Rising Currents Raises the Bar

Gallery view of “Rising Currents: Projects for New York’s Waterfront” at MoMA, on view 03.24-10.11.10.

Photograph by Jason Mandella. ©The Museum of Modern Art

I have been following the Palisades Bay project since it won the 2007 Latrobe Prize. In studying New York Harbor, the team — Guy Nordenson, Stan Allen, AIA, Catherine Seavitt, James Smith, Michael Tantala, Adam Yarinsky, FAIA, and Stephen Cassell, AIA — researched the effects of rising sea levels using technological analysis and modeling. Then, they issued a series of proposals that incorporated sustainable strategies (from algae farms to artificial archipelagos) to mitigate harmful effects of the elevated water levels. Now, MoMA and P.S.1 have expanded the proposal by asking five teams to further develop different sites around the harbor. The result is on view at MoMA in the “Rising Currents” exhibition (See “Five Proposals for NYC’s Shoreline Blur Land & Sea,” by Murrye Bernard, in this issue of e-Oculus). [INSERT LINK]

Both the 2-D and 3-D representations of the proposals in the exhibition are exciting to see as they give strong visuals to some of the ideas introduced by Palisades Bay. However, I left the exhibition not fully convinced that all of the proposals would work in practice (although that was not entirely the point). The Palisades Bay project provided a firm grounding for the explorations, but I wish the exhibition presented more of the thought processes behind the individual proposals. Through an architects-in-residence program at P.S.1 from November 2009-January 2010, Architecture Research Office/ARO with dlandstudio; Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis/LTL Architects; Matthew Baird Architects; nARCHITECTS; and SCAPE/LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE only had three months to develop their ideas. I would like to see what the teams could come up with given more time.

According to the Rising Currents website, MoMA and P.S.1 created the program to capitalize on “available talent” to explore ideas during this economic recession. This seems a little exploitative to me, and I wonder why that was part of the impetus for this exhibition. Why would it take a recession for MoMA to ask for sustainable ideas?

Nevertheless, the point of the exhibition — the inaugural of a series called “Issues in Contemporary Architecture” at MoMA — is to bring awareness of current urban issues to the public, and for that “Rising Currents” can spark the imagination of any visitor. From SCAPE’s oyster beds in the Gowanus Canal (which left me wondering if anyone would ever really be able to eat an oyster fresh out of the polluted water) to nARCHITECT’s upside-down residential blocks (stepping away from the water instead of traditional setbacks on top of buildings), some of the ideas are pretty radical. Large-scale models include ARO and dlandstudio’s east/west slice of Lower Manhattan showing the streets flooded like Venice canals up to the 9/11 Memorial Pools. LTL’s model shows conditions of the soft edge and serrated shoreline in NJ as it goes from low and high tides to a severe storm surge.

The success of this exhibition may be measured by the affect it will have on instigating change in sustainable practices in the harbor. Ultimately, I hope to see some of the ideas put to practice.