Roosevelt Island

[ZippyTheChimp]

“Let’s hope,” the Cap’n writes, “that the Cornell and Technion designers have more vision than they showed in that lame fly-through, and that they build something urban and scholarly, with really narrow streets, like in Paris’s Latin Quarter. Let’s hope that they don’t think they’re too good to take the train to work, or at least to park at the Motorgate and take the bus.

Well, it's the College of Engineering. Should be a good project for them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passere...ne-de-Beauvoir

[Merry]

Roosevelt Island and Insular Urbanism

by Charlie Gardner

Stephen Smith and Cap'n Transit have been discussing the recent news that Cornell University-Technion-Israel Institute of Technology's graduate school of applied sciences will be constructed on New York City's Roosevelt Island, a 147-acre sliver of land set squarely in the middle of the East River.

Although Stephen's article questions the wisdom of subsidizing physical expansion of the technology sector in poor and middle-class neighborhoods, both he and the Cap'n also critique the proposed design of the new campus, which Stephen has called "quasi-Corbusian:"

Citing Nathan Lewis, Cap'n instead suggests a traditionally urban form incorporating "really narrow streets" for the new campus. As it turns out, there are abundant examples of traditional urbanism on small or narrow islands that might serve as models, as pre-industrial cities often formed on or around mid-river islands for reasons of security or ease of transportation.

Here for instance is Paris' Île Saint-Louis, a 27-acre island only slightly narrower than Roosevelt Island. Although no high rises are present, population density here is approximately 60,000 per square mile, with room to spare for modest but well-defined park space and a river promenade no more than one minute's walk away for any resident.



This is Chioggia, a canal town on the southern end of the Venetian lagoon which, although charming in its own right, is completely overshadowed by its famous northern neighbor. I visited this town several years ago, and in spite of the extremely high ground coverage of buildings, there was no sense of claustrophobia. The need for park space is reduced when the waterfront is so readily accessible.



Rhoda Island, adjoining central Cairo, has an evident early or mid-20th century plan in the garden city manner, with relatively wide streets on a modified grid. Still, as virtually all buildings are mid-rise apartments, population density is very high. The Nile is no more than 500 feet away from any building.



For contrast, scroll back up to the proposed campus and compare the arrangements of space, the density of the built form, and the networks for pedestrian circulation. Although the site claims that the primary building will be "the largest net-zero energy building in the eastern United States," there is nothing particularly green in underusing high-value urban land adjacent to mass transit.



The Cornell plan, rather than being a departure from current planning practice on the island, actually continues an ongoing trend away from more traditional forms. The history of post-1950 urban development on Roosevelt Island is a interesting story in itself (for more see here and here), but at least at the outset, in the late 1960s and 1970s, planners conceived of a car-free haven densely built up with apartments. In spite of rather dismal architecture, the result (at right) was strikingly urban, and moreover achieved a sense of place through 1) keeping the street fairly narrow; 2) curving the street, creating visual enclosure; 3) slightly varying the angle at which buildings face the street to create gentle variations in right-of-way width; and 4) incorporating traditional city elements such as the covered arcade, at right. The result, in spite of the architecture, is quite good, and it is probably no coincidence that the wikipedia page for the island features this very same perspective.



More recent developments have abandoned this approach, however. Monolithic new apartment buildings to the south are placed in the middle of broad expanses of grass lawn in an approach far more reminiscent of 1960s tower-in-the-park urbanism than is the case for the older buildings to the north. Rather than defining the street, these apartments are objects floating loosely in space, unrelated to each other or to the topography of the island. An aerial view shows the extremely low footprint of these buildings – an extravagant use of land even by the standards of 1960s public housing – and their lack of engagement with the waterfront across the street. Further, does this plan leave any room for future infill or expansion? Most unbuilt land appears spoken for as roadway or dedicated park space.

If, on the other hand, builders and planners wish to provide a traditional urban environment, there are a multitude of successful examples waiting to serve as inspiration. If not on a narrow island, with mass transit access, adjacent to Manhattan, then where?

http://oldurbanist.blogspot.com/2011...62694347554830

[Merry]

Frequently asked questions regarding Stanford's withdrawal of the NYC campus proposal

What led to Stanford's withdrawal of its New York City proposal?

From the beginning, Stanford expressed an interest in the project with the clear understanding that it had to benefit both Stanford and New York City.

After submitting our proposal at the end of October, conversations with the city began in late November, responding to questions from the city that sought to clarify some specifics in our proposal. In early December, a group led by President Hennessy, and including The City College of New York (CCNY) President Lisa Coico, Stanford faculty members and other campus officials, went in person to New York to meet with staff from the city's economic development corporation, which issued the request for proposal (RFP).

For the next two weeks, a smaller Stanford team continued with more intensive negotiations with the NYCEDC (the New York City agency in charge of the process) that focused on many issues, including the legal agreements that would need to be reached between the campus and the city. During the negotiation process the city introduced additional requirements that increased the risks and costs for Stanford and decreased the potential benefit.

