Green Ground Zero Competition

[Jasonik]

Architects Call For An Environmentally-Conscious Downtown
SEPTEMBER 05TH, 2003

Some internationally renowned environmental architects met at Pace University’s Center for Downtown New York Thursday to help kick off the Green Ground Zero competition.

The competition, as New York 1 first reported in August, is a call for designs to make Downtown more environmentally-conscious.

“The idea that we would simply recreate what was here before would send a message that what was here was all right,” said environmental architect William McDonough. “There are fireman who's lungs are burned by hydrochloric acid. Is that the way we intend to build are buildings from now on?”

“The rebuilding of Lower Manhattan presents extraordinary opportunity to reconfigure and vastly improve one of the world's densest urban landscapes,” said Erik Stowers of Green Ground Zero.

If you'd like to participate, the design competition is open to the public. The deadline for registration is September 22.

You can learn more or apply for the competition by going to

www.greengroundzero.org

[OKoranjes]

This is the future everyone is scrambling trying to realize at ground zero. Let's do it!

[TLOZ Link5]

By all means, green architecture should be a major issue in the new WTC buildings. Safety standards will definitely be at a premium, and new parks are already on the boards.

[Harmonicaman]

» Upcoming Seminar Note - Thanks to Hugh Lester, architect from Kansas City MO, and a fellow WTC memorial entrant, I am pleased to share news of this special presentation in New York City on Wednesday this week:

"Inside Design Competitions"
September 17, 6:00 pm (Location TBC - call below for details)
This event is free to the public but space is limited, please RSVP to Maia Mordana at (212) 935-3960

"Inside Design Competitions," co-sponsored by the Municipal Art Society's Imagine New York project and New York New Visions, will explore the structure of design competitions through the experiences of professionals who have played key roles in the process: competition advisor, juror, designer, and client. The discussions will be focused not only on the panelists' experiences with competitions in general, but on issues relevant to the memorial competition at the World Trade Center site that is currently underway. Invited panelists: Reed Kroloff, professional competition advisor; Marion Weiss, Weiss-Manfredi Architects; Tom Finkelpearl, Queens Museum of Art; Vishaan Chakrabarti, NYC Dept. of City Planning. RSVP to Maia Mordana at (212) 935-3960.

Imagine New York website: http://www.imaginenewyork.org/

New York New Visions website: http://nynv.aiga.org/

(Copied from the Planetcast website: http://www.planetcast.com/wtc/ )

[Kris]

Greening Ground Zero--And Lower Manhattan

By Julie Taraska

Imagine Lower Manhattan as a sophisticated network of pocket parks and green patches. Imagine Downtown's forthcoming "Remembrance Garden," dedicated to the victims of the Sept. 11th attacks, joined by efforts to celebrate the living--to improve residents' health and quality of life, to advocate for equitable transport and housing solutions, and to spark a debate about the area's environmental future. These are the visions of Green Ground Zero (GGZ), a New York-based organization dedicated to promoting sustainable development in Lower Manhattan.

Founded earlier this year, the nonprofit was formed after its executive director, Erik Stowers, read a one-page article in the Nation about the possibilities of a green Lower Manhattan. Stowers contacted the author, who further convinced Stowers that the idea was not only exciting, but feasible.

To raise the cause's profile, GGZ will host a sustainable design competition, which it will announce formally Sept. 4 at 6.30p.m. at Pace University's Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts. The event, which is open to the public but requires an R.S.V.P., will not only introduce GGV and its mission, but also feature remarks by jury chairman Randoph Croxton and a keynote address by renowned green architect William McDonough.

Stowers believes a competition is a natural first step toward encouraging debate about environmental planning Downtown. "We have the potential here to do something really extraordinary," he says, referring to the rebuilding of both the Trade Center and Lower Manhattan. "We have a special obligation to ensure those buildings embody our highest ideals. Whatever is there should embody the best of us: us caring about our environment, caring about our children, caring about their health." The competition will be open to all, regardless of nationality or profession, and is being co-organized by New York Climate Rescue (NYCR) and Democratic Leadership for the 21st Century (DL21C).

GGV plans to hold a public exhibition of the entries soon after the contest's Oct. 20 closing date. Among the judges who will choose the winners are jury chairman Croxton; Dan Rosenblum, a senior attorney at the PACE Law School Energy Project; New York City Councilman Alan Gerson; and Jean Gardner, Professor of Architecture and Environmental Design at Parsons School of Design.

Although GGZ has no official power to see that the winning schemes are adopted, Stowers hopes to get the proposals considered by professionals and public officials. But even if that doesn't work, he feels that getting people thinking about the possibility of a green Downtown is an accomplishment in itself. "We want to engage the public," he says, "get them involved in the process and get their imaginations going."

www.metropolismag.com