NEW YORK | Waterfront Vision

[trvlr70]

I hope at least a few of these plans actually happen. The one thing as an outsider that I've never really understood about NYC, especially Manhattan, is that here's this incredible city on this tiny island and no place has any kind of waterfront exposure. When you're in the city, you don't even realize it's near water. It's the opposite of Chicago where buildings literally strain for waterfront exposure.

[yankeesfan1000]

That has more to do with density, and the physical lay out of the cities though. The West Side where I live, there's at least 6 or 7 miles of completely uninterrupted, gorgeous waterfront parks, bike paths, jogging paths, huge lawns etc and even a block away you could walk by and have no clue. While Chicago has an enormous park right on the water, with the city basically surrounding that park, and then crammed up against the water. It'd be like if Central Park was right on the Hudson or East River. My two cents.

Anyway, given how much the city has already invested, and continues to invest in the cities waterfront, and the incredible amount of development that has occurred/is occurring on the West side along the waterfront, I'd bet a huge portion if not all of the proposed development gets built.

[trvlr70]

I was trying to say that NYC seems to not be oriented to the waterfront in the same way.

[M II A II R II K]

Opponents battle condos and hotel in Brooklyn Bridge Park.


http://www.archpaper.com/e-board_rev.asp?News_ID=5297

The drama is still playing out over how to pay for the maintenance of all the young saplings, soon-to-burst blossoms, and everything else there at Brooklyn Bridge Park. Many longtime supporters continue to oppose the plan to include condos and a hotel within park boundaries, and several of them showed up to air concerns at a final hearing before the Committee on Alternatives to Housing (CAH) held on March 30.

No one argues that a 2002 memorandum of understanding signed between the city and the state requires that the park be self-sustainable. Instead, the arguments now center on how to generate the required $16 million annually for the completed park. In 2005, a General Project Plan permitted private development, which evolved into plans to build a 150-room hotel and two 30-story to 40-story market rate condos on the periphery of the Park. One Brooklyn Bridge Park, a 438-unit converted warehouse, already sits within the Park and contributes toward maintenance. But with tensions over new condos brewing, BBP Board of Directors established the CAH in August 2010 and commissioned a report to get to the bottom of how much money could be made from alternative funding sources.

The report came out on February 22 and the alternatives included establishing a Park Improvement District. Other options included fee-based recreation and event facilities, concessions, commercial real estate, sponsorships, increased parking revenues, and grants. The report said the alternative options could bring in about $2.5 million to $7 million, far short of the $16 million needed.

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[Fabb]

Make the waterfront more accessible... OK !
Sanitize the waterfront ? I'm not so sure... and I'm afraid that it's happening.

[M II A II R II K]

Also incorporate plans for potential future flooding.

[NYguy]

http://archpaper.com/news/articles.asp?id=5325

Future Full of Ferries
NYCEDC report analyzes ferry service around the city.



The 34th Street ferry terminal



The deck of the proposed 34th Street Ferry Pier.



The ferry terminal in front of the Manhattan skyline.


Tom Stoelker
5.02.2011

Walt Whitman wrote of New York ferries: “On the ferry-boats the hundreds and hundreds that cross, returning home, are more curious to me than you suppose.” But finally there are more recent eyes on the business of getting people cross the river. Expanded East River Ferry service is set to launch in early June with a new ferry terminal hub designed by Kennedy & Violich planned for East 34th Street opening next year. Both are part of a New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) pilot program and a practical component to City Planning’s recently released Vision 2020 waterfront plan. But lost in the tide of initiatives announced on March 14, the NYCEDC’s Comprehensive Citywide Ferry Study slipped under the radar.

The study takes a hard look at the viability of ferry services throughout the New York region and attempts to make sense of the various routes already in existence, which, if mapped one atop the other, look like a platter of spaghetti. Besides the 21 million annual Staten Island ferry riders, there are more than 10 million traveling back and forth from New Jersey alone.