We were very much hoping for a successful outcome, but it became apparent that there were areas where the city and university were not going to agree. Beyond the academic part of the proposal, the project involved numerous land use, real estate, zoning, construction timetables with significant penalties, and other details. In a project of this nature, involving a significant investment by both the city and a much larger investment by the university, both sides need to be willing to accept a certain level of risk. Ultimately, we decided we could not accept the level of risk that the city wanted us to accept.

How was the final decision made?

The trustees were briefed on the status of the negotiations and indicated that they were not comfortable with the city's requests and asked us to continue negotiating. Negotiations continued for several more days, and we concluded that we could not reach an agreement with the city that would assure that a Stanford campus in NYC could be successful.
A final decision was made after President Hennessy spoke to Deputy Mayor Bob Steel and Mayor Michael Bloomberg on the morning of Dec. 16.

If we had concerns about the city's requests, why did Stanford not withdraw sooner? Why did Stanford let it go so far?

We put forward a very serious proposal and we were hopeful up until the last moment that we might be able to reach agreement with the city. Some critical new matters were introduced in the process of the negotiations that were not included in the RFP and not known to us before the StanfordNYC bid was submitted at the end of October. We withdrew when we felt that we could not have a partnership with the city of New York that would make this project successful.

Did Stanford withdraw because it believed that Cornell was going to win or because Cornell had received a $350 million gift for the New York campus?

Neither. Stanford’s withdrawal was the result of our own negotiations and had nothing to do with Cornell’s bid. Prior to our decision, there was no suggestion on the city’s part that Stanford’s bid was not the front-runner in the competition. In fact, all evidence available to us indicated the contrary. In addition, Stanford did not know about Cornell’s $350 million gift until it was announced five hours after our withdrawal. Though these were not factors in our decision, we sincerely congratulate Cornell on their successful proposal and their inspirational gift.

Was the Cornell/Technion proposal really "bigger and bolder" than Stanford's, as the city claimed?

We haven't been able to see their proposal in its entirety. What was revealed publicly before the submission and at their press conference sounded very similar in size and scope to the Stanford proposal, in terms of numbers of faculty, students, building size and square footage. Our construction timelines were also similar. Both projects proposed constructing environmentally sustainable campuses on Roosevelt Island. We had different approaches to community benefits, such as their planned work with K-12 schools and our intention to work with City College of New York. And we had different approaches to creating benefits for start-up corporations, with Stanford proposing incubator space and Cornell proposing grants as incentives for young companies to remain in NYC.

How much money did Stanford spend on the proposal?

In preparing the proposal, responding to questions and through the negotiations, the university spent about $3 million on the proposal, primarily for outside consultants and architects. This was required for the due diligence to fully respond to an extensive RFP for a project that ultimately could have cost $2.5 billion over several decades. Building a project of this magnitude in New York City is complex, and we required outside expertise to help us understand the city's requirements. The NYC RFP required all competing institutions to turn in completed plans, including architectural renderings, as well as numerous legal documents that required the assistance of New York land use and real estate attorneys and experts, as well as labor experts. But much of our proposal was also developed in-house, with considerable input on the academic program coming from our faculty. They had tremendous, creative research program ideas that we were excited to implement in New York.

Why did Stanford suggest this in the first place, and was it worth it to the university to pursue this opportunity?

We believe that the opportunity presented by the NYC initiative could have been transformative for both Stanford and New York City. It presented Stanford with an opportunity to extend our expertise in innovation, technology and entrepreneurship to another part of the country, where we were confident we could generate economic growth and help create another technology hub within the United States. We believe Stanford has made a significant contribution to the U.S. and world economies and this would have allowed us to continue our record of knowledge transfer and job generation. There were also benefits for our California campus. New York provided us a domestic location where we could increase the number of students served by Stanford without further impacting the home campus. It also offered opportunities to recruit stellar faculty who want to remain on the East Coast and new research opportunities in industries that are New York City's strengths, such as finance, arts and media, and urban studies.

Yes, it was worth the effort. We received tremendously positive visibility over the course of almost a year throughout the East Coast. It was gratifying to see the welcome that we received in NYC, not just by the tech industry, but also by the public. There was genuine excitement at the potential for Stanford in New York. The people of New York now have an increased appreciation of the excellence of Stanford, both academically and in terms of our contributions to technology and our ability to generate job growth. Here in California, our participation in this NYC effort was in keeping with our reputation for exploring bold ideas. As is well known in Silicon Valley, not all great ideas work out, but that does not mean it is a mistake to pursue them. Stanford engaged in this selection process because of the project’s great promise, and withdrew when it became apparent to us that this would not be an achievable undertaking for the university.

What happens next? Will Stanford look for other opportunities like NYC?

