Gimme Shelter: Bike Stations for Fresh Kills
The new bike maintenance shelters make room for pedestrians. The roof holds the solar panels. Courtesy NYC Parks and Recreation/James Corner Field Operations
Despite all the controversy surrounding bike lanes and cyclists elsewhere in the city, Fresh Kills South has adopted a rather pro bike stance (though who’d expect there to be much disagreement when the only other traffic to contend with is that of joggers, pedestrians, and bird watchers). New bike maintenance stations designed by James Corner Field Operations will eventually dot the landscape of the of the entire park, and their design nods equally to both the biker and the walker.
Mixed Media> SHoP Talk: Botswana Innovation Hub
The roofscape of the SHoP-designed Botswana Innovation Hub.
With over 270,000 square feet and costs projected at $50 million, the Botswana Information Hub is ambitious on many levels, both literally and figuratively. The winner of an international competition, the SHoP-designed research campus brings green technology to the Gaborone, Botswana.
The sinuous structure merges into the landscape, with various levels seeming to kinetically lift from the earth. An “energy blanket” roofscape blends solar and water re-use systems into the sweeping composition. Gregg Pasquarelli tells AN all about it.
Quick Clicks> Anti-Mies, Timber, Thunder, Head Start
An indoor/outdoor water pool fantasy for Chicago's Navy Pier. Courtesy Ian Dingman/Time Out
Mies Bashing. For all the glory of Modernist Chicago, there are still those who mourn the loss of the White City‘s Beaux Arts influence. Historian David Garrard tells WBEZ of the “sterile” Daley Center‘s ruinous effect on The Loop. One has to wonder what he’d make of Time Out Chicago’s “Fifteen Fanciful Ways to Fix Navy Pier.”
Tiiiimmmmbeeeeerrrrr! Meanwhile, at another Navy locale…Chuck Schumer is hopping mad about contorting being done by the U.S. Army to get out of repairing the 158-year-old Timber Shed at Brooklyn’s Navy Yard. The Brooklyn Paper reports that the senator is pressing army brass, which still has control over the building, to fix it or get out of the way and let the city do it.
For Sale: Beach front property, water views, lively neighborhood. WSJ reports that the land where Coney Island‘s famed Thunderbolt roller coaster scared the bejesus out of generations of New Yorkers can now be had for $75 million to $95 million.
Way Head Start. NYC Department of Buildings launched their Junior Architects and Engineers Program this week at PS31, reports NY1. (The news clip, starring fifth grade Frank Lloyd Wright fan Thomas Patras, is just too cute to pass up.)
Navarro’s Enlightened Edifices
Navarro's Armory Fence at Kasman Gallery's booth.
The Brooklyn-based Chilean artist Ivan Navarro will take to the floor at the Amory Show tonight, as well as to the walls at the Paul Kasmin Gallery on West 27th St. and 10th Ave. “The Armory Fence” installation outlines the entirety of the gallery’s booth as a humming neon riff on a conventional suburban fence. At 23 by 36 feet it cuts quite a substantial swath of real estate at the fair. At the gallery, neon wall sculptures inspired by some of the world’s most famous buildings suggest a disco take on the familiar icons, but a second glance reveals a deeper sense of gravity, with words like “surrender” or “abandon” subtly etched atop the glass.
Quick Clicks> Sprawl, Prize, Endangered, Bids
Tightening the Greenbelt. Per Square Mile explores why greenbelts fail to hold back city sprawl. Using London and San Francisco as examples, Tim De Chant writes that perimeter actually parks attract suburbs to form outside their borders.
Role of a lifetime. The AIA has awarded Portland U’s Sergio Palleroni the Latrobe Prize for his research on the role of architects in future public interest projects. A Portland Architecture interview plays well with De Chant’s article above, as Palleroni casts a critical eye on Portland’s sprawl.
Going, Going. The list of the top seven endangered buildings in Chicago was today released by Preservation Chicago. Curbed Chicago pounced on list an hour after it went online. At the very top is a relative youngin’: the 1975 Prentice Tower (by Mies student Bertrand Goldberg), whose uncertain fate AN‘s Julie Iovine covered in a recent issue.
Bids 4 Bush… Bids for yet another NYC waterfront property are begin accepted by the New York Economic Development Corporation Crain’s reports, and this one comes with a 99-year ground lease. The 130,000 square-foot property sits on Gowanus Bay at Bush Terminal in Sunset Park Brooklyn.
