Archinect - News

NYC completes work on East Side Coastal Resiliency project's first phase, Stuyvesant Cove Park in Manhattan

2023-06-02T17:57:00-04:00

This Wednesday marked the long-awaited opening of BIG’s planned Stuyvesant Cove Park in Manhattan, marking an end to what was for some a contentious process that drew ire from various community groups on the two-year path towards its eventual completion.

Commissioned to be a first-line response to the damage caused to the city during 2012’s Hurricane Sandy, the park becomes the second completed phase of the $1.45 billion East Side Coastal Resiliency (ESCR) project and will be joined later in the summer by an additional segment between East 18th and East 20th Streets.

The city’s Deputy Mayor of Operations, Meera Joshi, said: “Preserving and enhancing public spaces with waterfront views, must be an objective for all coastal resiliency projects. The opening of this phase of ESCR comes at a time when residents will benefit from its design the most, and not just because it’s the start of hurricane season, but also because the warm weather is here.”

Image courtesy NYC Department of Design...

Supertall towers in Lower Manhattan beat back legal challenge

2020-08-28T13:01:00-04:00

A group of contested supertall residential towers designed a collection of architecture firms, including SHoP Architects, Handel, and Perkins Eastman for sites in the Two Bridges neighborhood of Manhattan will be allowed to proceed as initially approved following a legal victory over challenges to the project by municipal authorities.

A recent ruling from the New York State Supreme Court found that approvals for the project were "rationally based in the record and not contrary to law," despite claims from Manhattan Borough president Gale A. Brewer and the New York City Council to the contrary. The decision allows developers JDS Development Group, CIM Group, L+M Development Partners, and Starrett Corporation to proceed with the four towers, which will sprout adjacent to the recently completed 72-story One Manhattan Square complex designed by Adamson Associates in an area largely devoid of tall skyscrapers.

The forthcoming towers are set to bring 2,700 residential units to the area,...

BIG’s Manhattan flood wall resiliency project advances

2019-10-04T13:01:00-04:00

The plan calls for strengthening 2.4 miles of coastline from Montgomery to East 25th Streets by creating a series of flood walls, levies, reconstructing bridges at Delancey and 10th Streets, while also raising East River Park by 8 to 9 feet by placing piles of dirt on top of the existing landscape.

New York City’s $1.45 billion East Side Coastal Resiliency project (ESCR) has been approved by the New York City Planning Commission despite community outcry over the required temporary closure of the Lower East Side’s East River Park that the project entails. The project is designed by One Architecture & Urbanism, Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects, AKRF, and Bjarke Ingels Group.

Describing the necessity and potential impact of the project to The Villager, New York City Planning Commission Chair Marisa Lago said,“The ESCR project responds to one of the most pressing issues that the city and the globe is facing, seven years after Sandy parts of our city are still recovering from its devastation including areas that would be protected by this project.”

Lago added, “This application is a pivotal step in protecting nearly 200,000 New Yorkers in Lower Manhattan and includes tens of thousands of residents living in public housing.”

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New York City seeks proposals for floating East River public pool

2019-09-20T18:30:00-04:00

[New York City's] Economic Development Corporation is seeking ideas for a floating pool that would filter the water of the East River to allow for safe swimming. A similar idea was first announced in 2010 by the nonprofit +POOL, which has been working with the city for years. The pool would likely be built between the north side of Brooklyn Bridge and the south side of Pier 35 on the Lower East Side, according to a request for expressions of interest.

According to 6sqft, New York City was once home to as many as 15 floating river pools, a tradition that originated in the 1870s.

Proposal submissions are due no later than 5:00 PM on October 4, 2019.