Great universities need to find ways to continue to challenge themselves, and to reach new levels in the discovery and dissemination of knowledge. We will absolutely continue to look for those opportunities, whether it is through expanding our distance-learning capabilities from California or seeking new partners who can help us advance and innovate. You don't make progress by standing still, and the saying nothing ventured, nothing gained is most apt. Jane and Leland Stanford founded the university on these bold principles, and we will continue that tradition.

Now that Stanford has achieved higher visibility in NYC, will it conduct more activities there?

Our partnership with the City College of New York will absolutely continue. While we won't be co-locating there, we will be moving forward with our joint development of an undergraduate curriculum in entrepreneurship. We are exploring some other ideas as well to continue our engagement, both with CCNY and the NYC tech community.
We also appreciated all the enthusiasm of the alumni in the New York area and those who were supportive of this effort, and we are considering what type of presence Stanford may have in New York in the future.

Will Stanford share its NYC proposal?

We are very proud of the proposal we put forward and will be share it with interested parties both on and off campus. Copies of the proposal will be made available for review at the Green Library.

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2011/d...al-122711.html

[Merry]

"...The project is expected to take 30 years to complete..."

30 years ?


Cornell Hopes to Add International Partners to Tech Campus, Provost Says

By Jeff Stein

Cornell plans to add between one and three international universities as partners to its recently approved New York City tech campus over the next five years, Provost Kent Fuchs said in an interview Friday.

Fuchs said the University hopes to attract at least one university from Europe and as many as two from Asia to bolster the international prestige of the new NYC “global institute,” which already includes the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.

“It’s a whole new model,” Fuchs said, adding that the campus will make Cornell the first American university to build a school in the United States with international schools. “We think about going elsewhere — there are many [American] universities that have campuses and partnerships overseas — but not about bringing [international universities] here to the U.S.”

No institutions have been contacted yet, but Cornell aims to find additional universities that are “complementary to the two that are already in this institute,” Fuchs said, adding that the University will start the search in the next six months.

Doing so, according to Fuchs, is not intended as a means of reducing the University’s financial burden for the $2 billion tech campus. Instead, Fuchs said that partnering with international universities is largely intended to help burnish the prestige of the new applied science school and elevate the world standing of Cornell.

“If we have more partners in this innovation institute, it raises the reputation, the ranking, the visibility, the prestige of Cornell in the home countries of those universities, just as it would raise their own prestige,” Fuchs said. “If we had a university from Asia, they’re going to have visibility — that’s why they’d be eager to do it.”

On Dec. 19, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that Cornell won the right to build a new engineering and technology campus in the city, topping a field of 17 institutions that entered the competition.

The University’s proposed campus, to be built on Roosevelt Island, includes more than two million square feet of space and will house almost 2,000 graduate students and about 250 professors. The project is expected to take 30 years to complete and cost as much as $2 billion.

Although Cornell had not discussed adding international partners during the heated competition for the campus or at a public forum held Friday, Fuchs said the University and the Technion had always planned on doing so. He cited not wanting to “be flooded with other applications” as a reason for delaying the public search for the new partners.

“If I remember correctly, in the agreement with the Technion we talk about creating a global innovation institute and inviting other members,” Fuchs said. “When anyone asks us about this, we certainly tell them.”

Fuchs added that, although the international universities are not likely to shoulder the financial obligations of constructing the new campus, they will “certainly bring resources indirectly.”

The international universities will “bring people, bring ideas and bring opportunities to teach courses,” Fuchs said. “It might be that the additional partners would help pay for physical structure … [but that] would not be our primary purpose; our primary purpose would be to add new opportunities and add prestige.”

Fuchs said that the international universities’ role in the tech campus aligns with President Skorton’s vision for the “internationalization” of Cornell.

Foreign countries will be more likely to send more top-ranked students to the University, Fuchs said, because Cornell’s name “will be all over their press.”

http://www.cornellsun.com/section/ne...s-provost-says

[lofter1]

This Edison vid includes images of the 59th Street Bridge under construction, with only the big stone piers in place ...

Blackwell's (Roosevelt) Island, New York 1903

Photographed May 9, 1903.
Thomas A. Edison, Inc.
Location: East River, New York
Camera: Edwin S. Porter

[Merry]

CornellNYC Tech seeks developers for 3 projects

The school is looking to see what developers want to partner on the financing, construction and operation of three buildings.

By Theresa Agovino

CornellNYC Tech is quickly forging ahead with its effort to build an applied-sciences campus on Roosevelt Island.

Within the last two weeks, CornellNYC Tech, a collaboration between Cornell University and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, sent out a request for expressions of interest to numerous developers for three different building projects: a conference center/hotel; a residence for faculty, staff and students; and a commercial property that would be leased to technology industry-related companies.

Cornell is looking to gauge interest from developers who want to partner on the financing, construction and operation of the buildings. Responses to the request are due in August and the formal request for proposals is slated to go out later this year. The target date for completing the buildings is 2017.

