Revisiting the disposable coffee cup

58 billion non-recyclable coffee cups are used and thrown away each year.  BetaCup aims to fund a design contest geared toward reducing or eliminating that waste.  Ideas and donations for sustainable alternatives are accepted.

James Corner at Cooper Union, tonight

James Corner, founder and director of landscape architecture and urban design firm Field Operations, will speak about the firm’s current projects this evening at Cooper Union, hosted by the Architectural League of New York.  In addition to designing the Freshkills Park master plan and first phase projects, Field Operations continues to tackle a number of diverse and high-profile projects including The High Line and the 4,500-acre Shelby Farms Park in Memphis.  Should be an inspiring talk.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009
7pm @ The Great Hall, The Cooper Union
7 East 7th Street in Manhattan
Free for Architectural League of New York members; $10 for non-members.

Discussion following the lecture with Corner and landscape architects Kate Orff and Ken Smith.

Pop-up parks

LentSpace is a 37,000 square foot temporary park and cultural space at Canal and Sullivan Streets in lower Manhattan.  The site opened to the public on September 18th–Park(ing) Day–and is on loan to the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council for three years from Trinity Real Estate, which hopes to build on it when the City’s real estate market improves.  The video above depicts the site’s construction.

This particular economic moment seems ripe with opportunities to build parks like these–”pop-up parks”–where construction projects have stalled indefinitely or where there happens to be temporarily vacant land:

• The hugely popular Brooklyn Bridge Park-adjacent pop-up park that appeared in summer 2008 offered the only view of all four of Olafur Eliasson’s Waterfalls in addition to hosting a picnic spot, sand play area and an outdoor cafe and bar.
• In London, the site of a mothballed 48-story building project was the subject of a  public design competition, the winner of which proposed Leadenhall City Farm, a temporary, low-budget park featuring a garden, market and soup kitchen.
• A three month-long art park in London called Wonderwood, which transformed an abandoned building into a public play space, won honors in the Leeds Architecture Awards new Temporary Works category.
• There were 51 participating parks in this year’s NYC Park(ing) Day:

(via The New York Times, Treehugger, and The Infrastructurist)

NYC commissioners roundtable interview

Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, Design and Construction Commissioner David Burney, Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden, and Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe

In a roundtable conversation hosted by The Architects’ Newspaper, four New York City Commissioners–Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, Design and Construction Commissioner David Burney, Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden, and Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe–discuss recently designed and developed projects as well as what they believe is achievable during Mayor Bloomberg’s next four years, especially given tightening fiscal constraints.  It’s a pretty in-depth interview, and it’s great to hear the shared thoughts of this group, who have helmed some major projects in the City over the last eight years, including the High Line, the pedestrianization of Broadway in Times and Herald Squares, Brooklyn Bridge Park, Yankee Stadium redevelopment and, of course, Freshkills Park.

Green infrastructure: pavement

As part of its Green Infrastructure Research Program, The EPA has announced that it will begin long-term testing of porous paving materials, in an effort to combat storm water runoff from streets and parking lots.  Storm water from parking lots often contains grease, antifreeze, oil and other toxins that can contaminate nearby soils and bodies of water.  This is particularly important in places (like New York City) that have combined sewers–where storm water mixes with untreated human and industrial waste–which tend to overflow into local harbors during heavy rains.

At its site in New Jersey, the EPA is testing three kinds of material: interlocking concrete pavers, porous concrete, and porous asphalt, as well as multiple rain gardens that naturally filter rain water.  Companies at work developing types of permeable pavement include Xeripave and Vastpavers; other alternative pavement under development includes Pavegen Systems’ Energy Generating pavement, which redirects kinetic energy created by footsteps either to power nearby lights and displays or to be stored in lithium polymer batteries.

(via Scientific American and Inhabitat)

High Line-inspired projects

Three High Line-inspired projects clockwise from top left: San Francisco's new Bay Bridge and the old structure that park advocates would like to save; The Embankment in Jersey City, envisioned as an open space oasis; and a proposal for a 3- mile greenhouse and hydrogen-generation facility to be situated on Chicago's former Bloomingdale Rail Line.

Inspired by the success of the High Line, proposals to reimagine abandoned rail lines have popped up all over the country.