The report attempts to sift through the “plethora of agencies overseeing various aspects of the ferry service,” including the Port Authority, the DOT (both NYC’s and New Jersey’s), the FTA, the Coast Guard, and the Army Corps of Engineers, to name a few. Pros and cons for several governance approaches get play, such as centralized control on the order of the Port Authority, the MTA, or the DOT. A local ferry district akin to a BID is one suggestion, but doing nothing at all gets equal play.

Julie Wood, a spokesperson for NYCEDC, said that the pilot program and the report stand apart. “There’s a common sense link,” she said. “But there’s no formal connection.” The report’s goal is to be comprehensive not visionary. It delves into neighborhoods far beyond the East River. But along the way, the wheat separates from the chaff. A ferry going from Coney Island to Midtown, it notes, takes 10 to 20 minutes longer than the subway, but a Greenpoint commuter going to Lower Manhattan saves 15 to 20 minutes by ferry. Not surprisingly, the report finds the East River corridor “most promising” for establishing regular routes.

At $5.50 one way, the trip costs about the same as commuter express buses. The route connects East 34th Street and Wall Street in Manhattan to Long Island City, then Greenpoint, North and South Williamsburg, DUMBO, and Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. The inclusion of a Friday jaunt to Governor’s Island during the warmer months conjures an interesting proposition found in the study that deals with integrating commuter service with recreational uses. The report suggests diverging tour boats during rush hour to serve the commuter needs, then bumping up traffic to destinations like Governors Island and Brooklyn Bridge Park during weekends. The merging of programmatic uses could fall into other categories as well, such as emergency evacuation.

Mayor Bloomberg and Council Speaker Quinn have shown significant support for the pilot program, but it will be up to the next mayor and speaker to determine the fate of the program. Some wonder if a Commissioner of Water Transport might also make sense. To be sure, many outside the administration will continue to push for a focus on coordinated service. “I absolutely think it’s viable,” said Roland Lewis, president of the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance. “The operating subsidies are reasonable. Plus, the track and the repair work on the Hudson and East River are minimal.”

[NYguy]

World Architecture News
http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com...pload_id=17184

SHoP's esplanade opened in New York

Friday 22 Jul 2011

Designed by SHoP Architects with Ken Smith Landscape Architect, the new esplanade - open to the public from 6:00am to midnight - provides much-needed outdoor public space for residents, office workers and visitors. Along with new plantings and trees comprised of native coastal species, the park incorporates seating elements evocative of the area’s maritime past and elevated bar stool seating that offers visitors an opportunity to sit next to the railing and look out over the water toward Brooklyn. The railing also doubles as a tabletop on which users can eat, use a laptop or read.

The esplanade also features chaise lounges, game tables, planter walls and waterside benches.

____________________________________


Tribeca Trib

http://tribecatrib.com/news/2011/jul...esplanade.html

Lounging and Lunching: First Part of East River Esplanade Now Open


Carlos Rodriguez relaxes by the water on his lunch break at the newly-completed stretch of the East River Esplanade.



Julia Gind enjoys lunch at one of many newly-installed waterfront seats along the East River Esplanade.


By Jessica Terrell

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and other officials on Thursday declared the $165 million first phase of the project open. But the stretch of shore between Wall Street and Maiden Lane was already being enjoyed by area residents and workers for the past few weeks.

“On such a sunny day, we can truly appreciate how lucky we are to live in a city surrounded by water,” Bloomberg said, adding that the park was one step in an ongoing plan to make the waterfront accessible to New Yorkers.

“We must return the river to the people of this city, to whom it belongs,”

[BillM]

Originally Posted by yankeesfan1000

That has more to do with density, and the physical lay out of the cities though. The West Side where I live, there's at least 6 or 7 miles of completely uninterrupted, gorgeous waterfront parks, bike paths, jogging paths, huge lawns etc and even a block away you could walk by and have no clue. While Chicago has an enormous park right on the water, with the city basically surrounding that park, and then crammed up against the water. It'd be like if Central Park was right on the Hudson or East River. My two cents.

