Artist Rendering of new Whitney Museum | Images by Renzo Piano Building Workshop with Cooper, Robertson & Partners

THE WHITNEY’S NEW HOME
Following last week’s groundbreaking at the Whitney Museum’s future downtown location, New York Magazine’s architecture critic Justin Davidson castigated the museum for what he considers a “monumentally lost opportunity.” The new museum space was designed by acclaimed architect Renzo Piano, whom Davidson accused of capping the High Line “with a pale, metal-clad tower, interlocked with a stack of horizontal blocks that step back in the manner of a clunky cruise ship.” The museum is set to open in 2015. To decide on the design for yourself see it in detail here, and to read more of Davidson on Piano, see the full New York Magazine story.

Gowanus Canal | Image via the New York Daily News

GUNKY GOWANUS
In the latest on the Gowanus Canal cleanup, the New York Post and the New York Daily News reported that two sites readied for development around the Canal for the City’s $300 million “Gowanus Green” housing project still contain toxic contaminants even after a state-monitored clean-up effort seven years ago. One of the largest sources of pollution currently sits under the Lowe’s Home Improvement store, where a black, tarlike substance was found deep in the ground and is still polluting the Canal. Black gunk and yellow liquid containing cancer-causing PAH’s (poly-aromatic hydrocarbons) were discovered recently in the area where Toll Brothers, a development company, had planned an enormous condo project (which they subsequently abandoned following the site’s Superfund designation). The presence of such highly toxic chemicals has alarmed the EPA and raised eyebrows around the effectiveness of the Superfund site’s original clean-up. To read more, see the New York Daily News coverage.

Brownfield Remediation | Image via Omi Industries

GENTRIFYING BROWNFIELDS
CUNY Professor Melissa Checker analyzed the city’s new brownfield redevelopment program in a recent piece for Gotham Gazette, noting development trends in former brownfields geared toward high-income residents and tourists. Brownfields are common in our city (we have an estimated 7,000 acres according to PlaNYC) and are typically characterized by vacant sites contaminated with toxic chemicals such as old gas stations, factories and dry cleaners. Brownfields have historically been avoided by developers due to liability concerns and costly remediation. Up until recently, the City relied on federal and state tax credits to deal with brownfields, classically awarded to higher-income neighborhoods and not to smaller-scale organizations who lack resources to deal with hefty remediation costs. The City’s new Brownfield Cleanup Program (BCP), launched in August 2010, will provide $10 million to remediate brownfields in the city by subsidizing developers’ clean-up costs. The program rewards development in lower-income neighborhoods, which risks gentrifying neighborhoods without public planning processes in place, since generally no community board approval is necessary. To read her full take on brownfields, see Checker’s piece here.

East River Ferry Map | via NY Waterways

EAST RIVER FERRY LAUNCH
The new East River Ferry service will launch on June 13th and, for the first 12 days, the ride is free! After June 25th, the ferry will cost $4 one way, $12 for an unlimited day pass and $140 for an unlimited monthly, as reported by DNAinfo. This much anticipated ferry service is seen as a sustainable, if costly, pilot project for alternative transportation in New York. The ferry line will begin in Long Island City, stop at 34th Street in Manhattan, and make stops in Greenpoint, North Williamsburg, South Williamsburg and DUMBO, ending at Pier 11, just north of the South Street Seaport in Manhattan. In the summer months, ferries will also make stops at Atlantic Avenue (Brooklyn) and Governors Island. Although service is expected every half hour, ferries stop running at 8:30pm on weekends and 9pm on weeknights. The fare cost is subsidized for riders by the City, but will not be a part of the MTA’s fare system. Check out the official East River Ferry Site for full schedules.

Image via NYCwireless

DUMBO’S FREE WiFi
Following the goals outlined in the newly unveiled Roadmap for the Digital City, a developer and non-profit partnership will be providing DUMBO with free, unlimited WiFi. The new network is financed by a developer and is first in the city that offers free wireless, which will be available outdoors between the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges. The Dumbo Improvement District collaborated with Two Trees Management Company, a real estate developer in the area, to offer the service as an amenity to attract residents. The neighborhood is currently host to a number of tech start-ups and is an example of what may be in store for the rest of the city.

ANTI-OBESITY BUILDING
The New York Times covered a new eight-story, 63-unit co-op in the Bronx, called ‘The Melody,” which incorporates active living into the design of the building. Host to several anti-obesity design features, the building includes outdoor space with exercise equipment, a naturally-lit gym and signage posted next to strategic, art-lined, music-filled staircases, reading: “A person’s health can be judged by which they take two of at a time, pills or stairs.” The Melody is the first development project to incorporate the City’s Active Design Guidelines, covered in depth in a UO piece by Samir Shah.

