Not Biking Up A Storm: New York’s Citi Bike Program Delayed Again
Citi Bikes like this one could hit New York streets in May 2013. (Jesse Chan-Norris/Flickr)
New York City Department of Transportation (NYC DOT) confirmed today what many had feared: flooding damage from Hurricane Sandy has indeed delayed New York’s beleaguered Citi Bike bike share system. As AN noted last month, electrical components of the Citibike docking stations were damaged while in storage in the Brooklyn Navy Yard along the East River. The initial rollout, now scheduled for May 2013, will include at least 5,500 bikes and 293 stations in Manhattan and Brooklyn, later expanding to 7,000 bikes by the end of 2013. The final goal is to have 10,000 bikes and 600 stations across the city.
Hudson Yards Breaks Ground as Manhattan’s Largest Mega-Development
The towers of Hudson Yards. (Courtesy Related)
Tuesday morning, New York’s top power brokers gathered in a muddy lot on Manhattan’s west side to mark the official groundbreaking of the 26-acre Hudson Yards mega-development. The dramatic addition to the New York skyline will comprise a completely new neighborhood of glass skyscrapers at the northern terminus of the High Line. The South Tower, the first structure to be built and the future headquarters of fashion-label Coach, will rise on the site’s southeast corner at 30th Street and 10th Avenue, where Related CEO Stephen Ross, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and others celebrated the first turning of dirt as a large caisson machine bored into the ground.
Construction Progresses on Brooklyn’s Squibb Park Pedestrian Bridge
Rendering of the Squibb Park Pedestrian Bridge. (Courtesy HNTB)
Before the end of this year, the Squibb Park Pedestrian Bridge will be completed connecting Brooklyn Heights with the Brooklyn Bridge Park on the waterfront. This windy path over the BQE and through the treetops will quite literally bridge the divide and substantial grade shift between the neighborhood and the park. Construction of this $4.9 million pedestrian bridge, made of black locust timber and galvanized steel, is already underway, and on December 14th and 15th, the spans will be hoisted into place over Furman Street.
Designers Reuse Hurricane Debris in Furniture for Reclaim NYC Auction
Woodworker Daniel Moyer is crafting the high+dry.table, an exaggeratedly long
legged occasional table made from salvaged lumber on Fire Island. (Courtesy ReclaimNYC)
To benefit the victims of Hurricane Sandy, New York City designers are hosting a furniture auction, selling pieces made from the storm’s reclaimed materials. The silent auction, Reclaim NYC, is organized by AN alumna Jennifer Krichels Gorsche, writer Jean Lin, and designer Brad Ascalon will sell the work of more than twenty artists who have all pledged to donate proceeds to the American Red Cross in Greater New York. The pieces range from tables and chairs to lighting fixtures to art objects. Some designers have even represented themes of the storm and flooding in their work and will continue to include these themes in upcoming work.
Reclaim NYC will take place on December 19 from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. at Ligne Roset’s SoHo showroom, located at 155 Wooster Street.
Help Kickstart A Student-Designed Solution to Costa Rica’s Waste Management Problem
Rendering of the new facility. (Courtesy HOLLER architecture / sLAB)
Architecture students from the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) are returning to Nosara, Costa Rica to continue work on a recycling center to help alleviate the region’s overlooked municipal solid waste management problem. Led by architect and professor Tobias Holler of HOLLER architecture, the NYIT team began designing and building the recycling center last summer with the help of a Kickstarter campaign that raised over $20,000 in four weeks. To complete the project, the team has launched another Kickstarter campaign and with just 13 days to go before the campaign ends, $5,130 still needs to be raised.
It’s been a while since AN checked in with the New York City AIDS Memorial designed by Brookyn-based Studio a+i and slated for St. Vincent Hospital Park in Manhattan. Architects and memorial organizers have been making their way through a series of approvals, checking one more off their list this week as the city’s Landmarks Commission unanimously gave a thumbs up to the design. [Curbed.]