"Cornell is committed to pursuing innovative partnerships to develop the non-academic components of the tech campus, buildings that are critical to creating a vibrant, active campus and fulfilling our goal of connecting academic teaching and research with industry innovation," said Cathy Dove, vice president of CornellNYC Tech, in a statement. "We've already heard terrific feedback and interest, and we look forward to receiving responses from some of New York's many experienced developers."

Rudin Management Co, The Related Cos, Gotham Organization, and Douglaston Development were among those developers that sources said received the request for expressions of interest. It was unclear which project they were contacted about. It also couldn't be learned how many developers received the request.

Related has a long history with Roosevelt Island. It owns six residential buildings there already and is planning to construct three more. A company spokeswoman declined to comment.

In a statement, a Rudin spokesman said, "We are honored that Cornell/Technion would reach out to us to gauge our interest in being a part of such an historic project. We are reviewing the RFEI and anticipate responding to Cornell/Technion in short order."

Representatives from the other firms didn't return calls seeking comment.

Two months ago, Cornell selected architect Thom Mayne of the firm Morphosis to design its first academic building. Cornell is expected to break ground on the 150,000-square-foot building in 2014. The building is expected to cost $150 million and be completed by 2017.

When the campus is completed, the buildings will total more than 2 million square feet. The project is expected to be built out over two decades and will cost upwards of $2 billion.

But until Cornell's campus can accommodate faculty and students, it will be located in space donated by Google in its building at 111 Eighth Avenue.

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article...#ixzz1zuX8rHG0

[Merry]

Feature> Behind the Island Curtain

Roosevelt Island has always been a world unto itself. With a new tech campus and memorial and park underway, New Yorkers will soon have more reason to visit.

by Alan G. Brake


The south-facing lawn framed by an allle of linden trees narrows in perspective to a 1933 bust of Roosevelt by sculptor Jo Davidson.
Tom Stoelker / AN

Despite its proximity to Manhattan and Queens, Roosevelt Island has always been something of a mystery and a world unto itself. Home to a prison, an asylum, a hospital, and assorted housing plans, it is now the site of an ambitious new tech campus underway and a major new memorial park set to open this fall. Angela Riechers looks at the history and AN’s editors report on the evolving aspirations for this fast-evolving city sliver.

To a greater degree than any of the other islands dotting the waterways around Manhattan, Roosevelt Island represents a place whose history divides neatly into eras that mirror the social and economic growth of New York City. Over the years, this bit of land just two miles long and 600 yards wide has served as a proving ground to test civic-minded and architectural ideas proposed in a spirit of experimentation. A quirky scrap of the city, Roosevelt Island boasts such amenities as an underground pneumatic tube system for transporting garbage and the first commissioned aerial tramway in the United States. In the 19th century, the island was home to an insane asylum, an almshouse, a prison, a charity hospital, and a smallpox hospital—warehouses for the human unwanted, kept safely segregated from the rest of the population by the treacherous currents of the East River. By the 1970s, as New York slid toward bankruptcy, city planners were looking for new uses for Roosevelt Island, including a proposal to turn it into a massive amusement park.

A placeholding photograph in the granite niche as it awaits the Roosevelt bust (left). the granite was quarried in Mount Airy, North Carolina, as specified by the architect (right). Tom Stoelker / AN

Today, the insane asylum has been converted to luxury rental residences, the smallpox hospital lies in picturesque gothic ruins, the prisoners now reside on Riker’s Island, the amusement park never happened, and Roosevelt Island is poised to enter a new phase of development that embraces it as a vital component of 21st-century New York City. A compelling feature of its pending renaissance will be Cornell University’s 2-million-square-foot applied science and engineering campus, scheduled for completion by 2037. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) is developing a master plan for the parcel of land where Goldwater Hospital now stands, to prepare the site for university buildings to be designed by individual architects. The campus will incorporate a multistory pedestrian network, extensive public gardens and amphitheaters, and a 150,000-square-foot photovoltaic array powering one of the country’s largest net-zero energy structures. Thom Mayne of the architectural firm Morphosis was recently selected to design and build the first of three academic buildings on the site.

Roosevelt Island has known many names and identities throughout recorded history—it was called Minnahanonck or “It's Nice To Be Here” by the Native Americans, Varcken Eylandt by the 17th-century Dutch, then Hog’s, Blackwell’s, Welfare, and finally Roosevelt Island, after FDR. The city bought the land in 1828 from Robert Blackwell, whose family’s farmhouse still stands just north of the Queensboro Bridge. Soon 107 acres of farmland were developed and put to correctional and humanitarian institutional use, immediately establishing an identity for the island as a place for the unwell, the insane, the destitute, and the criminal.