EVENT
Our friends at SUPERFRONT Brooklyn invite young designers to develop a temporary installation for SUPERFRONT PUBLIC SUMMER, a design charette to create public space for local performers, non-profits, community groups and other civic-minded groups in formerly industrial space in Industry City. Jurors Vito Acconci (Acconci Studio), K8 Hardy, Mitchell Joachim (Terreform ONE), Olympia Kazi (Van Alen Institute), and Ada Tolla (LOT-EK) will be judging the designs created for Industry City in Sunset Park. The charrette will take place on June 11th, from 2 – 5pm, at 55 33rd Street, 2nd Floor, Brooklyn. Click here for tickets, and to read up on SUPERFRONT, check out the UO piece on them here.

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Image by Ryan Heshka | via wsj.com

GETTING TRANSPORTATION POLICY RIGHT
In a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, the Brookings Institution’s Robert Puentes calls for an overhaul to the way our country spends its transportation dollars. Moving away from the transportation infrastructure improvements that have built enough new highway lane miles since 2000 to circle the world four times, Puentes instead advocates for a necessary alignment between transportation and the new economy with private and public sectors joining forces to cut carbon emissions and increase connectivity. Puentes spells out a series of national goals, concerning export corridors, commuter connectivity, greener infrastructure and better technology, ”and how transportation policy can — no, must — be rethought to achieve them.” Read the full article here.
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PLANYC’S MISSING PIECE
Last month, the City unveiled its latest update of PlaNYC, addressing what various City agencies, community groups, businesses and others can do to further the administration’s sustainability goals, calling for a multi-stakeholder approach to implementation. In an article for Gotham Gazette, Pratt Center fellows Eve Baron and Alyssa Katz see things differently. For them, participatory planning is “The Sustainability Plan’s Missing Piece.” Calling the plan “top-down” and pointing to the remarkable fact that New York is the only major metropolis without a comprehensive plan, Baron and Katz also outline some mechanisms to improve the administration’s track record. Many of the city’s progressive planning voices (Hunter’s Tom Agnotti, the Pratt Center/NYIRN’s Adam Friedman, NYU’s Furman Center, et. al.) have published complimentary pieces raising flags over PlaNYC’s process, in a series of working papers and articles called Sustainability Watch.
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MAKING NYC ACTIVE
Last month, ASLA’s blog The Dirt interviewed Joyce Lee, Director of the Active Design Program at the NYC Department of Design and Construction, about the City’s Active Design Guidelines. The guidelines explore ways to take on the obesity and fitness crisis through interdisciplinary design of both indoor and outdoor environments. Lee goes into the framework behind the plan and points to ways that New Yorkers, despite their use of public transit, suffer from the car-related physical fitness problems that the rest of the country is dealing with. Lee describes the guidelines’ multifaceted approach, from covering sustainable construction and design to changing walking and movement habits. By connecting the design guidelines to the LEED-ND (Neighborhood Development) rating system, the guidelines offer credit to developers for including things like bike storage areas and tree-lined streets. The design guidelines are being applied now to cities across the country and, although voluntary, are part of public discourse which will trickle its way into legislation. For more information about the Active Design Guidelines, look back at Samir Shah’s recap of the program’s launch last year or dive into the full Active Design Guidelines Plan at nyc.gov.
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EVENTS AND TO-DOs:

VERTICAL URBAN FACTORY | If Nina Rappaport’s recent Omnibus feature Vertical Urban Factory caught your eye, check out two related upcoming events. On Wednesday, June 1st, the New York Design Center is hosting a panel discussion on the future of manufacturing at Trespa, 62 Greene Street. Then, on June 2nd, a tour of the Brooklyn Navy Yard as an American model for sustainable urban manufacturing will meet at the York Street F subway stop at 5:15pm to board a shuttle bus. Suggested contribution is $35, to be paid online at verticalurbanfactory.org (under the “contribute” tab), or bring a check made to New York Foundation for the Arts to the event. The tour will end at Re-Bar in Dumbo for a drink. Rain or shine. RSVP by May 31 to: jamie.chan@gmail.com

Rainbow City at Art Basel Miami Beach | via friendswithyou.com

POP UP PLAZA PARKING LOT: FOOD AND INFLATABLES | The New York Times announced the latest development planned near the High Line’s 30th Street and 10th Avenue entrance. Currently a parking lot, the “Lot at 30th Street” will soon to be transformed into a multi-dimensional art and food mecca planned by Friends of the High Line. The space will feature public art installations, a 350-seat bar called Lot on Tap, managed by chef Tom Colicchio’s restaurant Colicchio & Sons. Collichio will also curate a rotating roster of five high-quality, lower-cost food trucks to compliment the bar. In its 20,000-square-foot eastern section, the Lot will also house a public art exhibition, “Rainbow City,” a collection of huge, brightly colored inflatables from Miami-based artists Friends With You.

BOB the Pavilion | via bobthepavilion.com

BOB the PAVILION | In line with the recent trend in inflatable art, Columbia is unveiling a “floating pavilion” named BOB. This “cloud” will float above a public pavilion and bathroom site, conceived by Columbia’s GSAPP and SoA students. Open June 1 – 25, the pavilion includes composting public restrooms, a projection screen, 12 student-designed seats and a bar. The pneumatic roof is re-pressurized by the toilets’ exhaust. Derived from the idea that “a society that does not provide public restrooms, does not deserve public art,” BOB pushes the link between the necessity for public space and provision of basic amenities. To learn more about BOB, click here.