Too bad there can't be linear extensions of Central Park, one to the east and another to the west, that connects the Hudson and East rivers.

Or could there be?

[uaarkson]

About the only way even remotely possible for that idea would be to do it High-Line style.

[NYguy]

http://www.archpaper.com/news/articles.asp?id=5650

On the Waterfront
Gaining public access to New York City's extensive industrial waterfront won't be easy.


boardwalk snakes its way alongside a ConEd substation.
Tom Stoelker

Tom Stoelker
9.26.2011

Now that Michael Marrella, who guided the massive waterfront plan, Vision 2020, into being last spring, has been bumped up to Director of Waterfront and Open Space Planning Division, he has miles and miles of shoreline to divvy up between two very different users—the public and industry. Charged with both implementing public access to the water for quality of life uses while also supporting a working waterfront, Marella made his position clear: “We’re not looking to relocate or displace industrial uses.”

There is a considerable inaccessible stretch with approximately 40 miles of shoreline devoted to maritime industry. Architects and artists are rising to the challenge to have it both ways by recommending creative appropriations of working waterfronts—including passive parks along the water that celebrate the gritty urban reality of power plants, substations, and shipping containers—that foster the public’s embrace of an infrastructure aesthetic.

In an interview, Marrella pointed out the city’s options. One is rezoning to give residential development the prime waterfront and move manufacturing to the interior; the other is to encourage manufacturing and recreation to live side by side. The first is exemplified in Greenpoint where a two-mile stretch allows housing close to the water yet mostly relegates manufacturing to side streets. But on the north shore of Staten Island, in the South Bronx, and Sunset Park there are areas where zoning seeks to integrate industry with parkland so both access the water.

A proposal for the beach off of Long Island City (left) and another view of the boardwalk (right).
Courtesy Lyn Rice Architects

[uaarkson]

That would be badass. And I hope it would be underlooked; the city needs more quiet, uncrowded spaces.

[NYguy]

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/...ten_speck.html

The unloved islands of New York: What should we do with all those forgotten specks of land?


Rat Island was sold for $160,000 Sunday to 71-year-old Alex Schibli, who said he just wants to rename the property and kayak around it.


By Stuart Miller and Sharon Seitz
October 5th 2011

Ask even native New Yorkers to name the islands of our city, and many will be stumped. That's a shame, because the city is a vast archipelago. Its more than 30 islands - large (Staten or Manhattan), medium (Rikers or Roosevelt), small (Ellis or Liberty) or minuscule (U Thant, in the East River, measures 100 by 200 feet) - have varied histories: some are famous, some obscure. But there is one widely shared feature: Nearly all belong to the city or federal government.

Rat Island, off the coastline of the Bronx, is a glorious exception. The privately owned island was sold for $160,000 on Sunday: Its new owner, 71-year-old City Islander Alex Schibli, has no plans to do anything other than kayak around it - and perhaps rename it something more pleasant. But regardless of Rat Island's future, its sale has reminded New Yorkers about the little islands in their midst - and what could be done with them with enough money and imagination.

As far as Rat Island is concerned, the history of this 2.5-acre of rock between City and Hart islands is fairly limited - it briefly hosted a hospital during a 19th century yellow fever scare and an artists' colony in the early 20th century. It is best known as a stopping point for convicts trying to swim to the Bronx from Hart Island, back when the latter held a workhouse. Still, if Schibli changed his mind, he could transform this inconspicuous speck into a vital part of the city's landscape, one that could serve as a model for all those other islands we all too easily forget.

If Rat Island or its siblings were "rehabilitated," it could signal a new stage in the city's battle to reclaim its waterfront. When we initially wrote "The Other Islands of New York City" in the mid-1990s, the city was largely cut off from its shoreline, the islands often overlooked. Urban planning, water taxis and smart development have transformed our sense of our own geography - just look at the extreme makeover of Governors Island, which went from a Coast Guard base to one of the city's most popular new parks, with art festivals and music performances and ever-growing crowds.