Louis Kahn's Four Freedoms Park viewed from Manhattan.
Tom Stoelker / AN

The penitentiary, a forbidding gray arcaded structure with castle-like crenellations, was completed in 1832, and boasted a staff of 24, including a quarry master and a coxswain to pilot the island’s boat. The lunatic asylum, designed by Alexander Jackson Davis, went up next in 1839, followed by the Hospital for Incurables—those suffering from smallpox or tuberculosis—designed by James Renwick Jr. (designer of the Smithsonian Institution and the original facade of the New York Stock Exchange) and completed in 1857. The island also supported an almshouse for indigent adults and orphaned children. Living conditions were grim for residents at all of these massive stone structures. Social reformer Jacob Riis described the almshouse at Blackwell’s as “the hell-box, rather than the repair-shop, of the city.” Nearly all of the City's orphans were entrusted to the care of the poor women living in the almshouse, even though ledger books show that most children sent there soon died from diarrhea or malnutrition. One doctor wrote of an infant “regarded as a prodigy because it has managed to attain the age of two months.”

Reflecting its status as the location where the city took care of its poorest citizens, Blackwell’s became known as Welfare Island in 1921. It kept that name until 1973 when the city’s newly created Urban Development Committee (UDC) rechristened it Roosevelt Island, envisioning a new residential haven for the middle class. The UDC even came up with a catchy name for the rebranded island: the “New Town in Town.” Architect Rem Koolhaas projected his provocative urban fantasies here—including an elevated “travelator” to move pedestrians around and a park with a so-called Chinese swimming pool carved out of the island’s rock and extending into the river. In his words, Roosevelt Island could become “a civilized escape zone, a kind of resort that offers, from a safe distance, the spectacle of Manhattan burning.”

The comprehensive master plan that the city approved, drafted by Philip Johnson and John Burgee, called for a car-free island where vehicles could only enter from the Queens side. Residences and stores would be connected by a central Main Street running past restored historic buildings and leading to parks at each end of the island. The streets were to flow north from the subway stop, and a bus system would link the main Motorgate parking garage to the north with the tramway and subway to the south.

The first phase of development, known as Northtown, consisted of four housing complexes, including two designed by noted architect Josep Lluís Sert, then dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Sert took an innovative approach to high-rise multiple-dwelling residential buildings, creating duplex units with public corridors and elevators only on every third floor. When the city’s worsening fiscal crisis forced a near-collapse of the UDC in 1975, only 2,138 units of rental housing were built—less than half of the original proposal. Since then, residential construction has been architecturally mixed: buildings in the Starrett Corporation’s Northtown Phase II, completed in 1989, are designed in an undistinguished pseudo-historical postmodern style, and in 2006 the blue stone Octagon tower (the only piece of the old lunatic asylum still standing) was converted into an imposing entrance rotunda for a 500-unit luxury rental complex.

Roosevelt Island’s day-to-day operations are administered by the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation (RIOC) rather than falling under New York City jurisdiction. RIOC, established in 1984, oversees everything on the island from transit to trash pickup to security and parks, and historically has been controlled by the New York State governor, who approves its board members and appoints its president. Over the years, relations between locals and RIOC have sometimes been contentious, with accusations that too many board members tend to be hand-picked Albany favorites—amounting to governance by a group of outsiders and unqualified political cronies. In the 1990s, residents even staged what they called a Roosevelt Island Tea Party, dumping tea into the East River to protest Governor George E. Pataki’s management, including the appointment of one of ex-Senator Alfonse M. D’Amato’s staff members as president of the RIOC board. The State of New York's 99-year lease on the island expires in 2068, and control will revert once again to New York City.


Kahn designed the granite embankment with the stolidity of an Egyptian monument.
Tom Stoelker / AN

New parks abound in Roosevelt Island’s future. The old Renwick smallpox hospital (New York City’s only landmarked ruins) became the centerpiece for the 7.5-acre Southpoint Park, designed by WRT, which opened in the summer 2011. Just beyond the reimagined ruins, stretching to the southernmost tip of the island, will be the 14-acre Franklin Delano Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park by architect Louis Kahn (who was working on construction drawings at the time of his death in 1974). Set to open in 2012, its focal point will be a “granite room,” an open-air plaza with twelve-foot-high walls made from 36-ton blocks of granite, set just one inch apart. Visitors will be able to access the history of the FDR years on their smart phones, technology unimaginable when New York City Mayor John Lindsay first announced the project nearly 40 years ago.

As city planners tried again and again to figure out best uses for this strip of land so close to Manhattan yet so far removed from its everyday hustle and push, Roosevelt Island became densely layered with projects reflecting the social ideals of each subsequent era. Today, Roosevelt Island has been recast as a gleaming modern hub for tech and research, trimmed with new parks and green spaces. Colin Koop, architect and senior designer at SOM, said, “At one time, Roosevelt Island was about prison, then it was about the health and welfare of the underprivileged, then it became about the middle class, and you could argue that now it’s about engagement in tech and education.” In a sense, the island is once again providing a solution to an issue facing the entire city: how to stay competitive in an increasingly tech-based economy. Perhaps the best part of the story is that the new plans still honor Roosevelt Island’s singular history as a place where New York City isn’t afraid to try things out.