Stillspotting NYC | via guggenheim.org

STILLSPOTTING NYC: SANITORIUM | The Guggenheim has launched its latest series of off-site, public installations called stillspotting nyc, in response to the idea that “ever-present cacophony of traffic, construction, and commerce; the struggle for mental and physical space; and the anxious need for constant communication in person or via technology are relentless assaults on the senses.” This two-year project will identify “stillspots” across the five boroughs and, every three to five months, will transform these areas with public tours, events or installations by artists, designers, composers and philosophers. The first installation of the series debuts in Brooklyn, from Mexican artist Pedro Reyes. Sanatorium, a temporary therapeutic clinic offering visitors 16 distinct “urban therapies,” will be located at the storefront level of 1 Metrotech Center (entrance at 345 Jay Street) in Downtown Brooklyn. Thursdays, June 2 and 9, 2–10pm; Fridays, June 3 and 10, 2–10pm; Saturdays, June 4 and 11, 10am–10pm; and Sundays, June 5 and 12, 10am–10pm; advance tickets only.

ARCHITECTING THE FUTURE CONFERENCE | The Buckminster Fuller Institute is hosting a three-day series of events and lectures around the announcement of the 2011 Buckminster Fuller Challenge finalists. The annual competition asks participants to design workable solutions to significant world challenges. Architecting the Future kicks off with a lecture from John Thackara on June 8th at 6pm at the CUNY Graduate Center; followed by “Urban Solution Sets —Visionary Strategies for the Future of Cities” at the Center for Architecture on Thursday, June 9th, from 2-4pm; and the announcement of winners and presentation of the selected solution at the CUNY Graduate Center on June 10th, from 6-8pm. For more information and to purchase tickets, go to bfi.org.

CALLS FOR ENTRIES | Now through July 4th, BOFFO is inviting architects to submit design proposals for the second annual Building Fashion, which pairs fashion designers with architects for a series of temporary installations in Tribeca that explore the interesection of architecture and fashion. See more details at Architizer. Meanwhile, at the intersection of architecture and urban agriculture, suckerPUNCH is hosting an international ideas competition for a Center for Urban Farming, to be imagined for a site adjacent to the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Registration deadline is August 15.

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There’s a large section on public input gathered from various ‘digital environments’ via Quora.com, Meetups, By the City, online surveys at nyc.gov and more. The top identified needs gathered from such surveys are public wi-fi, internet access in more locations (even in the subway) and real-time public information.

Much of the report talks about all the great stuff the city is already doing — but here’s some of what we can expect from the city’s growing digital infrastructure in the years to come:

• Better Access to the Internet: public computer centers with senior learning, underground subway wi-fi and cell service in six stations, improve computer access with hardware and internet to 72 of the highest-need middle schools in the city
• Open Government: API-enabled Public Data and NYC Platform, an open government framework featuring Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) for City data, a hub for feedback from the developer community and an NYC App store
• Engagement: Partnerships with social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and Tumblr) to engage residents, digital 311, and a better nyc.gov

Read the full Roadmap for yourself here.
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HOUSING TRENDS
With New York City’s housing climate hitting new lows — last week’s tragic fire in Bushwick resulted in the deaths of two men living in an illegally-converted boarding house — the need to reevaluate legislation and enforcement around illegal subdivisions was made clear. Bolstered by surprising 2010 Census numbers which discounted predictions on Queens’ new residents (reporting that only 1,343 new people moved to Queens in a decade), illegal conversions housing new immigrants are being taken seriously by housing advocates and even City Hall. A recent analysis by the Citizens Housing & Planning Council (CHPC) found that “illegal housing types, subdivisions and sharing are so extensive in the city that it has become impossible to truly understand the population living behind our closed doors.” The Architectural League is working with CHPC on a multi-phase design study that will provoke innovative design thinking to promote a greater diversity of housing typologies in the city, given the mismatch between contemporary demographic reality and the kinds of dwellings that conform to New York’s complex housing code. Stay tuned for more on this collaboration in the weeks to come.

The issue was also addressed in the most recent version of PlaNYC, and re-evaluation of the topic is at the forefront of political conversation. NYU’s Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy released its quarterly report on the city’s state of housing — and trends look dreary for foreclosure and sales. Housing prices have dipped in all boroughs except Queens, and 40% of the city’s foreclosure notices are in Brooklyn, but have declined in every borough since 2010. See the full Furman Report and more on housing reform here.
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New and Old Parks Department Logo | Images courtesy Pentagram

PENTAGRAM AND PARKS DEPARTMENT TEAM UP
Paula Scher, of the design firm Pentagram, has teamed up with the NYC Parks Department to retool their iconic logo and identity, first introduced in 1934. The redesign will touch signage, wayfinding and environmental graphics for 1,700+ parks, playgrounds and other facilities. The design effort, spearheaded by Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe, seeks to coordinate the visual identity of the Department of Parks and Recreation with high-profile projects like the High Line and Madison Square Park and to increase consistency across agency materials.