____________________________________


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...025143388.html
Greenway Plan Gets 'Missing Link'


The Robert Moses Playground near First Avenue is adjacent to the existing United Nations campus.

By ERICA ORDEN
October 6, 2011

New York City and state agreed to the development a mile-long stretch of East Side waterfront using $73 million derived from an expected expansion of the United Nations campus, officials said Wednesday.

State legislation passed in June allows the United Nations Development Corp. to utilize the western portion of the city-owned Robert Moses Playground, adjacent to the existing United Nations campus, for a new building connected to its existing campus.

To proceed with those plans, the U.N. arm would pay $73 million into a special purpose fund, which the city has agreed to use to finance the development of the esplanade between 38th and 60th streets.

[M II A II R II K]

Proposal Transforms Park Space Under the Manhattan Bridge


Read More: http://blog.archpaper.com/wordpress/archives/24914

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HAO looked to the surrounding Lower East Side and Chinatown neighborhoods for inspiration and the site conditions informed their comprehensive program strategy. Currently shrouded by the massive legs of the Manhattan Bridge, the design seeks to address the park’s lack of exposure by providing opportunities for local artists to create murals, signage, and other installations, giving the park local identity.

- At the heart of HAO’s proposal is the skate park. The design combines successful elements of other skate parks in New York City but maintains its originality and affords the opportunity for iconic status by using the existing bridge structures as walls for a “super-pipe.” It’s hoped this new layout developed with skate consultants Shan Reddy and Jack Dakin will not only challenge skaters, but also perform as the stage for a complex design strategy, befitting of the entire local community.

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[NYguy]

http://www.dnainfo.com/20120322/murr...lueway-project

Design Firm Chosen for East River 'Blueway' Project

March 22, 2012
By Mary Johnson

Plans to build a greenway along the East River have captured much public and political attention in recent months. But a complementary proposal for an “East River Blueway," which officials first floated two years ago, is now gaining momentum.

WXY Architecture + Urban Design has been chosen as the lead designer for the project, which would create more opportunities for direct water access along the East River between the Brooklyn Bridge and East 38th Street.

A website detailing the project has also been launched, and a public forum is set for April 9 for residents of Community Board 6, which covers the area from East 59th to East 14th street, and Lexington Avenue to the East River.

"Our goal is to really bring the East River — the edge of the East River, what it looks like and feels like and what it does — into this century," Claire Weisz, founding principal of WXY, said in a video promoting the new Blueway project. "You see a lot of hard edges, and you don’t see many places to get on and off a boat or to touch the water, and there’s so much potential to do that."

Here's the website...
http://www.eastriverblueway.org/

[NYguy]

http://archpaper.com/news/articles.asp?id=5996

Clearing Vision
NYC Planning making comprehensive waterfront plan a legal reality.



Tom Stoelker
4/17/2012

Last year, the city launched Vision2020, New York’s comprehensive waterfront plan. To describe the plan’s scale and importance, the city’s 520 mile waterfront is referred to as “Sixth Borough.” Today in Los Angeles, the American Planning Association will bestow the Daniel Burnham Award to the city for the proposal. Meanwhile, back in New York, the proposed changes continue to work their way through legal channels to become law.

“We are now planning for our waterfront and waterways with the same intensity and passion that we have traditionally planned for our land,” City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden said in a statement. By its very nature the waterfront is a tangle of city, state, and federal jurisdictions. At the city level, the Waterfront Revitalization Program (WRP) manages costal zoning. It was created in 1980, revised in 2002, and now will be further refined to absorb Vision2020. In the ten years since the last revision, waterfront planning has become a prominent topic for museum exhibitions, a host of idea competitions, and university architecture studios.

