Tomorrow, Saturday, July 24th, the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance is hosting the third annual City of Water Day Festival. Head to Governors Island, Brooklyn Bridge Park, Liberty State Park and the Atlantic Basin for free harbor boat tours, a children’s festival, live music, and a film expo. (If you find yourself on Governors Island, don’t forget to visit the League’s current exhibition, The City We Imagined/The City We Made, on view in Building 110 through August 15!)

Park development and renovation has been a recent topic of interest for cities worldwide. Next Tuesday, July 27th, there will be a Freshkills Park Talk on that very subject. Entitled “Innovative Parks for Resurgent Cities,” the lecture will feature Peter Harnik, Director of the Center for City Park Excellence at the Trust for Public Land. Reading from and talking about his book of the same name, he will discuss how these new parks are revitalizing previously unused public space and how city planners can add green space in built-out cities. In anticipation of the talk, check out Gotham Gazette for a piece on Harnik, his book, and the politics and planning behind open space in New York City.

New York City is becoming an easier and safer place for senior citizens to live. A number of small, “age-friendly” adjustments are already being implemented, such as increasing the duration of walk signs and providing school buses for trips to the grocery. But that’s just a start. The New York Times reports that the city is in the midst of establishing two “aging improvement districts,” an initiative presented to the City Council and Mayor Bloomberg’s office by the New York Academy of Medicine. The details are still in the works, but it sounds like the planning team should take a look at Interboro’s research into NORCs (Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities) in NYC.

The revival of many New York City neighborhoods was tied largely to the renovation and refurbishment of thousands of apartment buildings in the city. However, given the current economic climate, many of these buildings are falling back into disrepair, as tenants are unable to pay their rent, or owners their mortgages. The city once owned many of these properties as a result of tax delinquencies and was widely criticized for how it managed their care, and has no interest in taking them over again. New owners for such buildings are scarce right now, and residents of central Brooklyn, the South Bronx and Harlem in particular are feeling the impact as their neighborhoods, after a period of revitalization, are deteriorating once again.

The Gowanus Canal, recently named a Superfund site by the EPA, has been fitted with a oxygenation system, temporarily replacing a flushing tunnel that is under repair. Part of a $140 million, four-year plan by the EPA, the added oxygen, which determines the water’s ability to sustain life, and repaired flushing tunnel will allow the Gowanus to meet recreational regulations for boating and fishing by the project’s end.

The Roundup keeps you up to date with topics we’ve featured and other things we think are worth knowing about. Photo by Flickr user cyu06.

With temperatures in the triple digits earlier this week, residents in major cities like New York, Washington and Philadelphia felt the heat more so than those living in more rural areas due to the heat island effect. That said, a new study out of Georgia Tech posits that among cities, the wider the sprawl the greater the affects of climate change. In other words, get dense to get green! Back in January, the Omnibus brought you Clip-on Architecture: Vanessa Keith’s bold vision for how to knit green interventions into our existing urban building stock in order to redress the affects of tropical deforestation. Keith is hardly the only one turning attention to the roof in attempts to cool buildings, and thus the city, down. By creating the roofs out of a light-colored special polymer, or installing a rooftop garden, or “living roof,” you have the ability to reduce temperatures by almost half, as well as save on cooling costs. While the initial costs of installing such systems has often scared owners in the past, perhaps the weather of the past week will have them reconsider the option. One local enterprise, the Brooklyn Grange Farm, recently installed a green roof at their home in Long Island City, and also sell their goods at various markets around the city.

The design company IDEO is now using video and social media to promote positive thinking about climate change and its future impact on the Earth through their Living Climate Change project. They also recently announced the winner of their video challenge, which allowed filmmakers to showcase what their vision of the future shaped by climate change will be. Below is a short video explaining the premise behind it all (via Flavorwire):

Our Invitation To You from IDEO on Vimeo.

Public transportation has long been touted as one way to lead a more sustainable life, but many New York City buses often move at the same speed as pedestrians, leading to frustration from passengers and city officials alike. However, thanks in part to an $18 million federal grant recently won by the city, plans for the 34th Street Transitway are one step closer to becoming a reality. With over 90% of the traffic at Herald Square coming from pedestrians or transit riders, the plan calls for buses to have their own corridors to allow them to function similarly to the subway, and hopefully be faster and more efficient. Hopefully this project will be the first of many successful ventures to revive the whole city bus system.