Although consistent with the original design of a leaf in a circle, the new logo has a modernized leaf, a thinner circle line, a brighter, lighter green and is set in the typeface Akkurat. Park signage has the most radical revamp, with modular pieces for future expansion and double sided signs. To read the full story, see Pentagram’s coverage.

New Parks Signage | Images courtesy Pentagram
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END OF SUBWAY CAR REEFS
If you caught last week’s UO feature on Stephen Mallon’s photography, including his series capturing the process of using retired New York City subway cars as man-made reefs, check out this New York Times slideshow from last week announcing the end of the decade-long program. Over 2,500 retired subway cars (toxic and valuable material removed) had met their fate in the Atlantic, off the coasts of Virginia, Maryland and Delaware, as permanent underwater homes for sea creatures. The program was discontinued this year, when the introduction of newer subway cars with more plastic parts and more complex stripping methods, rendered them unsuitable for oceanic disposal.
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EVENTS & TO-DOs…

NYPL ALL LIT UP
Paul LeClerc, the president of New York Public Library sought Parisian inspiration to light the renovated Fifth Avenue landmark library. François Jousse, Paris’ civic expert on building lighting and engineering, impressed the library with his practice of putting lights atop streetlights surrounding Paris’ most beautiful buildings, casting a magnificent glow onto the most ornate of facades. The library chose Claude R. Engle, a lighting consultant who has illuminated the World Trade Center, the Louvre and the Pompidou, to redo lighting on the beloved library. Marking its 100th birthday on May 23rd, the building will be drenched in glowing, white light to highlight the massive three-year restoration project.

WILLIAMSBURG SMÖRGÅSBORD
Starting this weekend, there’s a new addition to the growingly popular flea market culture with foodies in mind. Smorgasburg, the new Brooklyn Flea Food Market, is a popular add-on to Williamsburg’s waterfront with 100+ food vendors, food organizations (SlowFood, Just Food, NYC Food Coalition) and NYS Greenmarket farmers to offer a retail market with fresh and prepared food, kitchenware and al fresco dining. Yum! Every Saturday. See the official site here.

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VOTE!
Tuesday, November 2nd is Election Day — don’t forget to vote! For the procrastinators among us, Gotham Gazette has an election guide, with who’s running, ballot questions, and when and where to show up.

DEATH OF A TUNNEL
It’s final – the ARC tunnel project is dead. New Jersey Governor Christie announced his decision this week, refusing to “hand over a blank check” for the tunnel, which supporters estimated would have provided thousands of jobs, decreased congestion for commuters, increased property values for New Jersey residents living close to the rail stops, and doubled the number of Jersey residents living within a 50-minute train ride of New York. Meanwhile, the $3 billion that the Federal Transit Administration had in line for the project is now up in the air. Streetsblog has some suggestions for how it could be redistributed to fend off future transit cuts, noting that New York City Council transportation chair Jimmy Vacca has already sent requests to US DOT Secretary Ray LaHood.

THE SUBWAY ISSUE
The New York Times published a special “Subway Issue” of the Sunday Metropolitan section this week, with a look at 100 years of the subway in pictures, a chance to design your own subway map, and a commuter’s secret library. Headlining the section is Michael M. Grynbaum’s piece on MTA Chairman Jay H. Walder’s first year on the job. Walder, who has quite a successful reputation as a transportation executive, has worked to cut the agency’s budget in the face of near-collapse and has dedicated significant effort towards making the NYC transit system more tech-friendly. With a new governor coming into office, there is no guarantee that Walder will be kept on board. Though he says “I hope to stay and I expect to stay,” to offer stability to an already-weak MTA and execute more ideas he has for the City. (Not to mention that if he is let out of his six year contract early, he would receive a pretty large settlement – one more thing that the MTA cannot afford.)
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Photo: Tim Sohn. Click here for more photos of Long Beach West and Pleasure Beach.

SHATTERED IDYLL
This week in the New York Observer, Tim Sohn visits a broken beach beautifully overtaken by Swoon and other Brooklyn artists. Long Beach West, near Bridgeport, Connecticut, has been completely abandoned by human inhabitants since 2007, allowing it to be naturally overrun with wildlife. The deserted cottages on the island were scheduled to be demolished, but they had to wait until after the native bird’s nesting season. The artists took this as an invitation to create a temporary community, inspiring sculpture, collage, and other artworks using found objects from the cottages and surrounding environment.

INFRASTRUCTURAL ECOLOGIES
Hillary Brown, architect, professor, and founder of NYC’s Office of Sustainable Design in 1997, has proposed a set of principles to guide development for the “next generation of infrastructure.” The proposal addresses the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, enlisting global and historic precedents for creating intelligent infrastructure, often times intermodal. She also suggests how we can achieve this vision, through tactical means: “we could begin to test innovative infrastructures, and the fiscal and organizational processes that might bring them about, before setting up new and nationwide frameworks…. we will need to demonstrate the capacity for holistic thinking and integrative action.”