Planning has clearly been paying attention. Several of the more salient ideas floated over the past couple of years found their way into the text. The Columbia students’ Lo-Lo project, which called for dredged fill to be used to extend Manhattan’s shoreline, project may not have been the direct inspiration for WRP’s section on dredging, but it shows that the new WRP is in line what the architecture schools are teaching. The new text urges that dredge materials be used for “wetland creation, water quality improvements, beach nourishment, or port redevelopment.”...

[jd3189]

Originally Posted by NYguy

http://archpaper.com/news/articles.asp?id=5325

Future Full of Ferries
NYCEDC report analyzes ferry service around the city.



The 34th Street ferry terminal



The deck of the proposed 34th Street Ferry Pier.



The ferry terminal in front of the Manhattan skyline.


Tom Stoelker
5.02.2011

I had a dream about this. That NYC would one day use its rivers and waterways for transportation as much as the streets are used. The city has the potential to be a hybrid Venice.

[Ch.G, Ch.G]

Shouldn't this be in General Development?

[M II A II R II K]

A Distant Expansion’s Impact on the NYC Waterfront


April 23, 2012

Read More: http://www.thirteen.org/metrofocus/news/2012/04/map/

In 2006, Panamanian voters approved a massive plan to double the shipping capacity of the Panama Canal. The expansion will allow an influx of large, post-Panamax container ships (Panamax refers to the size limit of ships that currently pass through the canal) to travel up the eastern seaboard. The problem is, only the ports in Miami and Norfolk, VA, are able to handle these types of ships on the east coast. Other ports, including the those overseen by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, are working fast to update their harbor infrastructure to accommodate these ships. When the big ships come in, starting in 2014, the long-declining waterfront industry is expected to experience a new boom time.

As part of the preparation, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey must dredge the Anchorage Channel in the Hudson River so the deep-hulled ships can pass through. In order for this $1 billion project to happen, some other harbor fittings have to go. Running under the harbor floor from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, to Stapleton, Staten Island, are two siphons that would serve as back-up should the main conduit of upstate drinking water to Staten Island ever fail. The main water supply to Staten Island is the 10-feet-deep Richmond Tunnel. As the harbor loses some of its floor, these two siphons must be replaced with a much deeper siphon. The new siphon will bring much cleaner water, in the event of a conduit failure, than is currently available. The Port Authority and New York City Department of Environmental Protection will share the costs of this $250 million project, which will be carried out by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers through 2014. Another aspect of the overall harbor project entails raising the Bayonne Bridge by 64 feet to allow the large ships to pass. That $1 billion project will be completed by 2016.

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[NYguy]

http://politicker.com/2013/06/mayor-...future-storms/

Mayor Bloomberg Proposes $20 Billion in Flood Walls, Sand Dunes to Shield Against Future Storms


June 11, 2013
By Jill Colvin

Mayor Michael Bloomberg outlined a nearly $20 billion master plan Tuesday to shield the city from future Hurricane Sandys, complete with levees, sand dunes, bulkheads, flood walls and a proposed “Seaport City.”

The plan calls for the installation of removable “adaptable floodwalls” in riverfront locations across the city, including Hunts Point in the Bronx, along the East Harlem waterfront, the Lower East Side and the Financial District, as well as a new levee and floodwall system along the East Shore of Staten Island, with barriers that could rise as high as 15 to 20 feet.

The proposal, which the mayor is set to outline in a major speech at Brooklyn Navy’s Yard’s Sandy-damaged Duggal Greenhouse, also calls for the construction of a new dune systems in Staten Island and the Rockaway Peninsula, with a “double dune” planned for Breezy Point.

While the mayor has less than seven months left in office, he also proposed building a new “Seaport City” on the east side of Manhattan, similar to the existing Battery Park City near the Financial District. The new development, which could stretch all the way to Brooklyn, would be built on “a multi-purpose levee with raised edge elevations,” designed to protect the East River shoreline south of the Brooklyn Bridge, while creating a new mini-neighborhood.