Writer and designer Angela Riechers is the creator of Sites of Memory, an online urban history platform.

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Rip rap rocks around the edge were handplaced.
Courtesy AMIAGA

Four Freedoms Park

At the tip of Roosevelt Island known as Southpoint, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park is set to open in mid-October. The much-anticipated park was designed by Louis Kahn before his 1974 death but is just being completed this year. The only Kahn structure realized to date in New York City, it sits atop a former landfill just south of the remains of a smallpox hospital nicknamed the “Renwick Ruin.” But the four-acre site’s rather insalubrious history is now eclipsed by stately allées of linden trees that flank a grass lawn and lead to Kahn’s austere white “room,” a memorial to President Roosevelt and what is now known as his Four Freedoms speech, part of his State of the Union address in January 1941, the year the United States entered the World War II.

The lawn looking north to the Queensboro Bridge. Tom Stoelker / AN

Kahn did not have to compete to win the park project but was handpicked in 1972 by the New York State Urban Development Corporation; this followed a federal commission’s recommendation that a memorial to President Roosevelt be located on what was then known as Welfare Island. “Whatever is done, must be done to outlast everything else on the island,” architect James Polshek said of the proposed memorial in The New York Times in 1973, the year the island was renamed. “This memorial must look permanent and beautiful.”

But just as Kahn’s design was completed, New York City sunk into a financial crisis. Gina Pollara, the executive director of Four Freedoms Park, explained that Roosevelt Island’s unusual status contributed to the delay in getting built.

“It’s jurisdictional purgatory,” she said. “The island is owned by the city, but was leased to New York State’s Urban Development Corporation in 1969 in a 99-year lease.” Four Freedoms, technically a New York State park, languished until gaining new momentum in the late 1980s under the Cuomo administration only then to be stymied by Governor Pataki, who cut funding for the island’s capital projects. The park began moving forward again in 2005 thanks to an $11 million grant from the Chicago-based Alphawood Foundation, and this April the project received $500,000 of federal funding for the completion of the landscaping. Pollara said that the Park will likely fund future maintenance through a conservancy. The bevy of new trees, including the 120 lindens and five copper beech trees that mark the park’s entrance, come courtesy of MillonTreesNYC.

The beeches give way to a grand staircase of poured concrete risers that lead to the lawn. At its end stands a granite wall containing a monumental bronze bust of Roosevelt created in 1933 by sculptor Jo Davidson. On the opposite side facing the room, Roosevelt’s famous speech is inscribed, calling for freedom of speech and worship and freedom from want and fear worldwide. Fittingly, the memorial offers an unparalleled view of the United Nations building.
Molly Heintz

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The Roosevelt Island tram was renovated in 2010 at a cost of $25 million (left). Narrow streets and sidewalks cause congestion on the island (right). Stephen Dettling (left) and Katherine Malishewsky (right)

Island Infrastructure

The last major assessment of the Roosevelt Island’s infrastructure was carried out in 2009 by Hunter College. “The issue now is that the planned growth is unprecedented and no one has taken a critical look at the infrastructure and the impacts on the residents,” wrote Dr. Laxmi Ramasubramanian, leader of that study, in an email. A spokesperson from NYCEDC said that the agency is in the process of conducting an Environmental Impact Statement for the planned new developments, which will address all environmental issues, including the need for a ConEd makeover to bring gas lines to the island.

Traffic congestion is a primary concern. Yvonne Pryzybyla, ROIC’s transportation planner, said that as Main Street is the only street, one stopped car impacts the entire transportation network. Short-term street parking and long-term garage parking will be needed. The island’s sidewalks are already too narrow for rush hour and the breathtaking views of Manhattan are hobbled by an incomplete promenade. A pedestrian bridge to Manhattan hasn’t been ruled out, but cost and concerns about shipping on the East River could become stumbling blocks. The Hunter report suggested cantilevering a walkway from the Queensborough Bridge. RIOC officials are also hoping for increased ferry service, but without subsidies the fare would keep islanders on the tram and subway, where overcrowded F trains sometimes skip the island to unload passengers in Queens. In one bright note, the tram was renovated in 2010 for $25 million, allowing the two cars to operate independently of each other.