PLANYC UPDATES
Earlier this week, Bronx residents met to discuss initiatives that should be added to the PlaNYC update, such as the removal of the Sheridan Expressway, 50% reduction of greenhouse gases by 2030, and more pedestrian friendly access to park spaces. “There is this mentality that we are the dumpster of the city, and that needs to be addressed” contended Juan Carlos Ruiz, deputy director of Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice. Queens residents can add their suggestions for PlaNYC updates in next week’s Community Conversation and you can vote online for ideas before it moves on to the community boards.
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via CineBeasts

UNIONDOCS
Our friends at UnionDocs, a Brooklyn based hot-spot for dialogue and discourse in the documentary arts, are presenting several enticing programs as a part of their weekly Bodega series of public events. Friday October 29th, Rotterdam-based artist Tim Leyendekker will curate you may find yourself: Short Films Exploring Urban Landscapes, focusing on films that deal with “the Western urban landscape as a witness to intimate social interactions and the de/reconstruction of the cinematic narrative.” On Election Night 2010, Tuesday November 2, CineBeasts will present an evocative program which spans 50 years of election spots and features the eye-opening, found-footage documentary Spin by Brian Springer. Stay for the panel discussion on the evolution of political media language, featuring David Bushman (curator-in-chief of the Paley Center for Media) and “News Dissector” Danny Schechter.

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Yesterday was Earth day. It was also the three-year anniversary of Mayor Bloomberg’s announcement of PlaNYC 2030. Financial and political obstacles have impeded progress on many of the 2009 goals — of the 127 initiatives proposed on Earth Day 2008, only 51 have been entirely completed. Some see this as a “failed dream.” Others consider the shortfalls acceptable in light of all that has been accomplished so far. Meanwhile, Gotham Gazette cautions us against all the political rhetoric, arguing that the implementation of the plan’s “transit-oriented development” is actually increasing New Yorkers’ reliance on cars. But things can’t be all bad — Fast Company has included New York, and its urban farms in particular, in its list of 12 cities across the nation enacting the best ideas for the cities of the future.

In this week’s feature, Vishaan Chakrabarti discusses Curitiba’s Bus Rapid Transit system, pioneered by architect-mayor Jaime Lerner. Curitiba’s transformation is a direct precedent for transportation innovation in Ahmedabad, India, which Meena Kadri chronicles in Places. Kadri quotes planner Shivanand Swamy, who led the research team behind Ahmedabad’s BRT system, as noting that “dedicated lanes are the key to making a bus system smooth and speedy — a real alternative to private vehicles.” Our own transit planners agree: the Department of Transportation is moving ahead with a plan to add pedestrian plazas, reduce private vehicle traffic, and improve bus efficiency (using dedicated lanes) across 34th Street. Besides, according to New York Magazine’s Intelligencer, transportation reform is the key to a lasting legacy: let Bloomberg take over the MTA and find out if they’re right.

Subway etiquette posters by Jason Shelowitz

Taking over the MTA in a different manner is the “Metropolitan Etiquette Authority.” The MEA is the invention of Jason Shelowitz who is waging a public art campaign about public etiquette on the subway. Posing as official MTA notices, his posters request better etiquette under the categories of nail clipping, noise pollution, physical contact, hygiene, and more. In New York Magazine’s brief interview with Shelowitz, the artist explains that while the signs may be illegally posted, at least he is using removable double-sized tape so that they remain impermanent and leave no residue behind.

Speaking of public art, this week Shepard Fairey completed his new mural on Houston and Bowery. Wooster Collective caught Fairey on site as he continued working and interviewed him about the mural, his upcoming show at Deitch Projects, and why New York is the best place in the world for street art. Flavorwire features a different kind of street art in “Up There,” Stella Artois’ charming short film on the art of hand-painted billboards in an era of printed vinyl ads (embedded above).

Atlantic Yards opponents are feeling conflicted this week as Daniel Goldstein, founder and now-former-spokesperson of Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, agreed to sell his apartment to Forest City Ratner for $3 million. City Room reports that with Daniel Goldstein’s agreement to sell his condo in Prospect heights, the “last man standing in front of the Atlantic Yards bulldozer has stepped aside.” This a few days after another headlining hold-out, Freddy’s Bar and Backroom, announced plans to close up their Dean St. digs and move to a new location.

