every aspect of the East River Waterfront. Gregg Pasquarelli, a partner in SHoP Architects, presented to Community Board 1 the firm’s latest visual concepts for a lively promenade, a new Pier 15 dedicated to recreation and easy access to the waterfront. The plan eliminates one of the major obstacles to pedestrians trying to reach the waterfront. South Street, running beneath the FDR Drive, is nearly twice as wide in some places as the standard New York City street and lacks curbs, well-delineated bike lanes, or sidewalks in many areas. The street would be narrowed, with more crosswalks, freeing up space for the esplanade, which will include planted areas, several kinds of seating, and at least 20 feet of uninterrupted pedestrian walkway at the water’s edge. For much of Lower Manhattan’s East River waterfront—the stretch between Pier 11, near Wall Street, and the Brooklyn Bridge—pedestrians will take a path over the river, on a 58-foot-wide walkway that hangs above the water. “This is going to be a destination in its own right,” Pasquarelli said. Interspersed along the esplanade would be a series of glassed-in pavilions under the highway with garage-style doors that pull up to form an awning at their front entrances, perhaps equipped with acoustic baffles to shield visitors from the noise of the FDR Drive. Ranging from 1,500 to 8,000 square feet, the pavilions could house a range of uses, including flower markets, cafes, daycare centers and dance studios. Unlike the current walkway, the new esplanade would be well-lit, but with soft, indirect illumination to preserve night-time river views. Some lights would be bounced off the elevated FDR, while others—possibly programmable LED arrays—would be installed in the railing at the water’s edge. Pedestrians from Battery Park trying to get to the East River waterfront now face a daunting passage in front of the Battery Maritime Building, where the FDR emerges from its tunnel and the sidewalk narrows to barely over a foot wide. The plan calls for the creation of a pedestrian plaza in front of the building, making space by moving the tunnel entrance 350 feet to the northeast. Pasquarelli conceded that this part of the project isn’t expected to get underway anytime soon, however. “It takes a lot of money and planning to move a highway tunnel,” he said. The reconstruction of the decrepit Pier 15 is a centerpiece of the waterfront plan. The new pier would rest on more widely spaced pylons—a more hospitable environment for underwater life. The architects’ vision consists of an elevated park, complete with lawns and shrubs, connected by long ramps to the lower level pier, which is slated for maritime use by the South Street Seaport Museum. Community Board members responded positively to the presentation. “This is one of the most breathtaking public works projects in the world,” said board member Bruce Ehrmann. But not everyone was pleased with the designs. More than a dozen boating enthusiasts crammed into the small meeting room to voice their displeasure at the plan, which they said offers little to boaters. “This doesn’t work from a boating point of view,” said Carolina Salguero, the director of Portside New York, an advocacy group fighting for more boating opportunities on the city’s waterfront. In particular, the boating advocates said they want Pier 15 to be a true working pier, with access for all sizes of private boats to tie up. William Kelley of the city’s Economic Development Corporation, the agency overseeing the East River Waterfront Project, noted that the South Street Seaport Museum holds the lease on the pier, so it is more likely to be used to showcase the museum’s collection of old ships. South Street Seaport Director Mary Pelzer said the new Pier 15 will celebrate the city’s maritime past. “This is a great opportunity for the museum to reprogram our fleet and let people see more of our historic ships,” she said. Advocates for an active waterfront remained unimpressed, however. Lee Gruzen, the co-chair of Seaport Speaks, a group advising planners on the area’s redevelopment, said she too was disappointed by the plan. “I was hoping to see something here that I can’t do anywhere else in New York,” Gruzen said. “Instead, this plan makes us couch potatoes.” http://tribecatrib.com/photos/news/n...RiverPier2.jpg http://tribecatrib.com/photos/news/n...ion%20copy.gif http://tribecatrib.com/photos/news/n...RiverNight.jpg http://tribecatrib.com/photos/news/n...ion%20copy.gif |
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/...msburg_wa.html
If bill passes, Greenpoint-Williamsburg waterfront park will come BY RACHEL MONAHAN November 29th 2007 A planned 28-acre park on the Greenpoint-Williamsburg waterfront will finally be built if a state Assembly bill to be introduced Thursday is passed. Eight acres of the planned Bushwick Inlet Park is owned by the company TransGas Energy, which has repeatedly revamped plans for a power plant, in part to evade city plans to seize the property, critics charge. Assemblyman Joe Lentol (D-Greenpoint) is slated to introduce legislation Thursday to put an end to the long delays by having the state seize the property through eminent domain. "This is an appropriate use of eminent domain. We're not taking people's houses. We're not trying to aid a private developer," Lentol said. "TransGas has been very clever in trying to put off what has been recommended long ago." The park was included as part of the 2005 rezoning of Greenpoint and Williamsburg, and the city attempted to seize the property. Two years ago, a judge forced the city to wait for a ruling from the obscure state Board on Electric Generation Siting and the Environment. Public officials and local leaders had blasted the Pataki administration as early as 2004 for not ruling on the power plant. TransGas has revised the project several times - including once to move the whole plant under ground. The board received the latest revisions to the power plant in July, said Public Service Commission spokeswoman Anne Dalton. "The pleadings and filings are under review," she said. |