Images via WebEcoist; Left – exterior of the pavilion; Right – interior view of the “forest”

Green space may be at a premium in most major metropolitan areas, but DUS Architects out of Amsterdam created a small, wooded retreat for city dwellers with their Unlimited Urban Woods pavilion. From the outside it was just a small, unassuming box, but once you stepped inside they were able to create the illusion of a never-ending forest through the use of just one planted tree and carefully angled mirrors.

In recent years, New York City has been creating, expanding, and renovating numerous parks along the city’s waterfront, most recently the Brooklyn Bridge Park, which opened the first phase to the public in March of this year. However, one op-ed writer for the New York Times, offers the argument that while many are stating that we are “reclaiming” the waterfront, we’ve never really had control of it until now. When it was dominated by shipping and manufacturing in the 19th century and first half of the 20th, the waterfront was a dangerous, crime-ridden place, one that many New Yorkers did not dare to explore. According to the author, Nathan Ward, we’re not reclaiming it, we’re claiming it.

The New York City Economic Development Corporation has recently announced that it is seeking proposals to develop a new hub in the Bronxchester Urban Renewal Area in the Mott Haven neighborhood of the South Bronx. In addition to the new Yankees Stadium and plans for the Grand Concourse, the City is hoping to further encourage revival through the introduction of a mixed-use development including commercial space, community and educational centers, and other public and semi-public spaces.

Long Island was home to some of the first suburbs in the country, and back in March, the Long Island Index sponsored a competition to ‘Build a Better Burb’ and reconsider the notion in todays economic climate. The 23 finalists were recently announced, with many ideas centered around the concept of walkable, sustainable communities, and are now inviting the public to vote on the “People’s Choice” award. Winners will be announced in October 4th.

This weekend, July 9-11, the Anthology Film Archives is presenting “The Outer Boroughs on Film.” A majority of the documentaries being shown were filmed during the 1970’s and 80’s, when crime, disinvestment and a major fiscal crisis threatened the rapid decline of many neighborhoods in the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island.

If you’ve ever been intrigued by what it takes to be a window cleaner, and what exactly they are thinking working high above the city streets, the New York Times recently had a two-part question and answer series with Andrew Horton. Horton was a window washer for over two decades and now runs the city’s main safety training program.

Robert Moses certainly left his mark on the city in the 1930’s, but one that has been unseen by most is the “Freedom” Tunnel, named after the graffiti artist Chris Pape, that runs under the Upper West Side. Used briefly by Amtrak, it then became home to many of the city’s homeless population, and a prime canvas for Pape and other graffiti artists. Functioning as an active train line once again, it offers urban explorers a world of stunning contrast to explore, as seen below (via Wooster Collective)

Freedom Tunnel from Charles le Brigand on Vimeo


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Photo credits from left to right: Kyle R. Brooks; Steven Yavanian; Frank Guittard; Jason A. Tax.

Be sure to join us on July 8th for the latest in the Architectural League’s Conversations on New York series of public events. This one features former Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Dan Doctoroff, who set in motion many of the most significant urban projects of the past decade, from the Olympic Bid to congestion pricing to PLANYC 2030. Doctoroff will be in conversation with Paul Goldberger, architecture critic for The New Yorker. (Thursday, July 8 | 7:00 p.m. | The Great Hall, The Cooper Union | 7 East 7th Street | 1.5 CEUs).

And that’s not all that’s going on next week. On July 7th, there are two stimulating panel discussions to choose from. Up in East Harlem, a panel discussion and tour of Tapestry, the new mixed-use, green building, will highlight affordable housing and sustainable design. If you’re more up for a debate on what housing in 2050 will look like, the Forum for Urban Design is hosting a moderated discussion of their own. With the American population projected to grow by another 100 million by then, you can listen to two men with very differing opinions talk about how they think the American urban and suburban landscape will have adapted by then.

Speaking of ideas about the future, Crains, in honor of their 25th anniversary, reached out to a variety of New Yorkers from all disciplines and has come up with 25 ideas to create a better, future New York City. These ideas include topics familiar to Omnibus readers, such as how to rethink Governors Island, how to develop the local food chain, and how deal with New York’s traffic.

Back on May 3rd, ground broke on the Via Verde project in the South Bronx, a new mixed-use development that will include a variety of living environments for a multitude of income levels, and is also slated to certified LEED gold upon completion. The project will also help the city get to Mayor Bloomberg’s goal of an additional 165,000 affordable housing units by 2014. Shaun Donovan, the U.S. Secretary for HUD was at the ground-breaking ceremony, was recently interviewed by Architectural Record to discuss the effects of the stimulus package on affordable housing, and the role that architects have in reshaping urban communities. With $13.6 billion in stimulus funds allocated to HUD, that money has been critical to the continued construction of multi-family homes, and both HUD and architects have an unique opportunity to create a new sustainable model for lower-income communities.