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In this week’s feature, Kate Zidar focused on the importance of designing for stormwater management. Careful consideration of the use, management and conservation of our water resources is a topic being discussed both locally and globally. The Urban Land Institute has released a new publication, Infrastructure 2010: An Investment Imperative, the fourth in a series analyzing infrastructure needs in the US. This issue spotlights water infrastructure and the urgent need to tame our nation’s “water profligacy,” upgrade our physical infrastructure, attend to contamination threats, and implement the kinds of stormwater conservation plans discussed by Zidar. Meanwhile TreeHugger has posted an interview with Robert Glennon, author of Unquenchable: America’s Water Crisis and What To Do About It, about mismanagement of our water supply on both a local and global scale, and Boing Boing has a Q&A with The Pacific Institute’s Peter Gleick about water scarcity and efficiency.

Nicola Twilley, familiar to Omnibus readers from our Food and the Shape of Cities interview, has an entertaining and interesting article on Edible Geography about forgotten underground cow tunnels on the west side of Manhattan. Built as transportation passageways to get cows to the slaughterhouses in the meatpacking district, these tunnels aren’t just a glimpse into the history of a neighborhood. Twilley also explores how their existence can be seen as evidence of larger systems at play in cities: “it shows clearly how food designs the city, carving out routes and reshaping urban infrastructure in response to changes in technology, economics, and volume.” And if you’ve every wondered what the ideal design of a cow tunnel might be, be sure to read through to the end, where she quotes autistic savant Temple Grandin’s explanation of what makes a tunnel appealing to a cow. According to Gothamist, there’s a chance these tunnels might be added to the National Register of Historic Places – stay tuned, they’re checking in for an update and promise to keep readers posted.

Speaking of subterranean tunnels, The Brooklyn Eagle has a piece on secret emergency exits from the subway system, including one that leads up to a false front brownstone in Brooklyn Heights.

Next week is Earth Day, which marks the 3rd anniversary of Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC 2030, a 25-year plan for making “a greener, greater New York City.” Over at Gotham Gazette, Tom Angotti identifies what he sees as the plan’s central flaw: “PlaNYC2030 left out any role for the city’s hundreds of neighborhoods, 59 community boards, and the countless civic, community and environmental groups that care about the future of the city. It was a top-down plan, conceived at City Hall with minimal input, and it was never approved as an official plan.” It’s time, he says, to remedy this problem: involve the neighborhoods and allow the ambitious ideas that inspired the plan to reach their full potential.

FDR Four Freedoms Park

In parks news: a quiet groundbreaking recently took place for the FDR Four Freedoms Park on the southernmost tip of Roosevelt Island. The memorial park was designed by Louis I. Kahn in 1974, just before his death, but was shelved in 1975 for financial reasons.

With much more fanfare came the announcement of the Governors Island Park master plan. As we mentioned in our earlier coverage of the design’s release, City Room opened its email inbox to its readers to submit ideas for how they thought the land should be used. The results are in and ideas range from zoos to prisons to casinos to doing nothing at all.

Street vendor lovers should take note of new proposed rules that would limit the number of artists who can sell their printed text or visual work in public parks, a move that would, according to the city, free up space for parkgoers, or, according to some vendors, infringe on their First Amendment rights. A public hearing is scheduled for next week and artists’ groups have already promised protests and lawsuits if the regulations pass.

And if you find yourself in Thomas Jefferson Park tomorrow, keep your eye out for the official unveiling of the Parks Department’s new mascot: Pearl the Squirrel.

Don’t forget — today is the last day to mail in your census form. New York still has a long way to go. Send ‘em in!

The Roundup keeps you up to date with topics we’ve featured and other things we think are worth knowing about. Top photo (cow) by Flickr user foxypar4. Four Freedoms Park sketch by Louis I. Kahn courtesy of fdrfourfreedomspark.org.

Swelter, by Keystone

Background
A gushing hydrant drenching happy kids is an iconic image of urban summertime. My first 4^th of July living in New York was boiling hot and I was thrilled to see the open hydrants in person. It wasn’t until several years later that this article from the Times caused me to rethink the excitement of the open hydrant.

The article provided a shocking statistic: at full power an open hydrant pumps out 1,000 gallons of water a minute. Uncapping, or opening, the local hydrant for relief from the heat had never struck me as anything more than a fun, and totally accepted, urban practice that had been going on for decades.

But that 1,000 gpm figure stuck in my head. And my curiosity eventually led me to develop nyc: uncapped, a study of the common summertime practice, and, in response to those discoveries, an exploration of alternatives.

Diagram courtesy of Flickr user takomabibelot

Quick web-surfing yielded plenty of articles going back for a number of summers, chronicling the water lost from open hydrants all over New York and other cities like Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Chicago. The cumulative effect of so many running hydrants raised concern – especially since New York has had at least seven droughts in recent history.

It is estimated that the average person will consume about 7,000 gallons of water in their lifetime. At 1,000 gallons per minute, an open hydrant will have spent the entire lifetime supply of drinking water for two people in just 15 minutes. The water loss is staggering, particularly when you consider that hydrants typically remain open for much longer.

This tension between the ability of an open hydrant to activate public space and the potentially serious impact it has on ecological health provides the foundation for nyc: uncapped.  Exploring the uncapping ritual and its context, this project re-imagines the hydrant as more than a basic tool for firefighting – it can also be a valid opportunity for play and even a catalyst for ecologic improvement.

