by: admin
(l-r) Kate Van Tassel, AICP; Margaret Newman, AIA; Signe Nielsen, FASLA; Paul Lipson; and moderator Erik Engquist.
Daniel Fox
Event: The South Bronx Greenway: Revitalization of an Urban Waterfront
Location: Center for Architecture, 04.30.2012
Panelists: Signe Nielsen, FASLA, Principal, Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects; Paul Lipson, former Chief of Staff for Congressman Jose E. Serrano (NY-16), President of Barretto Bay Strategies; Margaret Newman, AIA, LEED AP, Chief of Staff, NYC Department of Transportation (DOT); Kate Van Tassel, AICP, Assistant Vice President, Development, NYC Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC)
Moderator: Erik Engquist, Assistant Managing Editor, Crain’s NY Business
Organizer: AIANY Transportation and Infrastructure Committee; AIANY Planning and Urban Design Committee
After this event, the Center for Architecture was tweeted at by an attendee who questioned the composition of this program’s panel (“nxt time u talk about any hood invite residents! Let at least 1 informed resident present. They r talking bout our hood!”). A call-out reminiscent of my more politically-correct classes in college, the Tweeter nevertheless raised a curious question. The Center organizes about 1,000 programs a year, many about places far beyond the Bronx. Could or should we invite/include/”reach-out” to every possible constituent on speaker panels? If residents are included, should non-residents who work in a neighborhood also be included?
Perhaps the real issue here is that the South Bronx is a place more contentious than most, scarred by Robert Moses and, subsequently, suspicious of any outside attention. To be sure, all of the expected community consultations were made when planning the South Bronx Greenway. This is, after all, a community-initiated project at least 10 years in the making that began with a $1.25 million Fed DOT planning grant. But the ongoing city-subsidized relocation of Fresh Direct’s operations to this area has muddied the goodwill pool, making even this seemingly feel-good project a little prickly. Signe Nielsen, FASLA, a principal of Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects, which master planned the Greenway, put it best when she said: “It all seemed so easy on my rendering.”
In light of all this, the South Bronx – its “Fort Apache, The Bronx” days receding – does indeed have the beginning of a complete greenway. According to the NYC Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC), “construction is substantially complete on three of the five phase one projects: the new Produce Market Fence, Lafayette Avenue, and Hunts Point Avenue Street Improvements were all completed in Fall 2011.” The design, outlined in the three-phase, 20-project South Bronx Greenway Master Plan, was managed by the NYCEDC and two local community-based partners; Mathews Nielsen has led the design of six of the master plan’s open space projects.
The plan is clearly inspired by Frederick Law Olmsted’s “beads on a necklace” design for Boston’s Emerald Necklace parks, roads, and waterways. More than just a historical reference, the plan makes sense when one realizes that between each node in the system are the area’s predominant industrial sites, making a network of green spaces connected by refurbished and greened streets – rather than one large park, for instance – a necessity. Access to the post-industrial waterfront is also a boon.
Moderator Erik Engquist, of Crain’s, managed to lob some challenging questions at the panel, which ranged from economic (EE: Will this gentrify the South Bronx? Paul Lipson: There are no residential areas along the Greenway…) to professional (EE: What about this project keeps you up at night? Signe Nielsen: That no one will make it to the waterfront…). Between the lines of the obviously guarded answers was, nevertheless, a clear message: green, well-designed, and useable open space has been this mayoral administration’s priority, and we should be pleased that NYCEDC, DOT, and the other City agencies concerned with developing public space have been getting shovels in the ground “before time runs out.”
Daniel Fox is the Communications Manager of the AIA New York Chapter and Editor-in-Chief of e-Oculus.