The former Domino Sugar refinery on the Williamsburg waterfront has long been the source of contention within the neighborhood regarding future plans for the abandoned site. This past Tuesday, the City Council gave its support for the $1.4 billion development plan to turn the site into a 2,000 unit residential development. With this approval, the project is expected to gain final approval from the City Planning Commission next month. 660 of the units will be for lower income and working class families, and the Community Preservation Corporation, the developer for the site, conceded to reducing the height of the two tallest buildings (although the total number of units will remain the same), and will keep the main refinery building and the 40 foot tall Domino sign intact. Shuttle buses to the nearest subway stop will also be provided, but with the large number of parking spots that are planned for, many fear that the development will not encourage sustainable living in any regard, and have a negative impact on the surrounding community.

Making Policy Public, a program of The Center for Urban Pedagogy, has released their latest poster, “I Got Arrested! Now What?,” the sixth in the series that explores complex public policy through graphic design; past topics have included street vendors and predatory equity. This one deals with the juvenile justice system, following “Chris” from his arrest through trial in court, explaining each phase of the process and even giving important tips.

Image by Iwan Baan via Fast Company

The Summer Warm Up begins this Saturday at P.S 1, featuring Pole Dance by SO-IL, winner’s of the Young Architects Program. Constructed of a large mesh net set on a 16′x16′ grid of metal poles, bungee cords connected to the poles allow visitors to manipulate the net and the yoga balls atop the net. Perhaps the most interactive (and fun!) of the past few installations, you can also manipulate the sound of the poles or watch real-time visualizations of the installation from its own website.

That sounds like a great way to kick off what for many New Yorkers is a three-day weekend. Fireworks are along the Hudson River again this year. Below, a time-lapse video of last year’s display on the Hudson:

NYC Time Lapse July 4th, 2009 from BoB Coon on Vimeo.

If you’re staying in the city, take advantage of the summer weather, and check out Time Out’s guide to the long weekend. And for those that want to stay in Brooklyn, there are a few patriotic events there as well, including a bar crawl in Greenpoint that culminates in a “Most Patriotic” costume competition.


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Photo by Philippe Baumann

Summer is just around the corner and that means outdoor movies, lazy days in the park, ice cream — and some sweltering heat. It isn’t always easy to escape from climbing temperatures. New York City only has 54 public pools for its 8 million plus residents and with only 50 of those open this summer, many will not be able to take advantage of the facilities. But for some Bronx residents, relief has returned via tugboat. The Floating Pool Lady – a barge turned floating pool, familiar to Omnibus readers from our conversations with founder Ann Buttenwieser and designer Jonathan Kirschenfeld – made the trip back to Barretto Point Park earlier this week. The pool has anchored in Hunts Point during the summer months since 2008 and will open this year on June 29th.

Hoboken, which is where Zipcar made its debut in New Jersey, officially launched the first citywide car-sharing program today. “Corner Cars,” in partnership with Hertz, is starting out with 42 cars in 21 locations throughout the one-mile-square city. 40% of residents rely on cars to commute to work but a higher percentage own one and parking spots are at a premium. The city hopes that the car-sharing program will have multiple benefits – reduce car ownership amongst residents, promote pedestrian safety by reducing the number of cars parked too close to pedestrian crossings, and produce revenue for the city itself as Hertz is paying $100 a month for each space in the program. Many other cities, including New York, are very interested in the data that comes out of this program, in hopes that it might prove to be a replicable model.

New York City has more than 7,400 miles of sewer lines and keeping them clear (and preventing overflow) is a major undertaking. As of this past Wednesday, the city has two new powerhouse vacuum cleaners to help with the challenge: diesel trucks that snake into the sewer system and can remove up to three tons of sewage and extraneous debris in a day. The first two trucks are working 5 days per week to remove clogs (identified by sonar technology and video cameras) from the largest of the city’s lines and two more machines will be added to the effort next year.

Earlier this week we brought you a recap of the Institute for Urban Design’s symposium “Rebuilding a Sustainable Haiti.” Tonight at 7pm (go now!), Christina Ray is hosting “Konbit Shelter,” an artist talk and benefit for Haiti with artists and collaborators Swoon and Benjamin Wolf. Swoon and Wolf recently visited Haiti, and will discuss their trip as well as plans for a rebuilding workshop in Haitian communities this summer. All artwork on display at the gallery is on sale and benefiting the Konbit Shelter project, which is looking to introduce the Superadobe building technique to local builders in Haiti. (And stay tuned for more Swoon on Urban Omnibus in the fourth installment of our series of artist interviews, coming soon.)

