Benepe Walks the Ten-Minute Walk
At the opening of the Dutch Pavilion, Benepe expounds on Dutch symbols found in NYC's flag. (AN/Stoelker)
Gone will be the miniature civic history lessons that punctuated ribbon-cutting speeches made by Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe. With yesterday’s announcement that the commissioner is moving on to the non-profit Trust for Public Land (TPL), the plaudits are pouring in. But as the Bloomberg Administration begins is slow-motion wind down, New Yorkers should be wary of comparisons to the “good” Robert Moses, builder of parks and playgrounds, despite the scale of public works undertaken under Bloomberg. But in terms of Parks, there is little doubt that Benepe’s tenure was historic in scope.
Now, one of the mayor’s signature initiatives—that a park be within a ten minute walk from every home—is about to go national. But will what flies in NYC fly in Louisville? “If I’ve learned one or two things in this job it’s that no one model will work for every situation,” he said in a telephone interview yesterday.
Parks & Relocation: NYC’s Adrian Benepe Bows Out to Veronica White
Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe with Van Alen's Abby Hamlin and AN exec editor Bill Menking in January, 2011. (AN/Stoelker)
With just a year and a half left of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s tenure remaining, the first of his major appointees, New York City Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe, is moving on. Under Benepe, the Parks Department was transformed on a scale that approached the early tenure of Robert Moses. Since his appointment in 2002, the commissioner oversaw the largest expansion of waterfront parks like Brooklyn Bridge Park, embraced public-private partnerships as seen on the High Line, and distributed more than $250 million in Croton Water Filtration funds to small pocket parks throughout the Bronx.
With the London Design Museum gearing up to move in to their new Pawson designed-Pad in Knightsbridge, BD Online reports that Zaha Hadid is a front runner to purchase the old digs in the Southwark section of the city. The buzz is that she plans to turn it into an architecture museum.
Willets Point Brings Retail Revelry, Puts Housing on Back Burner
The retain and entertainment complex to abut the west side of Citi Field.
Mayor Bloomberg evoked Fitzgerald today when he announced the deal between Sterling Equities and Related Companies to revamp Willets Point. “Today the ‘valley of ashes’ is well on its way to becoming the site of historic private investment,” the mayor said in a statement, referring to the gritty midpoint between Gatsby’s West Egg manse and Manhattan. The plan pegs its success to a mega entertainment/retail hub just west of the stadium, that sounds very much a part of a trend in projects that used to be called malls, but are now called retail/entertainment attractions (see also the aptly named American Dream in NJ).
City Wants Massive Rooftop Farm to Top Bronx Distribution Center
One of the biggest rooftop farms in the world may land in the Bronx. (Montage by AN)
The New York City Economic Development Corporation sent out an RFP for a forward thinking urban farmer to run a 200,000 square foot rooftop farm atop one of the city’s major food distribution centers at 600 Food Center Drive in the Hunts Point section of the Bronx. Talk about cutting out the middleman. Once harvested the veggies merely have to make the trip downstairs and down the street for distribution at the City’s 329-acre Food Distribution Center.
Eyes on the Riverbanks in Northern Manhattan
Yes, this is Manhattan. The view north on the Hudson, Inwood Hill at right and the Palisades at left. (AN/Stoelker)
As AN reported back in February, things are looking up for the Parks Department’s Lighthouse Link project that will revamp the riverfront from the George Washington Bridge to the Dyckman Marina, named for the Little Red Lighthouse beneath the bridge. The project will be capped with riverside restaurant at Dyckman called La Marina with spectacular views overlooking the New Jersey Palisades. The all-season pavilion designed by architect Andrew Franz appears close to completion and the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance (MWA) is still hammering away at a plan that could very well provide public access to the river for launching kayaks and the mooring for historic tall ships. Roland Lewis, president of MWA, used a theater term to describe the access to the water. “It’s like breaking down the fourth wall,” he said. Indeed, as a recent kayak trip through the area revealed a view from the water drastically alters ones perseption of the city.
CB4 Votes Conditional No for Chelsea Market Expansion
Before and after images of Chelsea Market latest expansion proposal. (Courtesy Jamestown)
Last night Community Board 4 voted not to support Jamestown Properties proposal to add 330,000 feet to the Chelsea Market building. The design morphed significantly from the initial multi-volume glass box approach introduced in 2010, to a steel-trussed cantilever form fronting Tenth Avenue shown late last year, to its current terracotta clad contextual approach. Throughout, Studios Architecture principal David Burns has presented plans before a resistant community who cherish the market and are suddenly overrun with High Line tourists. Read More
With Few Changes City Planning Passes NYU Expansion
Mature trees on the DOT strips will be preserved. (Courtesy NYU)
In a 12 to 1 vote this morning, City Planning approved NYU’s Core expansion plans for two superblocks in Greenwich Village designed by Grimshaw with Toshiko Mori and Michael Van Valkenburg. In slow and deliberative pace, City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden read from a prepared text that included several aesthetic and few programmatic changes to the proposed plan. The new plan will reduced the size of the overall project from 2.47 million square feet to 2.1 million.
Slideshow> The Barnes’ Textured Details
Detail of OLIN's graphic landscape treatment.
The reviews are in and now it’s time to book a ticket and check out the new Barnes Foundation museum in Philadelphia designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects. I took a road trip over the weekend and was struck by the amount of texture and richness of the materials used throughout. The carved limestone, deep wood tones, and burlap seem to take cues from Barnes’ superb African mask collection. Regardless of where one comes down on the controversial move to the Ben Franklin Parkway, there is no denying the level of detail and workmanship that went into the project.
Sidewalk Shadows by Artist Nobuho Nagasawa
Six "Timecast" blue stone installations by artist can be viewed along Columbia Street in Red Hook. (Courtesy Nobuho Nagasawa)
It would seem that the the once humble blue stone, quarried in New York State, is getting some renewed respect. We recently saw it cleverly cladding 41 Bond by the design-build firm DDG Partners, now artist Nobuho Nagasawa it calling attention to it underfoot in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Nagasawa’s installation elevates an everyday visual experience to the level of art, namely tree shadows on a Brooklyn blue stone sidewalk.
Fire Island Pines Pavilion to Rise from Ashes
Just in time for Memorial Day, renderings! (Courtesy Fire Island Historical Preservation Society)
Facebook was aflame this morning with new renderings by HWKN (Hollwich Kushner) for Fire Island’s notorious Pavilion, the entertainment complex that burned down last November. In January, it was reported in The New York Times that Diller Scofidio + Renfro were signed on to do the master plan for the marina, of which the Pavilion sits at the center and serves as the social hub.
In yet another turn of the screw, Orange County, New York county executive Eddie Diana’s claim that a FEMA report proved Paul Rudolph’s Government Center sustained substantial damage from Hurricane Irene turns out to bogus at best. Dogged reporting from the Times Herald-Record reveals once again that the county executive’s numbers just don’t add up: “Diana told reporters that county officials have coaxed FEMA into raising its original estimate to $535,000 from $505,000. By contrast, the county’s consultants had estimated $10.5 million in damages.” FEMA officials blame the bulk of the damage on poor maintenance.
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