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/...ming_soon.html
New waterfront park coming soon BY JOTHAM SEDERSTROM December 20th 2007, 4:00 AM Construction on what will become a sprawling 1.3-mile Brooklyn Heights waterfront park could begin as early as next month, the Daily News has learned. If approved today, the $18 million construction phase would include the demolition of the historic Purchase Building and the removal of portions of five piers, officials said. "This is the first major step in constructing this park, and we're very proud to be moving forward," said Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corp. President Regina Myer. The Purchase Building, built with federal Work Projects Administration funds in 1936, had been used as a temporary headquarters for the Office of Emergency Management following 9/11, when its Manhattan office was destroyed. Supporters of the $150 million park plan believe the landmarked building would bisect the park, interrupting its continuity and blocking views of the river. But despite protests from preservationists bent on saving the Art Deco building, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted in favor of demolishing it in 2006. "It's further evidence that the [Empire State Development Corp.] cares so little about what the community thinks," said Judi Francis, president of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Defense Fund. "All parties, for and against the project, have wanted to preserve it because it's a landmark." A shed on Pier 1, meanwhile, is also expected to be demolished during the construction phase as well as the partial removal of four other sheds on piers 2, 3, 5 and 6. The piers will eventually be home to basketball and handball courts, a rolling landscape called Prospect Hill, soccer fields, playgrounds and a promenade, Myer said. "I'm happy that the process is moving forward, but I hope there is a comprehensive plan for financing the park," said Roy Sloane, a critic of the project, which he believes has grown in cost. The nine-month construction phase had been slated to begin last April, but complications including the reevaluation of the project by Gov. Spitzer, forced its delay. Portions of the project will be open to parkgoers by 2009, said Myer, shrugging off concerns by critics who believe construction delays will continue. |
How many nimbies have complained so far and said that they like their rat-infested under-highway parking lots the way they are?
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Coverage from the Brooklyn Paper |
http://tribecatrib.com/news/newsjan08/BMB.html
They Try a Different Top on Landmark http://tribecatrib.com/photos/news/jan08/BMBBefore.jpg__http://tribecatrib.com/photos/news/jan08/BMBAfter.jpg http://tribecatrib.com/photos/news/j.../BMBBefore.gif__http://tribecatrib.com/photos/news/j...s/BMBAfter.gif By Nick Pinto JANUARY 1, 2008 [cjolor=blue]Developers proposing to top the landmark Battery Maritime Building, next to the Staten Island Ferry terminal, with a dramatic glass addition, returned to Community Board 1’s Landmarks Committee last month with a number of concessions in their design. But it wasn’t enough to please the committee, who declared the addition, a four-story glass-enclosed hotel atop the historic 1909 ferry terminal, still too big and obtrusive.[/color] The Economic Development Corporation, which owns and restored the building, gave the Dermot Company a 99-year lease in June. Dermot’s plans call for continuing ferry service to Governors Island from the building’s ground floor while turning the 9,000-square foot great hall on the second floor into a public space available for private events in the evening. The controversial element in Dermot’s plan, designed by Rogers Marvel Architects, is the construction of a 146-room hotel and rooftop restaurant, housed in a four-story glass cap on top of the existing building, nearly doubling the landmark’s height. Rooms are expected to cost up to $500 per night. It was Dermot’s second presentation to the committee, and board members found much improvement to the land side of the building: a more understated entrance; a window proposed for the building’s west side that is broken up into smaller, less jarring sections; a segmented southern façade (rather than the monolithic one first proposed) that reflects the architectural divisions of the original building. Dermot partner Steve Benjamin argued that the addition of a three-and-a-half foot railing between the original building and the addition extends the profile of the original building, further diminishing the visual impact of the addition. “There’s no question that this is a much better proposal,” said committee co-chair Bruce Ehrmann. “Many of the issues I had have been resolved. I just don’t understand why the addition is still so high.” Benjamin told the committee the addition, which was brought down three-and-a-half feet from the one first proposed, can’t be made much smaller. “We squeezed the penthouse as much as we could,” he said. “The hotel rooms are already