Transportation and Infrastructure

Following the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s public program The Brooklyn-Queens Expressway at 75: A Crisis in Context, radio station WNYC featured a discussion with several participants from that event. WNYC host Brian Lehrer spoke with Allen Swerdlowe, FAIA, specialist at the Fulbright Foundation and founding trustee of Brooklyn Bridge Park; Michael Kimmelman, architecture critic for The New York Times and the author of The Intimate City: Walking New York; and Sam Schwartz, former New York City Traffic Commissioner, past President and CEO of Sam Schwartz Engineering, and author of the book No One at the Wheel: Driverless Cars and the Road of the Future.

Prompted by their host, Kimmelman, Schwarz, and Swerdlowe discussed the immediate crisis of the crumbling triple cantilever section of the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE) and the urgent safety concerns prompted by that decay. The group then expanded the discussion beyond the BQE-adjacent Brooklyn Heights neighborhood to stress the importance of a holistic view that includes the sections north and south of Brooklyn Heights, areas where communities have far less resources than what’s available to residents of Brooklyn Heights.

In the words of Kimmelman: “I’m hoping that what happens out of this is that we can address the immediate crisis and deal with the opportunity, as Allen says, ‘To reconnect the waterfront with this neighborhood and other neighborhoods throughout the BQE.’ That we also don’t get hung up only focusing on this little part of the BQE, [the triple cantilever] because that would be not just a missed opportunity, but a huge question of inequitable redevelopment.”

A recording of the full broadcast discussion with Lehrer, Kimmelman, Schwarz, and Swerdlowe has been archived by the Brian Lehrer show and can be heard at the WNYC website.

On April 25, 2023, the AIANY Transportation and Infrastructure Committee the first in a series of spotlight events celebrating winners of AIANY’s Transportation and Infrastructure Design Excellence Awards.

This program focused on LaGuardia Airport’s new Terminal B, a 2022 Merit Award winner in the Structures category. Held at the Brickworks Studio on Fifth Avenue, the event featured a lively dialogue featuring a panel of experts who shared their insights into what made LGA’s Terminal B an award-winning project.

Moderated by Tom Grassi, FAIA, Project Director, HNTB, the panel featured:

Laurie Balbo, LEED AP BD+C, LGA Program Manager, Port Authority of NY & NJ
Taewook Cha, Principal/Creative Director, Supermass Studio
Peter Ruggiero, LGA Design Principal, HOK
Indhira Figuereo, Senior Vice President/National Aviation Market Leader, WSP
Larry Giannechini, Deputy Director for Program & Operations, Public Arts Fund

The Design Awards sub-committee is working now on a follow-up Spotlight event and the upcoming Design Awards Program for this year.

The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee previously formed a multi-committee task force, working in collaboration with Stantec, to research and author Delivering the Goods, a document that summarizes the impacts and opportunities of urban freight on New York City and includes recommended strategies to counter the burdens that goods movement impose on city communities.

Recently, task force work has been included as a case study in the research paper ‘Industrial & Logistics: Can London Deliver?’ published by New London Architecture (NLA). The NLA report provides an in-depth look at the latest trends, challenges, and opportunities in the industrial and logistics sector, with viewpoints from key organizations in the industry.

A full report download is available to NLA members. NLA provides non-members an excerpted PDF preview as well as a descriptive overview and outline.

On June 5, a NLA half-day conference examined key findings in their report. The conference included discussions with representatives from international cities to address case studies from around the world that examine how to integrate industry into the urban fabric and what lessons can be learned.

In 2020 several AIANY Transportation and Infrastructure Committee members formed a Freight and Logistics Working Group to better understand the impacts and opportunities of urban freight. The group quickly expanded to include representatives from the Planning and Urban Design Committee, Committee on the Environment, as well as experts from freight, planning, urban design and engineering fields, including Stantec Inc.

Initial work by the group focused on developing prototypical freight scenarios for New York City and was then followed by a series of listening sessions with key freight stakeholders including New York City agency representatives, U.S. and international city officials and planners, and industry and community representatives. Findings from prototypes and interviews were then incorporated into a series of design charettes hosted by a collaborating team of Stantec engineers and designers.

Final results of the project, including original research, design strategies, and targeted recommendations were first shared at an AIANY public program and then published as a digital document: Delivering the Goods: NYC Urban Freight in the Age of E-Commerce. The document along with public program video documentation and related info are all available online at a dedicated AIANY Special Project microsite.

The AIANY’s Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is pleased to welcome our new Co-Chair, John Schuyler. He joins Shirley Moy, AIA, Program Manager, Penn Station Projects at MTA Construction & Development. John, a partner at FXCollaborative Architects, has been an active member of the Committee and helped to lead the sub-committee for the AIANY + ASLANY Transportation + Infrastructure Design Excellence Awards.

We wish to thank the outgoing Co-Chair Jeff Dugan for his 10 years of service to the Committee and AIANY. Jeff has provided invaluable leadership and contributed to bringing the “architect’s voice” to discussions on transportation and infrastructure in the region. See the Featured Member interview with Jeffrey Dugan, AIA, here.

The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is hosting a series of discussions on the Infrastructure Bill. Our next event at 12pm on May 18, 2022, will discuss regional priorities of leaders from several public agencies. Register here for The Infrastructure Bill: What Are the Regional Priorities?.