Context
Unless they are uncapped, or you’re in a car looking for a momentary parking space, hydrants disappear into the white noise of miscellaneous street appurtenances. The first step in my research was to understand how the hydrant worked and fit into the New York City water supply system.

The city’s water originates in upstate watersheds encompassing more than 2,000 square miles of land. 21 reservoirs and lakes collect, hold, and distribute water into a system of aqueducts and tunnels that travel over 125 miles to deliver more than 1.3 billion gallons of water to the city every day (an amount that would fill the Empire State Building to the brim more than four times). After being filtered and treated, the water delivered to our kitchen sinks is identical to the water flowing to a hydrant – it is all potable water.

At least 60 different boards, agencies, and committees across city and state borders form a complex web of organizations that manages the vast operations of the NYC water system.  Chief among these is the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), which is responsible for maintaining the hydrants.

Citizens are allowed to use their local hydrant only if it is equipped with a spray cap, provided and installed by the fire department at no charge. Holes in the cap on the barrel’s side reduce the flow of water from 1,000 to 25 gallons per minute. Opening the hydrant without a spray cap is illegal and citizens can be ticketed or fined for what the city terms ‘hydrant abuse’.

When a hydrant is fully open, water pressure in the surrounding hydrants drops, rendering them ineffective in their primary role as sources of water for firefighting. Water pressure in nearby buildings is also affected, causing problems for hospitals, local businesses, and residents.

On top of public safety issues, the water is not free. We currently pay indirectly for water expended from a hydrant through water rate hikes. If hydrants were metered to charge an on the spot pay-to-play fee, the water would cost $2 per minute plus an additional $4.30 per minute to take the water into the city’s treatment system for cleaning. At $6.30 per minute, three hours romping in the local hydrant would run just over $1,000 – which does not take into account extra costs associated with man-hours required to close, repair, or replace broken hydrants.

nyc: uncapped
While open hydrants can be found across much of the city, Washington Heights, the South Bronx, and South Jamaica neighborhoods experience the most frequent activity, according to the DEP. In preliminary research a single hydrant on 156^th Street was notable for having been opened and closed 14 times in a single day, prompting my decision to focus nyc: uncapped on the Washington Heights and Inwood neighborhoods. For ease of information gathering, the study also includes everything north of 155^th Street in Manhattan (the geographic boundary for Community District #12). While only 1% of the city’s hydrant inventory is located in this district, 20% of the calls to 311 complaining of an open hydrant come from this area.

Hydrant uncapped without spray cap

Hydrant equipped with spray cap

Beyond the obvious temperature driver, it became apparent that the physical environment of CD12 contributes to the frequent open hydrants. Looking at a map one would think that this area, the skinniest part of the island, surrounded by the Hudson and East Rivers and large swaths of park, would have plenty of shady opportunities for recreation. However, major highways run through the parks and steep elevation changes (up to 150’) make it a challenge to access much of the parkland and waterfront. Despite the acres of parks, CD12 has one of the lowest percentages of tree canopy cover in the city. The lone municipal pool in the district, which can handle about 2,400 visitors a day, has to serve the district’s 50,000+ kids under the age of 18. People often stand in line for an hour or more waiting to be admitted.

Numerous visits to CD12 confirmed that hydrants were getting a lot of unauthorized use during the summer.  I also found plenty of residents hanging out on the sidewalks in front of their homes in cooler months, suggesting that hydrant uncapping is partially fed by a broader socially-active sidewalk life, and is not singularly motivated by physical factors.

Alternatives to uncapping
The open hydrant tradition has to evolve. Given the projected increases in both summertime temperatures and the city’s population, a corollary increase in the number of uncapped hydrants can also be expected. While the creative appropriation of the hydrant and surrounding sidewalk for recreation is the beginning of a good multi-use strategy, my goal was to preserve the positive aspects of uncapping without sacrificing water resources.

Part of the city’s plaNYC initiative is to plant one million trees by 2030. Why not target streets with frequent uncapping activity and limited tree cover, close those streets to traffic for the summer, and transform them into seasonal tree nurseries? In so doing, these temporary parks would provide immediate relief to the residents of CD12 while supporting a city-wide green agenda.

Each summer, growers would deliver a planting season’s lot of new trees to the Uncapped Streets, their leafy cover providing relief from the sun while mitigating the intensity of heat bouncing off paved surfaces. Temporary irrigation nurturing the boxed trees would also provide a cooling spray for locals playing tag among the boxes or pausing for a moment in the shade.

By piggy-backing on an existing program and utilizing basic materials, the Uncapped Street program could be mobilized quickly with minimal investment. Assuming a successful reduction in “hydrant abuse” the temporary nursery/park program could be enjoyed for a number of years, rotating through streets in need. Supporting one of the city’s premiere green initiatives could become a badge of honor for these selected streets. And with a million trees to plant, CD12 would be able to develop a permanent tree canopy by planting their share of the new trees before the Uncapped Streets program is retired.