There are a few other events coming up next week. On June 22nd, Storefront for Art and Architecture is hosting a book launch for Ecological Urbanism, which explores sustainable design issues within existing and new cities. Also that night, Connie Fishman, president of the Hudson River Park Trust, will be speaking at the new Battery Park City Library about the planning, problems and progress of constructing Hudson River Park.

While you’re out enjoying the weekend, keep your eyes open for unexpected pockets of flowers courtesy of the Woolly School Garden. Yesterday we enjoyed one of their installations outside of Omnibus headquarters. It did, as promised by the notes attached to the plants, brighten our day.

Broadway between Houston and Prince. Photo by Varick Shute.

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Conversations on New York 1: Alex Garvin with Rosalie Genevro and Michael Sorkin
Thursday, June 17, 2010
7:00 p.m.
Rose Auditorium, The Cooper Union
41 Cooper Square
1.5 CEUs
“Conversations on New York” are presented in conjunction with the League exhibition The City We Imagined / The City We Made: New New York 2001-2010.

Conversations on New York 1 will feature urban designer Alexander Garvin. Garvin played a major role in two of the most ambitious and discussed public planning initiatives of the decade, serving as managing director of the NYC 2012 effort and as director of planning, design, and development for the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. The program will look at both of these projects as well as the role of urban design in the transformation of New York over the past decade.

Garvin is currently President of Alex Garvin and Associates, a planning and design firm based in New York City and president of the Forum for Urban Design. From 1996 to 2005, he was Managing Director of Planning for NYC2012. During 2002-2003, he was the Vice President for Planning, Design and Development at the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. He served as a member of the New York City Planning Commission from 1995-2004.

Rosalie Genevro is executive director of the Architectural League. Michael Sorkin is director of the graduate program in urban design at the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture at City College and vice-president for urban design of the Architectural League board of directors, president of the Institute for Urban Design, and author of many books, including the recent Twenty Minutes in Manhattan. Tickets are required for admission to League programs. Tickets are free for League members; $10 for non-members. Members may reserve a ticket by e-mailing: rsvp@archleague.org. Non-members may purchase tickets from www.archleague.org.

Co-sponsored by The Cooper Union Department of Continuing Education and Public Programs. This program is made possible, in part, by public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council. The City We Imagined / The City We Made: New New York 2001-2010 is supported by Sciame and by Kohn Pedersen Fox.

Image: NYC2012 Olympic Village, courtesy of Alex Garvin

Today FIGMENT NYC, “a forum for the creation and display of participatory and interactive art by emerging artists across disciplines,” kicked off on Governors Island. Watch the video about to get a taste of the installations, performances, workshops, games and activities taking place throughout the weekend (June 12-13, 10am-6pm). While you’re on the island, be sure to check out the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Arts Center in Building 110, a former munitions warehouse on the northern shore that is the summer studio for 24 artists and 4 performing groups. Flavorwire has some recent photos of the space, but be sure to drop by throughout the summer to see the artists and their works-in-progress.

As you enjoy the ferry ride to Governors Island, you might wonder why there aren’t more ferries in New York’s waterways. New York Times City Critic Ariel Kaminer asks that very question as the Economic Development Corporation and the Department of City Planning study our waterways’ potential for public transportation, waterfront revitalization and emergency evacuation planning. Meanwhile, Omnibus contributor Steven Dale, who encouraged us to see the transportation potential in our skyways, spotlights the successful integration of cable-propelled transit into the transportation systems of cities across South America, a trend Dale says is gaining momentum around the world.

We’ve touched on the potential powers of oysters in cleaning up our aquatic ecosystems in the past, but it looks as if Fabien Cousteau has started the process here in New York. Cousteau, deep-sea explorer, documentary filmmaker and grandson of Jacques, has turned his attention to New York in efforts to help restore the Hudson River with his non-profit group Plant a Fish. In conjunction with the Urban Assembly New Harbor School, a public high school in Bushwick that focuses on New York’s waterways and will have a new facility on Governors Island this fall, Cousteau and students planted 130,000 oysters in New York Harbor on Monday. Over the next several years Cousteau hopes to plant over one billion oysters in the Hudson and East Rivers. Just don’t tell New Jersey — DEP officials there have halted oyster bed restoration projects due to fears of poachers selling the not-for-consumption oysters commercially.

