Infrastructure

Juliette Spertus and Benjamin Miller lay out their ambitious proposal for a pneumatic waste system affixed beneath the High Line and articulate how this expansion of infrastructural repurposing could fundamentally reshape what we do with our garbage.

There are hundreds of miles of space beneath the city’s elevated transportation infrastructure, much of it underutilized and uninviting. Here, a team of designers and planners discuss a two-year study investigating creative yet practical ways to enliven and expand access to these corridors of public space.

In the first installment of a long-term collaboration with NYC Parks and Freshkills Park Development Team, photographers document the transformation of a Staten Island landfill into parkland.

Shannon Mattern takes us inside two examples of the extensive, yet relatively invisible, infrastructures that drive New York's libraries and explains how their logistical systems shape our physical, political, and intellectual landscapes.

Transportation engineer Henry Perahia discusses his 15 years as the DOT Chief Bridge Officer and sheds light on what it takes to design, construct, and maintain 789 City-owned bridges.

Catherine Seavitt presents the process of an experimental landscape architecture studio and a framework of adaptive design strategies that merge ecosystem restoration with infrastructures to protect communities in Jamaica Bay.

Eric Rothstein lets us in on the particular challenges of restoration, mitigation, and water resources management in New York and offers a measured but optimistic assessment of the role of green infrastructure in fostering sustainable urban development.

Aaron Reiss dives into Beyond the Grid, an ambitious plan underway in the Two Bridges neighborhood of Lower Manhattan to create a more resilient, connected, and sustainable Lower East Side by fusing heating, power, and communications infrastructures.

James McConnell, Assistant Commissioner for Strategic Data at the NYC Office of Emergency Management, dissects the process by which data turns into emergency response and reminds us that effectiveness in a crisis requires long-term planning supported by accurate information.