Tom Stoelker

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The Cornell Technion team with a masterplan by SOM won the competition to develop the new tech campus south of the 59th Street Queensboro (Koch) Bridge.
Courtesy SOM

CornellNYC Tech

Nothing says investment potential as readily as a vast tech campus with entrepreneurial ambitions. Turning Roosevelt Island into Silicon Island is meant to be the capstone to the already legacy-laden Bloomberg administration. That means going fast-track at a breakneck speed: from last December, when Cornell-Technion won development rights for the 2-million-square-foot development to starting demolition of the Goldwater Hospital now on the site by January 2014 and completing the first of four Phase I buildings by 2017. According to Andrew Winters, formerly in the mayor’s Office of Capital Project Development and now leading the development of the new tech campus, the SOM master plan that won the competition “is meant to elicit the principles we will try to follow” including an attention to sustainability, establishing a pedestrian network across campus, and river-to-river connectivity. Beyond that, architects, including Thom Mayne of Morphosis, who is in the midst of designing the first building, are free to invent. This summer architects should be hearing from developers as they team up for the three remaining Phase I buildings for “corporate co-location” research, housing, and a hotel. The Mayne building is on the Manhattan side and is currently in pre-schematic design to be presented to the public later this year.
Julie V. Iovine

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Rendering of the Gruzen Samton’s Southtown housing complex, now half built. Courtesy Gruzen Samton

Island Housing

Half built and awaiting funds from co-developers Hudson and Related companies, Southtown, the last remaining housing development planed for Roosevelt Island, has already brought needed density to this isolated sliver of land. Six buildings and three taller residential buildings will add two million square feet total space. Planned and designed by Gruzen Samton, Southtown supplements the more experimental housing of Northtown, designed by Josep Lluís Sert and others, in the 1970s. Gruzen Samton also designed Northtown phase II. “The island has always been a challenge, and residents have often felt underserved by amenities like shopping,” said Jordan Samton, principal at Gruzen Samton. “With increased density and a flood of tourists for the Roosevelt memorial, there will be a different spirit on the island.” There’s even a new retail master plan to spiff up the Eastern European aesthetic of the dated retail signage.

According to the most recent census, the island’s population stands at just over 11,600. With 20,000 students and employees estimated to enroll at the CornellNYC Tech campus, the island will be a much busier place in coming years. No additional housing is planned on the island after the completion of Southtown and the 1,100 unit Cornell dorms. Samton wonders if the island needs a comprehensive masterplan encompassing additional housing, transportation, retail, and open space, comparable, say, to Battery Park City. “The island still has a future that is unpredictable,” he said.

http://www.archpaper.com/news/articles.asp?id=6162

[Merry]

The FDR Four Freedoms Park Nears Completion

by Michelle Young



We thought it was time to check back on the progress of FDR Four Freedoms Park on Roosevelt Island. On one of the hottest days so far this year, we managed to catch the breeze that will be a staple of the new park which will finally open in October 2012. A large portion of the park is complete, including the tree-lined promenade. The Room has recently been carved with Roosevelt’s Four Freedom’s speech and only awaits the bust of Roosevelt.



We had previously taken tours when The Room was completed in August of last year and when construction was just beginning in March of 2011. When the park is completed, the grassy lawn will be open to the public to picnic and lounge.



The most exciting news was perhaps the work being done on the Smallpox Hospital which the Four Freedoms Park organization hopes can serve as the visitor’s center. As a landmarked ruin, the city’s only one, there aren’t very defined rules on what can be done with it. In the last stabilization of the building, pieces were removed but the engineers are hopeful for its adaptive reuse after the investigatory work done last week.



FDR Four Freedoms Park, to be completed nearly 40 years after architect Louis I. Kahn initially designed it, is bound to elicit strong, discordant opinions particularly because the architectural style is somewhat foreign to New York City. Its white marble blocks, strong linear lines and imposition on the natural landscape contrast sharply with neoclassical monuments like Grant’s Tomb or the hallowed voids of the 9/11 Memorial, but new forms are certainly welcome as our city is increasingly filled with blue glass boxes even at sites as important as the World Trade Center.

http://newyork.untappedcities.com/20...rs-completion/

[vanshnookenraggen]

I like how Waterside Plaza anchors that first shot.

[stache]

I was there today. It's going to be an excellent addition to the island.

[lofter1]

Can anybody get into the entire area of Four Freedoms Park now?

[stache]

You can get as far as the curved loop in the upper left hand corner of this illustration. It's worth a visit if you have the time.

[Merry]

Architect Imagines Art and Tech Museum in Roosevelt Island's Power Plant

By Amy Zimmer





MANHATTAN — As Roosevelt Islanders wonder what the future holds for the aging — but still active — power plant whose two giant smokestacks rise up behind the tramway station, one resident already has ambitious dreams for its second life.

Architect Tad Sudol wants to turn the industrial building into a museum, in the same vein as the wildly popular Tate Modern in London, which transformed a power plant into a contemporary art hub.

The plant, which was partly built in the 1930s and finished in the 1950s, provides the energy for Coler Hospital, on the island’s northern end, and Goldwater Hospital, the sprawling 10-acre complex on the southern end soon to be replaced by a $2 billion eco-friendly state-of-the-art campus for Cornell NYC Tech.

Island officials have not announced plans to close the power plant, but Sudol has begun to share his vision of a Museum of Technology, Art and Science — or MOTAAS — in a show at the Gallery RIVAA, Roosevelt Island Artists Association, at 527 Main St., running through Oct. 14.

"It’s not going to close imminently.... But I can try to plant the seeds now with the people making the decisions,” said Sudol, who has lived on Roosevelt Island for 21 years.