• Faced with the replacement of a section of San Francisco’s Bay Bridge, Rael San Fratello Architects have proposed the creation of the Bay Line, a hanging neighborhood complete with housing, cultural and commercial buildings and bike and pedestrian paths.  Inhabitat notes, however, that the bridge section is being replaced for structural reasons and would have to be stabilized before it could be re-purposed.
• In Chicago, a design collaboration between Gensler and 4240 Architecture envisions the old Bloomingdale Rail Line as a 3-mile greenhouse containing a 100-acre urban farm and, on its underside, a hydrogen-powered generator.  The energy source, dubbed the “HYDROGENerator,” would be placed along an old aqueduct that runs under the railway, and would be used to power local schools.
• Just across the Hudson from the High Line, The Embankment Preservation Coalition has been advocating for the preservation of  an elevated stonework structure that runs a half mile and spans 6 acres in downtown Jersey City.  The Embankment is part of what was once a freight railroad line comprising seven tracks of the Pennsylvania Railroad.  It’s envisioned as part of the 2,600-mile East Coast Greenway: a traffic-free path spanning from Florida to Maine.

(via Inhabitat, BLDGBLOG and High Line Blog)

Then: gas storage tanks; Now: home

Four giant coal gasometers, built as part of Vienna’s municipal gas works in the late 1800s, have been refashioned into a complex of residential, commercial and municipal facilities.  Formerly Europe’s largest gas plant, the gasometers now house 800 apartments, a student dormitory, a music hall, over 70 shops, restaurants, bars and cafes, a movie theater and the city’s municipal archive.

The gasometers were decommissioned in 1984 as the city transitioned from coal gas to natural gas, and they have evaded demolition through their 1978 designation as historical monuments.  Each one stands 197 feet in diameter and 230 feet high and once had a storage capacity of over 3 million cubic feet.  Designs for each of the four amended structures are unique and were chosen through a competition in the mid ’90s.  The four designs come from architects Jean Nouvel, Coop Himmelblau, Manfred Wehdorn and Wilhelm Holzbauer.

(via Inhabitat)

Toward the Sentient City

Amphibious Architecture, an East River water monitoring system, is one of five commissioned projects included in the exhibit.

Toward the Sentient City, an exhibit organized by The Architectural League of New York, examines the implications for architecture of the proliferation of sensor, mobile and other new technologies.  According to curator Mark Shepard:

The exhibition examines the relationship between ubiquitous computing, architecture and the city in terms of the active role its citizens might play – or neglect to play – as both designers and inhabitants, in the unfolding techno-social situations of near-future urban environments.

The exhibit includes TrashTrack, the very intriguing project which we’ve blogged about before, as well as Too Smart City, an array of street furniture, signage and trash receptacles that interacts with passers-by.  The trash cans demonstrate “overly enthusiastic usage of computational intelligence” by analyzing garbage deposits and throwing recyclable or unacceptable trash back out.  Among other projects on display is Amphibious Architecture, a submerged water monitor system in the East River, designed by Columbia University’s Living Architecture Lab.  The exhibit is on view until November 7th at The Urban Center, 457 Madison Avenue, New York City.  Admission is free.

Hybrid infrastructure in new Singapore gardens

Rendering of a new botanic garden in Singapore, to feature giant, solar 'supertrees.'

A master plan by Grant Associates of the UK has been selected from an international competition for the design of Singapore’s largest garden project to date, Marina South Gardens.  The architecture and landscape for the ambitious plan are inspired by orchid anatomy and include a series of micro-ecosystem conservatories to house plants from Mediterranean, temperate and tropical climates.   Now the “wow, we live in the future!” part: these facilities are proposed to be powered by 50- to 150-foot tall ’supertrees,’ vertical gardens that contain solar hot water heaters, photovoltaic collectors, rainwater harvesting systems and venting ducts.  In addition to creating renewable energy, the supertrees will provide shade and evening lighting, and some will be connected to each other by aerial walkways.  The first phase of construction is expected to be complete by 2011.

(Via Inhabitat)

Open House New York this weekend

The Greenbelt Native Plant Center is one of many sites open to the public this weekend.

This Saturday and Sunday, October 10th and 11th, is Open House New York weekend.  OHNY’s 7th annual offerings include building tours and site visits of unique locations across the five boroughs.  Staten Island is represented by its array of historic buildings as well as two Parks-related listings: Freshkills Park and the Greenbelt Native Plant Center (GNPC).  Visiting the GNPC is a great opportunity to check out their greenhouses, containerized nurseries and seed bank.  We’ve also opened four Freshkills Park site tours this weekend, but they have already filled up!  If you’re interested in coming on the public bus tour, we’ve just opened registration for our November tour dates.