smaller than standard. To make this project make financial sense, this is what we have to do.” However, Benjamin’s argument didn’t satisfy the committee. “If the developer is saying they need the addition to be so big to satisfy the financial side, that’s their problem,” said committee member Marc Ameruso. “Why should a historic landmark building have to suffer for a developer’s bottom line?” The committee asked Benjamin to consider their comments and return with further revisions before taking the proposal to the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Benjamin agreed, but warned the committee that what they see now is very close to what they will get. “We’ve tweaked this about as much as we think is possible,” Benjamin said. “We’re happy to come back and talk to you again, but it’s not going to look significantly different.” When Dermot first took its proposal to the Landmarks Preservation Commission in October, commissioners shared many of the Community Board’s concerns. The developer is expected to return to the commission in January, before the full Community Board makes its recommendation on the plan. http://tribecatrib.com/photos/news/j...MBHotelBar.jpg http://tribecatrib.com/photos/news/j...MBHotelBar.gif http://tribecatrib.com/photos/news/jan08/BMBFront.jpg http://tribecatrib.com/photos/news/j...ardCaption.gif |
http://www.nysun.com/article/69413
Waterfalls as Art To Be Installed in East River http://www.nysun.com/pics/69413_main_large.jpg Images of a planned waterfalls art installation have not yet been released; above, a waterfall and a view of the East River. By KATE TAYLOR January 14, 2008 As if it didn't already have enough, the East River seems to attract water: Last summer, its big draw was a floating swimming pool; this summer, it will be waterfalls — created by an artist. Olafur Eliasson, a Danish–Icelandic artist whose installation "The Weather Project" drew 2 million people to the Tate Modern in 2003 and 2004, has designed what will likely be the city's biggest public art project since Christo and Jeanne-Claude's "The Gates": a series of freestanding waterfalls in the East River. Mayor Bloomberg and the Public Art Fund, a private nonprofit organization that produced, among other works, Anish Kapoor's "Sky Mirror" and Jeff Koons's "Puppy," both at Rockefeller Center, are scheduled to announce Mr. Eliasson's project at the South Street Seaport tomorrow. According to a source whom the mayor told about the project, the waterfalls will rise about 60 to 70 feet above the water — more than half as high as the roadway of the Brooklyn Bridge. They will be visible from the area around the Seaport, from Brooklyn Heights, and from the Governors Island Ferry. Someone who was briefed on the waterfalls project last year said that, at that time, it was estimated to cost between $9 million and $11 million. The waterfalls project will coincide with a retrospective of Mr. Eliasson's work, called "Take Your Time," which will run at the Museum of Modern Art and P.S.1 between April 20 and June 30. The exhibition, currently at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, is the first major retrospective of his work in America. Mr. Eliasson is known for creating immersive environments that take their inspiration from nature and play tricks with viewers' perceptions. With "The Weather Project," Mr. Eliasson used mist, mirrors, and 200 monofilament light bulbs to create an image of a glowing sun in the Tate Modern's Turbine Hall. In a work called "Green River," in 2000, he poured nontoxic dye into a river in Stockholm, turning it green. In an early work called "Beauty" (1993), he created a rainbow in a gallery by projecting light across a fine mist of water. Born in Copenhagen to Icelandic parents, Mr. Eliasson has long been interested in waterfalls, which form an important part of the landscape of Iceland. A piece called "Reversed Waterfall" (1998), which will be included in the P.S.1 exhibition, uses a system of pumps and basins to send water jetting uphill. In 2005, he created a 20-foot outdoor waterfall as part of an exhibition at Dundee University in Scotland. Many of Mr. Eliasson's works have a subtle environmental message. "The Weather Project" was partially intended to make viewers contemplate their personal experience of weather and climate. The exhibition at SFMOMA includes a work called "Your mobile expectations: BMW H2R project," in which Mr. Eliasson removed the outer shell of a BMW hydrogen-powered race car and replaced it with a translucent surface of steel mesh, reflective steel panels, and ice. A 1999 series of photographs, called "The glacier series," documented glaciers in various stages of melting. Mr. Eliasson is one of a number of contemporary artists working on a scale that requires vast workspaces and fleets of assistants. According to a 2006 profile in the New Yorker, he has a 15,000-square-foot studio in a former train depot in East Berlin and employs about 40 people there, including mathematicians, technicians, lighting designers, and architects. The New York City Economic Development Corp. estimated that Christo and Jeanne-Claude's "The Gates," a series of some 7,500 saffron-yellow gates that were installed in Central Park for 16 days in February 2005, attracted 1.5 million out-of-town visitors and generated $254 million in economic activity for the city. The project cost more than $20 million and was financed entirely by the artists. A spokesman for the mayor declined to confirm plans for the waterfalls project |
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