UrbDeZine NYC

Urban Planning + Design + Architecture + Historic Preservation

Civic

Cornell Tech moves into its Roosevelt Island Home

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Aloof institution. Catalyst for Change. Environmental poster child. Architectural theme park. Government-initiated economic development. Digital new world. Boondoggle.

The recently-opened Cornell Tech campus on Roosevelt Island is all of the above, or perhaps none of them. How it develops and if it succeeds are questions to be answered in the future. Today, however, it exemplifies multiple trends in American architecture and urban/economic development. [Read more…] about Cornell Tech moves into its Roosevelt Island Home

Take a Train: The Q – NYC’s new subway extension is airy and full of art

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Vic Muniz’s “Perfect Strangers”
70th St. entrance art: Vic Muniz’s “Perfect Strangers” portray riders you are likely to come across on your travels.

New York City’s new math: 100 years, $4.5 billion, 3 subway stops.

New Year’s Day 2017 saw the ribbon cut on the first phase of the Second Avenue subway, the locally-mythic train touted to alleviate the overburdened east side subways since the late 1920s. A Great Depression, a world war and a City bankruptcy interfered with its execution. After nearly 10 years of actual construction and neighborhood misery, three airy, clean and art-filled stations opened for business. [Read more…] about Take a Train: The Q – NYC’s new subway extension is airy and full of art

Quick peek at the Calatrava’s World Trade Center Transportation Hub

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Calatrava WTC transpo-hum, photo-3
So near and yet so far . . .

The long-anticipated WTC Transportation Hub designed by Santiago Calatrava had a “soft” opening at the beginning of March. Shoe-horned next to the WTC Memorial, the Hub’s steel wingspan has loomed over the active construction site for years, promising big things to come. In fact, the opening was so low-keyed that the main entrance was still unfinished and signs showing how to enter were non-existent. The building itself is surrounded by cyclone fencing with no obvious way of getting inside. Ask a stranger how to enter, and the only response was “I don’t know, but I know it cost $4 billion!” [Read more…] about Quick peek at the Calatrava’s World Trade Center Transportation Hub

The High Line? No, The High Bridge!

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Photo: Carol Berens
View towards Manhattan. The tower was needed to equalize water pressure.

The oldest river crossing in New York City is now the newest. The 1848 High Bridge that spans the Harlem River and links upper Manhattan to The Bronx has recently emerged from a multi-year, $61.8 million renovation. It re-opened to the public on June 9th. Whether the initial enthusiasm of using this restored public space can reenergize a neighborhood will take years to find out, however, for the moment this project is bringing tourists and residents to an area that was previously known only to locals and intrepid urban explorers. Will it spur new economic activity to an ungentrified area? Is that indeed what is wanted or needed? Questions to be answered later. [Read more…] about The High Line? No, The High Bridge!

The New Eldorado?

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505 West 19th at High Line Park
505 West 19th at High Line Park

Everyone loves parks. The dirty little secret is that no one loves them more than real estate developers. As a way to get someone else to invest capital to create development opportunities, parks, once assumed to be drains on city coffers, are now seen as a way to jump start property values and create chic new neighborhoods. [Read more…] about The New Eldorado?

The High Line

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Billboard from High Line Park
Billboards are at eye level on the High Line. Note the planks that meld into the benches.

I am walking 30 feet above the ground, through buildings, eye-level with billboards, rubbing shoulders, it seems, with all the tourists in New York City. I am surrounded by plants that poke out from the railroad tracks that are remnants of New York’s industrial past. [Read more…] about The High Line

When Smart Growth is Not and the NIMBY Is

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Golden Triangle/UTC San Diego, CA“Smart growth,” i.e. the densification of development in both new and established communities, especially along transportation corridors, is not only a worthy objective, it’s a necessity.  Sprawling development has many established negative impacts. The infrastructure to support it is disproportionately expensive to build and maintain. Its environmental footprint is disproportionately large and wasteful. It has been shown to create negative impacts on the social and physical quality of people’s lives. [Read more…] about When Smart Growth is Not and the NIMBY Is