Red Lights and Green Lights in Central Park
Cyclist vs. pedestrians in Central Park. Photo: Tom Stoelker/ The Architect's Newspaper
Captain Philip Wishnia, commander of the Central Park Precinct, went before the CB7’s Parks and Environment Committee on Monday night to explain the rash of speeding tickets being given to bicyclists in Central Park. Wishna said that the spike in ticketing is part of a larger citywide initiative to crack down on bikers before the weather warms up. Cyclists can expect tickets for speeding, going the wrong way, riding bikes on pathways and not coming to a complete stop at red lights. The captain pointed out that in 2008 there were 60 bike accidents, but in 2010 there were 122. The ticket is a criminal court summons that can affect points on the biker’s drivers license and cost at least $270.
World Trade Update: Community Blasts Bus Plan
Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer pulled together a stellar panel of World Trade movers and shakers to update the community Wednesday night, but the crowd wasn’t impressed. Chris Ward, executive director of the the Port Authority, was joined at the podium by LMDC Chair Avi Schick, DOT Lower Manhattan Commissioner Louis Sanchez, Downtown Alliance President Elizabeth Berger, president and CEO of the memorial Joe Daniels, State Senator Dan Squadron and Congressman Jerry Nadler. Silverstein Properties’ Malcolm Williams breezed through a PowerPoint update detailing progress of the four towers at the site. Ward’s presentation showed the robust ribs of the Calatrava structure from underneath the plaza. But Sanchez’s presentation outlining plans for the accommodating tour buses took on the most scrutiny.
Pittsburgh Riverfront Revival
Corridors that once separated industry from neighborhoods could become the commercial corridor.
Last week, Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl unveiled a plan to resuscitate 2,000 acres of brownfield property alongside the Allegheny River. The report, the Allegheny Riverfront Vision Plan, follows a two-year study headed up by Perkins Eastman. Much of the planning sprung from meetings with the resident and business communities, and aims to connect neighborhoods to the river for the first time. Cities throughout the country continue to reclaim their rivers, but Pittsburgh’s situation is unique.
Quick Clicks> Apples, Trains, Fields, Banks
Grand Central to get Apple but no glass cube. flickr/Randy Le'Moine
Apple takes another bite. Once famous for its oysters, Grand Central will now be known for its Apples. Cult of Mac reports that the computer giant plans to open their biggest retail outlet yet, which will, no doubt be as busy as Grand Central Station.
High speed posturing. If you don’t want it, we’ll take it! That’s the message being sent out by Democratic governors to their Republican counterparts who are rejecting infrastructure dollars. Huff-Po’s Sam Stein notes that governors from New York, Washington, and California are lining up to take Florida Governor Rick Scott’s rejected $2 billion in federal funding for high speed rail line.
Goal! One more hurdle to go. DNA reports that Columbia’s Baker Field got the green light from the City Planning Commission to build the Steven Holl designed Campbell Sports Center. Part of the plan includes a James Corner/Field Operations-designed park and 17,000 square feet of restored marsh and shoreline.
Pool Hall Banking. A 1916 bank building on Philadelphia’s Chestnut Street will take on an adaptive reuse that its architect Horace Trumbauer surely never dreamed of. PlanPhilly reports that developer Paul Giegerich is thinking of turning the architect’s two story cathedral of commerce into a swanky pool hall with food created by a star (Steven Starr to be exact).
Bus Bonanza Expected at WTC Memorial
Memorial grove and the Museum Pavilion under construction.
While most of the World Trade Center site whirls in mid-construction, the National September 11 Memorial is a mere 208 days from completion. That thought brings both relief and consternation to local residents who have seen their neighborhood become a national flash point for mourning, controversy, and debate. It is also about to become one of the most heavily trafficked tourist destinations in the country.
World Trade Weekly: Last of the Deutsche Bank
[ As the World Trade Center continues its ascent, AN stops by the massive construction site for a weekly update. ]
From behind a blue tarp shielding the remains of the Deutsche Bank building, the sound of groaning metal being bent into submission has stopped. Debris sits separated in two neat piles, one for crushed cement and the other for metal. A polished Peterbilt mack truck with an empty container made its way through gate to take away yet another load. There were no formalities, but by this time next week the last of the World Trade Center ruins will be gone.
Jugaad Urbanism: More Than Just Making Do
There is no direct English translation for the Indian word ‘jugaad,’ but the gist of it is to “make do.” But simply “making do” does not aptly describe the clever and resourceful strategies on display in Jugaad Urbanism: Resourceful Strategies for Indian Cities, a new exhibit at the Center for Architecture that opens tomorrow night. For the most part the exhibit shirks high design in favor of “design by the people, for the people.”
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