The RIVAA exhibit includes a depiction of Sudol's vision for the potential use of the plant, along with images of the mechanical insides of the structure.

Sudol has also led some of his future neighbors on a tour of the plant, including Cathy Dove, vice president of Cornell NYC Tech.

"One of the reasons we were so drawn to Roosevelt Island is the entrepreneurial spirit that exists here, and Tad's vision is one of the many exciting ideas that Islanders are pursuing,” Dove said in an email.

“It certainly seems like an ambitious project to transform that space from its current use,” she added, “but New Yorkers are known for successfully undertaking massive projects when there is great passion and broad-based support."

Sudol said the plant would be much better as a museum.

“The technology is outdated. An enormous amount of oil is burned there every day," he said.

But as a museum, the four-story structure, with light streaming in from a giant skylight, “is big enough, but not overwhelming like the Tate," he said. "The elements of the machines and technology would be left in place. I’m trying to do the opposite of the Tate in this sense by keeping the old technology while showing the new technology.”

He wants to celebrate the beauty of the machinery and expose the “harsh world” of it while also highlighting new and more efficient modes, many of which have been pioneered on the island, Sudol explained.

When Roosevelt Island was built in the 1970s, for example, a complex system of underground pneumatic tubes was created to whisk trash away rather than have garbage trucks clutter up the streets. Also, innovative underwater turbines in the East River boost renewable energy goals.

Sudol expects many more cutting-edge technologies to be developed on the island with the arrival of Cornell.

The combination of technology, art and science would be great for students and engineers, said Sudol, who would also stage dance and other performances in the space.
“They can’t think only in terms of physics and mathematics," he said.

Officials from the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation, which oversees island operations, said it was too early to comment on Sudol’s idea since the facility was still being used.

Sudol admitted that he did not know how much such a renovation project would cost of where the money would come from.

“Of course, there’s a question of who would pay for it, but first you have to have an idea,” he said.

“Everything costs money. But all of these problems could be solved. You are not building something new," he noted.
Sudol wants to inspire Islanders to look at the old power plant in a new way.

“We are starting with something that exists but it can start to open our imagination," he said. "There is a soul in this building and many examples around the world of how industrial buildings can be transformed into something more than art studios or apartments while keeping the machinery in the building.”

http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/2012...#ixzz27THBOIcz

[Merry]

Cornell Tech Campus Will Bring Traffic and Pollution To Astoria, CB Says


By Ewa Kern-Jedrychowska

The construction of the Cornell NYC Tech campus on Roosevelt Island will bring traffic and pollution to Astoria, where the only bridge to the island is located, Astoria Community Board members said during its meeting Tuesday night.

The community board however has little say over the development plans because the project is located within the area of Manhattan Community Board 8.

“They [Manhattan Community Board] are getting a beautiful building and we are getting all the garbage,” said Vinicio Donato, Community Board 1's chairman.

Construction will start in 2014 and the campus will open its doors to the first students in 2017. It will take another 21 years to complete the campus, which will eventually host 2,500 students and sprawl over 2-million square feet.

Astoria Community Board members said they are worried that the university, both during its construction period and once it is operational, will bring too much traffic, pollution and noise to the neighborhood, especially in the area surrounding 36th Avenue where the bridge is located.

Cornell representatives who were present at the meeting, said an environmental impact study is currently being conducted and that the final statement will be ready in spring.
According to the preliminary findings, the traffic in the area would increase by 6 percent during and after construction, Cornell said.

“We are going to be looking at all different methods of delivering construction materials,” said Andrew Winters, director of capital projects and planning at Cornell NYC Tech. Bringing construction materials by barge is one of the transportation options being considered, he said.

One of the community board members, Tony Gigantiello, who is also president of CHOKE, or Coalition Helping Organize a Kleaner Air, said Astoria has already been struggling with air pollution and asthma and the community is worried that the university would make it even worse.

“This area is going to be impacted greatly by construction coming to our neighborhood,” he said. “If you do have construction materials coming through, you should keep it to Vernon Boulevard where the least amount of housing is, because 21st Street right now has a tremendous amount of traffic.”

Winters said that he was sympathetic with the concerns. “But I think there are benefits that they are not thinking about, like having people in this community involved with the tech world,” he said. He also said the construction process would add numerous jobs in the area.

The hope is that the campus’ proximity to the F train will prompt many university students and employees to use public transportation, Winters said.

But board members were skeptical.

“We’ve heard all these beautiful stories about the project many times,” said George Stamatiades, a board member. “If you are only expecting a six percent increase in the volume of traffic coming through our community, there won’t be that many people on that island.”

He also said he doubted that barging as a way of delivering construction materials will be used.

“When the engineers and finance people tell you what it’s gonna cost, you’re gonna say: ’Use the trucks.’”

http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/2012...storia-cb-says

[GordonGecko]

bunch of crybabies, move to Indiana