In policy news, two bills have been getting attention this week. New York Senator Chuck Schumer is co-sponsoring the Public Transportation Preservation Act, which would authorize $2 billion in emergency funding to prevent job and service cuts and fare hikes. Meanwhile Buffalo Assemblyman Sam Hoyt is spearheading the smart growth bill in state legislature, which would promote state spending in areas that have already been developed instead of allowing for the continual sprawl of communities — an issue, as Streetsblog points out, that New York City residents should pay attention to. Increased infrastructural growth in urban and suburban areas in the rest of the state is heavily subsidized and therefore affects all New York taxpayers.

David Byrne wears many hats — artist, cycling advocate, writer — but is probably best known for his music. As that career grew, and his performance venues grew in stature and size, he noticed how his sound changed with the architecture. In his TED Talk (video below) he discusses how music and venue often have perfect matches, and how such variations have helped push boundaries.

Last but certainly not least, the 2010 FIFA World Cup has begun and the attention of millions will be fixed on the events in South Africa for the next month. The City Fix and The Infrastructurist both take a look at the billions of dollars South Africa invested in infrastructure upgrades to prepare for the event. We know where we’ll be tomorrow afternoon, but if you’re not sure when to catch your game of choice, consult this nifty interactive calendar for help.

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In the past, keys to a city were reserved for the heroic and the honored. Now, thanks to artist Paul Ramírez Jonas, you can bestow a key to New York City upon your own personal hero. Through June 27th, “Key to the City” will distribute 35,000 free keys from their kiosk in Times Square that will unlock 20 sites scattered throughout the five boroughs. What these keys allow you to see has not yet been revealed – some may open up special exhibitions, others to sites rarely made available to the general public.

For a public art piece that has more instant gratification, Miranda July, writer, filmmaker, performance artist, and now sculptor, has recently installed her “Eleven Heavy Things“ in Union Square, which is making its American debut after premiering at the Venice Biennale. The eleven pieces encourage interaction from all park users, and will be up until October 3rd.

While Queens may be the largest borough in size, and second largest in population, it is often overlooked by tourists or even by city residents in the other four boroughs. City Councilman Daniel Dromm is hoping to change that with a new month-long initiative entitled “June in Jackson Heights.” Throughout this month, the diversity and cultural energy of the neighborhood will be showcased through musical performances, a poetry festival, exhibitions in vacant storefronts, and informal events to be determined — local artists and performers have an open invitation to join in the festivities.

Traffic congestion and what to do about it is a never-ending struggle in New York City. But one man, Charles Komanoff, has an idea for how to increase efficiency on Manhattan’s streets — and he has done his homework. Komanoff has spent the past three years studying the patterns and intricacies of every mode of transportation in the city and created an immense spreadsheet documenting his findings. His research and calculations led to a sophisticated plan involving tiered payment for cars and subway riders, increased taxi fares, and free bus service. But we’ve seen how congestion pricing has been received in the past, and we know full well that the various modes of transportation in our fair city are far from integrated. But even if the implementation of Komanoff’s ideas is out of reach, his impressive body of research is worth our attention.

Speaking of alleviating transit congestion, Rachel Maddow recently satisfied her “inner infrastructure geek” by visiting the Sandhogs working on the Second Avenue Subway line, which will eventually help relieve the crowding on the 4/5/6 line — a line that serves, according to Maddow, more riders every day than the subways of Chicago, Boston and Washington D.C. combined! Check out her look at the boring machine, the “launch box” and her interview with Michael Horodniceanu, the president of capital construction for the MTA, below: (via Planetizen)

Among all the various fairs and markets that pop up in the city throughout the summer, this weekend is your only chance to check out the Renegade Craft Fair in McCarren Park, which features over 300 indie artists. After that, head a bit further into Brooklyn for for the Bushwick Open Studios festival, featuring another 300 shows in 150 locations throughout Bushwick and the surrounding neighborhoods. One place however that you’ll no longer be able to check out is the BKLYN Yard, which announced that it had been forced out by their landlord, after four years of hosting parties, shows, and food trucks at their site along Gowanus Canal. Notified at the beginning of May that they had to vacate the premises and cancel their summer schedule, they are hoping to take their party elsewhere in the city.


Top photo: Eleven Heavy Things, photo by Spike Jones via Deitch Projects. The Roundup keeps you up to date with topics we’ve featured and other things we think are worth knowing about.