EPA to Give Over Half Billion in Funding to Improve NY and NJ Facilities Ravaged by Hurricane Sandy
US Navy pumping overflow sewage in New York Harbor post-Hurricane Sandy (Courtesy of U.S. Navy/Flickr)
Hurricane Sandy caused substantial damage to wastewater and drinking water treatment systems across the tri-state area. Today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced plans to provide a total of $569 million to New York and New Jersey to make wastewater and drinking water treatment facilities more resilient to withstand the effects of future storms. As Michael Shapiro, EPA Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator, pointed out in a media call, “Sewage treatment plants are on the waterfront so are particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels.” The funding will be provided through grants to states that will then be distributed primarily to local communities as low or no interest loans.
“Going forward we’re encouraging local governments to submit proposals for green infrastructure and that rely on natural features to prevent flooding,” said EPA Regional Administrator Judith A. Enck in an announcement.
The agency also anticipates that this funding will result in 6,000 short-term construction jobs.
A New Competition Asks Architects to Create Ideas for a More Resilient Waterfront
The Rockaways Post Hurricane Sandy (Courtesy of Tom Duggan/Flickr)
Hurricane Sandy not only caused considerable damage to the Rockaways, but it also exposed the vulnerability of New York City’s waterfront communities to future storms and changing weather patterns. Today, the American Institute of Architects New York, along with NYC Department of Housing Preservation & Development, L+M Development Partners, Bluestone Organization, Triangle Equities, and Enterprise Community Partners, announced a new design competition for “resilient and sustainable development in the Rockaways.” The group called on architects to come up with different strategies for how cities can build more thoughtfully in areas prone to flooding.
Cornell NYC Tech Campus Takes a Step Forward
The Cornell Technion Campus on Roosevelt Island. (Courtesy Kilograph)
Manhattan Community Board 8 has approved the Cornell Tech Campus plans and launched it one step further in NYC’s public land use review process. The plan for the 12-acre site now moves forward exactly one year after Cornell University, in partnership with the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, was selected by the City to develop the applied science and engineering campus.
KOONS, MEIER AMONG DESIGN SELECTION TEAM FOR TAPPAN ZEE REPLACEMENT BRIDGE
Jeffery Koons, perhaps best known for his quirky stainless steel glossy sculptural reproductions of balloon dogs, has been called upon by Governor Andrew Cuomo to help decide what the new Tappan Zee bridge will look like. Koons, along with Richard Meier, winner of the Pritzker Prize for Architecture, and Thomas Campbell, Metropolitan Museum of Art Director, were named to the selection design team that will provide counsel on the construction of the Tappan Zee replacement bridge. Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the decision in a press conference Wednesday. Meier’s most notable work includes the Getty Center in Los Angeles, the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art and the Jubilee Church in Rome. The design team will offer advice on the bridge’s aesthetics and visual compatibility with the surrounding nature.
DOT INTRODUCES NEW STREET SAFETY CAMPAIGN
“Safety is in the eye of the beholder,” says New York City DOT Commissioner Sadik Khan. Khan’s remarks came Wednesday as the New York City Department of Transportation unveiled its new LOOK! safety campaign urging self-responsibility on the part of drivers and pedestrians alike. The updated campaign features thermoplastic curbside lettering spelling L-O-O-K with appropriately focused eyeballs replacing the O’s on crosswalks at 110 of the most fatality ridden intersections across the city. The street markings are accompanied by witty color photograph ads on nearby phone stalls, bus shelters, and the backs of city buses warning us to heed our mothers’ advice and look both ways before crossing the street. The campaign plans to eventually increase their range to include 200 intersections and more than 300 buses.
The Grass Looks Greener On The Riverside
WNYC Transmitter Park Waterfront (Photo Credit: juliewoodnyc via Instagram)
Green outdoor space, outside of Central Park, is often thought of as a rare commodity in New York City; but now it doesn’t have to be. The recent opening of WNYC’s Transmitter Park on the East River in Greenpoint, Brooklyn is one of the many projects that will be improving over 500 miles of shoreline across the city.
Breaking ground back in 2010, Transmitter Park is now finally open for the public to enjoy. As part of the Waterfront Vision and Enhancement Strategy(WAVES) citywide initiative, Transmitter Park supports the plan’s vision to provide more open recreational space for the city’s residents and a functional waterfront that will no longer display decaying industrial sites. The park is also a result of the 2005 Greenpoint-Williamsburg rezoning meant to provide local residents and visitors with continuous public access to the waterfront. The new park includes1.6-acres of open space with an esplanade for passive recreation, a new overlook to the south, new seating, and a pedestrian bridge built across an excavated historic ferry slip. The center of the park offers a large open lawn with a nautical themed children’s play area that reflects the site’s context, spray showers, and nature gardens.