SHoP Updates Atlantic Yards Design as Forest City Confirms Prefab
SHoP refines the design of the Atlantic Yards B2 Tower as groundbreaking approaches. (Courtesy SHoP)
On Wednesday, Forest City Ratner made it official: the world’s tallest prefabricated building will be coming to Brooklyn with a groundbreaking date set for December 18. As AN outlined in our recent feature on Atlantic Yards, the SHoP Architects-designed B2 Tower will climb, modular unit by modular unit, 32 stories on a slender wedge-shaped parcel adjacent to the new Barclays Center on the corner of Flatbush Avenue and Dean Street.
Renderings released with the groundbreaking announcement also revealed design revisions to the B2 Tower since it was unveiled in November 2011, and Chris Sharples, principal at SHoP, told AN what’s new.
Home Is Where the Sea Box Is: Shipping Container Housing Could Help With Disaster Relief
Sea Box Prototype (Courtesy Sea Box)
In New York City’s post-Sandy life, the important issue of provisional housing after a disaster is more prominent than ever. Although the plans will not affect those impacted by the recent storm, over the past five years the Bloomberg administration has been quietly developing modular apartment blocks for disaster housing relief consisting of ever-adaptable shipping containers. Relief housing for future emergencies could be quickly trucked in and stacked to create housing for dozens of displaced residents.
Downtown Brooklyn Mulls Putting Empty Parking Spaces to Better Use
ESPO’s “Love Letter to Brooklyn” mural painted on the Macy’s parking garage. (Garrett Ziegler / Flickr)
Downtown Brooklyn has an unusual situation on its hands: it has a surplus of parking spaces. But soon developers may get the green light to put that space to other use. As AN reported this summer, the city’s zoning rules require new residential developments to build large garages, most of which have remained half empty. With a plethora of transit options in the area—including 13 subway lines, seven subway stops, more than a dozen bus routes, and a commuter rail to boot—there is little demand for parking, which is why the Department of City Planning (DCP) and developers are advocating for new zoning. Yesterday the New York City Council considered a proposal from the DCP that suggests reducing the minimum parking requirements from 40 percent to 20 percent of new residential housing units, which would free up those spaces for other uses whether it be mixed-income and affordable housing or public parking. City Council will likely hold a vote on the proposal on December 4th.
Photo of the Day: World Trade Center Spire Adrift at Sea
Part of the World Trade Center’s spire on its way to Lower Manhattan. (Courtesy Port Authority of NY & NJ)
The spire that will one day reach a point 1,776 feet above Lower Manhattan on the ever-progressing World Trade Center is en route to New York via a barge from Valleyfield, Quebec, Canada. The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey put out a statement that the giant antenna embarked on its 1,500-nautical-mile journey on November 16 and is expected to arrive at Port Newark any day now, but a tracking website doesn’t appear to be working. Smaller pieces will be trucked in over the next month. Each segment of the spire weighs from five to 67 tons. Once the spire is on site, construction is expected to take about three months to complete.
Extended! Past Futures, Present, Futures Lengthens its Stay at Storefront for Art & Architecture
Leong Leong designed the Past Futures, Present, Futures installation at Storefront for Art & Architecture. (Photo: Cameron Baylock)
Past Futures, Present Futures
Storefront for Art and Architecture
97 Kenmare Street
Gallery open Tuesday to Saturday, 11:00pm-6:00pm
Through January 12, 2013
Lucky you! The Storefront for Art & Architecture has extended the run of one of their most ambitious exhibitions to date, Past Futures, Present, Futures. Thanks to a spectacular design by LEONG LEONG, the modest proportions of the gallery seem to expand through both space and time. Visitors enter a pleasantly disorienting limbo by stepping from the street through a shimmering wall of silver vertical blinds.
Clean Vitrine: Security Issues at OMA’s Rotterdam Kunsthal
Inside OMA’s Rotterdam Kunsthal. (FaceMePLS/Flickr)
On October 16 thieves nabbed a handful of valuable paintings, including works by Picasso, Matisse, and Monet, from the Kunsthal gallery in Rotterdam. At least one person points the finger at the architecture by home team OMA. Citing an interview with Dutch security expert Ton Cremers, Dezeen.com reports that the open plan and glass walls are a nightmare for guards. Cremers appreciates the design aesthetic of the museum, which was completed in 1992, but noted, “It’s an awful building to protect.”
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