The future uncapped
While the Uncapped Streets nursery/park program meets immediate needs, I also wanted to investigate longer-term solutions to address the causes of uncapping: heat and park access. One possibility builds upon the simple technology of a tree box filter, envisioned here as a hydrant garden. Extending the entire 30’ of a hydrant’s no-parking zone, a planted section of the sidewalk becomes a bio-retention component of the city’s drainage system. Storm water is slowed and filtered by the plants and their soil before entering the city treatment system.

Framed by a pair of the million new trees, the hydrant is recast as the anchor of a mini-park and micro-climate generator. Reconfigured to use river water instead of potable water, the hydrant with its spray cap continues to provide cooling water, filtered from the river, on demand. The spent water collects in the garden, nourishing the plants as it percolates through the soil. Evaporation of the water and evapotranspiration of the plants “breathing” cools the local air. By making the hydrant the centerpiece of the mini-park, the hydrant becomes more visible as a signifier of the city’s hybrid approach to civil engineering, natural resource management, and recreation.  Repeated from block to block, the hydrant garden, a decentralized segment of park, reiterates the presence of a larger ecologic and engineering system at work.

nyc:uncapped was motivated by more than a concern for wasted water. I used this study to demonstrate how a more holistic approach to urban problem solving can allow a single intervention to address several municipal challenges more effectively than looking at each issue as a discrete problem with a singular solution (i.e. Problem: Unlawfully opened hydrants threaten public safety and ecological health; Solution: eliminate all hydrants and have firefighters access water mains through sidewalk vaults). Here, a hydrant garden provides an array of benefits to both city and neighborhood. The bio-retention capabilities of the hydrant garden/mini-park help protect water resources by slowing the storm-water as it enters the city’s treatment system, thus reducing peak flow of storm water and incidences of CSO discharges. The contaminant load entering the system and requiring treatment is also reduced. Yet the engaging ad-hoc event of uncapping can continue without threatening water resources. The mini-park promotes neighborhood gathering and recreation while contributing to a reduction in urban heat island effects across the city.

I would like to gratefully acknowledge the sponsorship of the Architectural League and the financial support of the New York State Council on the Arts in completing this project. nyc:uncapped was funded by an independent project grant through NYSCA’s Architecture, Planning, and Design Program.

Adrienne Cortez is a licensed landscape architect with degrees from the University of Virginia and Trinity University, Texas. Recent work has ranged from an intimate city garden to a large post-industrial site. She recently relocated from Manhattan to Dallas to handle project work in Mexico. She can be reached at cortez (at) nyc-uncapped (dot) com.

The views expressed here are those of the author only and do not reflect the position of Urban Omnibus editorial staff or the Architectural League of New York.

Like most of my colleagues, I tip my hat to Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council for devising a plan to make landlords retrofit older buildings. And like the cleantech advocates who stood beside me on a Rockefeller Center terrace to hear the mayor outline the plan on Earth Day, I shrugged when I tried to gauge which engineering recipes will help landlords meet the requirements. And now, I’m biting my nails a bit.

Landlords tend to hate mandates, in part because it’s bedeviling to legislate engineering: no two buildings respond optimally to the same efficiency fixes. A building’s optimal tune-up depends on what its tenants do, how frequently they move in and out, where the building faces, and so on. But the Greener, Greater Buildings Plan requires energy audits and upgrades from all  landlords in big buildings, and lighting fixes from all their commercial tenants. Bold and properly so. But maybe we would get greener sooner if the mayor had offered incentives to a subset of landlords whose huge portfolios make investing in efficiency a surer bet than nitpicking over why they shouldn’t have to.

“It speaks volumes to see who isn’t standing with the mayor,” a City Hall staff member confided on Earth Day. The landlords’ lobby has clamored for slow-track changes to their buildings since the mayor’s focus turned green in 2007. I now worry that the mandates in the new plan – five year paybacks, full benchmarking, code compliance after even minor upgrades – will embolden the small landlords to cry “oppression in a Depression!” and swoop us all into a political Punch and Judy show. Hey, it happened with congestion pricing.

So what do urban enthusiasts do about it? Focus. The audacity that brought us Rockefeller Center, Dumbo and the High Line crackles through the mayor’s plan – except that the stakes are much higher. Before the mayor spoke on Earth Day, I turned and paused to geek out at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. The next few years will ask us to choose economic constraints to free us from a flood of climate-related disasters. If we tell our landlords, our pension funds, our architects and our mayors to keep thinking big, we will build something as sublime as Rock Center. If we listen to the silence of landlords who worry about short-term costs, the bright cheer of recent days will fade to a painful echo.

Alec Appelbaum writes about how cities can become greener and fairer for the New York Times, the Architect’s Newspaper and others. He lives on the Lower East Side. Photo: Spencer T. Tucker / City of New York, Office of the Mayor

The views expressed here are those of the author only and do not reflect the position of Urban Omnibus editorial staff or the Architectural League of New York.