Meet the New Practices
Landscape (Triptych) by ABRUZZO BODZIAK (Benjamin Kracauer/Courtesy Center for Architecture)
We let you know about the exhibition, and now this year’s AIANY New Practices New York lecture series is kicking into gear following formlessfinder’s presentation late last month and a winner’s roundtable Monday night. The discussion was moderated by Dan Wood and Troy Therrien and included New Practices honorees Christian Wassmann, Amanda Schachter of SLO Architecture, Emily Abruzzo of ABRUZZO BODZIAK ARCHITECTS, Julian Rose of formlessfinder, and David Benjamin of The Living. The lecture series, featuring a presentation and discussion of each firm’s work, is held at the Axor/Hansgrohe showroom in the Meatpacking District and will continue through January.
On View> New Practices New York 2012 Exhibition and Lecture Series Gets Underway
Abruzzo Bodziak's window installation at the Center for Architecture. (Branden Klayko / AN)
2012 New Practices New York
Center for Architecture
536 LaGuardia Place
Through September 8
When Joe Aliotta took over chapter presidency for AIANY in January he said he wanted to bring fresh faces to the profession. New Practices New York (NPNY) and the Emerging New York Architects (ENYA) competitions became the cornerstone of his Future Now theme for 2012. New Practices opened on June 14 and ENYA’s Harlem Edge show is opening on July 12 at the Center for Architecture. The NPNY competition was open to multidisciplinary firms undergoing the process of licensing. This year’s brought seven firms to the winner’s circle: ABRUZZO BODZIAK ARCHITECTS, Christian Wassmann, formlessfinder, HOLLER architecture, The Living, MARC FORNES & THEVERYMANY, and SLO Architecture.
Walking Tours that Conjure New York’s Tragic Past
General Slocum Steamship Diaster, 1904. (Courtesy Sites of Memory)
Before 9/11, the General Slocum steamship disaster was the greatest loss of life in a single day in New York. Never heard of it? You may have walked by a diminutive memorial fountain in Tompkins Square Park, but otherwise little remains to tell the tale of the 1904 East River wreck that killed over 1000 German immigrants from the Lower East Side. A major event of its time, the Slocum tragedy was commemorated in books and even a movie, but as generations pass, the memory has faded.
Sites of Memory, a newly launched project by art director and writer Angela Riechers, aims to reanimate the memories of events like the General Slocum, or the Civil War draft riots, or more contemporary tragedies like the shooting of Amadou Diallo, by taking you—physically or virtually—to the very spot and letting a literary-star narrators including Kurt Andersen, Luc Sante, and Lewis Lapham, tell you the often sad but always intriguing story of the unlucky people involved.
What Is NY-LON? Mark Wigley and Brett Steele On the New York-London Axis
Brett Steele, Enrique Walker, and Mark Wigley at "What Is NY-LON?" (Lindsay Kunz, Columbia University GSAPP)
“NY-LON” is an annual series of discussions at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation (GSAPP) about the transfer of ideas along the New York-London axis. In this particular conversation, Brett Steele, director of London’s Architectural Association (AA), and Mark Wigley, dean of New York’s GSAPP, talked about the threads that connect the two cities, what that means for architectural discourse, and how the connection has evolved over time.
ON VIEW> CARLO SCARPA: THE ARCHITECT AT WORK
Palazzetto Site Plan. (Courtesy Cooper Union)
Carlo Scarpa: The Architect at Work
The Arthur A. Houghton Jr. Gallery
The Cooper Union
7 E. 7th Street
Through April 21
A collection of hand drawings and photographs of work by renowned postwar Italian architect Carlo Scarpa is on view for the first time in New York. The exhibition depicts the conception and realization of two major works, the renowned Villa Ottolenghi (Bardolino, Verona, 1974–79) and the Il Palazzetto series of imagined interventions in a 17th-century villa (Monselice, Padua, 1969–78). Scarpa is renowned for his poetic expression of space through the use of materials and ornamentation, and visitors to the gallery will witness the architect’s development of spatial ideas through 22 original hand drawings of Villa Ottolenghi and 11 of Villa Il Palazzetto. Reproductions of historical photos taken of the Villa Ottolenghi before it was completed as well as recent and historical photos of Scarpa’s work at Villa Il Palazzetto are included, along with reproductions of his drawings for the Museo di Castelvecchio and the Museo Nazionale dell Arti del XXI secolo.
Pictorial> Modeling for PS1: HWKN’s Wendy
HWKN's proposal, Wendy, in the PS1 courtyard. (Courtesy HWKN)
So you want to win the MoMA PS1 Young Architects Program? This year’s champs Matthias Hollwich and Marc Kushner of HollwichKushner (HWKN) shared some insight about their strategy with AN. The competition started with an invited portfolio submission from about 20 young architects. After being selected by the MoMA PS1 panel as one of three finalists, HWKN started in with rigorous research into past winners and the selection process. “We made a book about every entry,” Hollwich said. This study provided in-depth knowledge of the different approaches and forms which have won, and also those that have not been successful.
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