RSVP Now: Upcoming Lectures Sponsored by CIVITAS

Guide To NYC Urban Landscapes: A Book Talk

The Arsenal, Third Floor Gallery 
830 Fifth Avenue, 
In Central Park at 64th Street

$15 for CIVITAS members, $20 non-members. Find out how to become a member. Tickets may be purchased here.

Join us for an illustrated lecture on places and landscape design, from 19th century cemeteries to the Upper East Side's Conservatory Garden, with stops in-between.

New York City is easily recognized worldwide by its skyscrapers and densely-populated urban environment. Robin Lynnand Francis Morrone, in their newly-published Guide to New York City Urban Landscapes, point to the less obvious but equally beautiful aspects to our city's fabric - the city's low-scale open spaces, as inspiring as those found in nature.

Morrone provides an exciting insider's look at New York City's outstanding and surprising urban oases. Take a look at Morrone's blog on New York City parks to learn more about our city's valuable green spaces! http://bit.ly/UrbanLandscapes

This event is co-sponsored by Friends of the Upper East Side Historic Districts, the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, and the Historic House Trust.

Urban Revitalization and East Harlem Rezoning Discussion

RSVP Now

Wednesday, December 4, 2013
6:30 pm - 8:00 pm

Admission is FREE for CIVITAS members. Find out how to become a member.

CIVITAS's discussion series continues this December with an investigation of urban revitalization through the lens of East Harlem rezoning and updated land use policies. This panel of neighborhood leaders and experts will look specifically at projects currently under way in East Harlem, including the renovation of the former P.S. 109 into affordable live-work space for artists, and the transformation of La Marqueta, a marketplace under the Metro North railway tracks between East 111th and East 116th Streets that was once the economic and social center of the neighborhood.

Moderator:
-Karrie Jacobs - Contributing Editor, Metropolis; founding editor-in-chief, Dwell

Panelists:
-Peggy Shepard - Co-founder and Executive Director, WE ACT for Environmental Justice
-Gus Rosado - Executive Director, El Barrio's Operation Fightback
- A representative from Community Board 11

All discussions in the series will take place at the National Academy
1083 Fifth Avenue at East 89th Street. map

Admission:
CIVITAS members: FREE
General Admission: $15
Seniors and Students: $10

For tickets, visit the National Academy online or call (212) 369-4880 x 201.
CIVITAS members can RSVP by calling the museum at the above number.

Save The Date: Transportation and the Second Avenue Subway Discussion

Wednesday, January 8, 2013
6:30 pm - 8:00 pm

CIVITAS's discussion series concludes with a panel on the construction of the Second Avenue Subway and transportation infrastructure. How can urban design and public art transform street-level spaces to be more functional and beautify below-ground levels on a grand scale?

Moderator:
-James S. Russell - Architecture columnist,Bloomberg News

Panelists:
-Sandra Bloodworth - Director, MTA Arts for Transit
-Mitchell Joachim - Ph.D., Co-founder and Director of Research, Terreform ONE
-Cesar Pelli - NA, architect

All discussions in the series will take place at the National Academy
1083 Fifth Avenue at East 89th Street. map

Admission:
CIVITAS members: FREE
General Admission: $15
Seniors and Students: $10

For tickets, visit the National Academy online or call (212) 369-4880 x 201.
CIVITAS members can RSVP by calling the museum at the above number.

CIVITAS Launches Discussion Series with East River Waterfront Panel

Michael Storm 

The East River Esplanade looking south from East 71st Street. Courtesy of Anton Brookes. 

This fall marks the inaugural series of CIVITAS’s panel and lecture programs entitled Art, Design, and the Urban Environment. It will address issues important to the quality of life on the Upper East Side and in East Harlem. The series, co-sponsored by CIVITAS and the National Academy, is an inter-disciplinary exploration of neighborhood issues that intertwines CIVITAS’s mission to improve the quality of urban life with the mission of the National Academy to sustain the visual arts. 

Pier 15 along the East River, Courtesy of SHoP.

The first panel, held on October 2nd, brought together panelists from a variety of backgrounds to explore how art and design could transform the East River Waterfront. The panelists were Cecilia Alemani, Donald R. Mullen, Jr. Curator and Director of High Line Art; Al Appleton, former Commissioner of New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection; Michael Marrella, Director of Waterfront and Open Space for the New York City Department of City Planning; and Charles Birnbaum, Founder and President of The Cultural Landscape Foundation. Subsequent panels this winter will address Urban Revitalization and East Harlem Rezoning as well as Transportation and the Second Avenue Subway. 

In advance of the first event, CIVITAS spoke with the panel’s moderator, architect Gregg Pasquarelli, to learn about his work designing the southern section of the East River Waterfront. His firm, SHoP, redesigned the waterfront underneath the FDR overpass, connecting the Battery Maritime Center to East River Park, just south of the Williamsburg Bridge, bringing the prospect of a continuous waterfront along the East Side one step closer to reality. Pasquarelli’s important role in this process has given him a unique vision for how and why the waterfront should serve our community. 

In August, CIVITAS spoke to Gregg Pasquarelli about his work on the East River waterfront. 

Gregg Pasquarelli. 

Courtesy of SHoP 

CIVITAS: In your work along the southern portion of the East River waterfront, what options did you explore in redeveloping the area? 

Gregg: When we first did the original masterplan we looked at literally dozens of different strategies from burying the FDR Drive, leaving it as a bridge, floating it as an island, building an actual barrier to raise the FDR for storm protection, putting in muscle reefs, putting in barrier islands. We looked at dozens and dozens of things that could be done:

C: The FDR Drive replaced what used to be heavy industry, so you are dealing with New York City’s post-industrial waterfront with the city contained by a freeway. 

G: Exactly. It was a kind of park or esplanade that was nestled among the infrastructure of the city. By bringing cultural, community, and recreation uses into a series of pavilions, you brought the city out onto the waterfront. And by opening up these view corridors, you brought the waterfront into the city, and you allow these cross-grain connections to bring you there. 

C: What potential do you see waterfronts bringing to the East Side? How did you see your work fulfilling this potential? 

G: In a city that’s desperate for open space, here’s a place where you can get out, you can look a mile or two up and down the river and get sunlight. Just opening it up where people feel safe and can walk there and ride their bikes there—it’s huge—the value that that brings to the quality of life of everyone that lives down in that very dense part of town. 

C: What has been the process with the city in developing the waterfront? Who is your client? 

G: Our client is the Economic Development Corporation and the NYC Department of Design and Construction. We worked quite a bit on the logistics of getting it built with the EDC but really on a lot of the design issues with the DDC. They were great clients. I think I did 114 meetings with the city over only the first two years. 

C: How did your meetings with the community affect the design and construction process when you were developing the East River waterfront? 

G: We really talked about how things were working, what was working in the area and what wasn’t working in the area. What were things that could be improved? What were things that community desired? Then we put up this whole overall idea we had and made it work so that it solved some of the community issues. 

C: The panel that you are moderating at the National Academy brings together a very diverse group of professionals to speak about the uptown stretch of the East River waterfront. How do you believe this kind of conversation can improve the area? 

G: If designers aren’t engaged in explaining that to people who do not know enough about design, I think we get horrible spaces and a waste of money. I think architects tend to be a little insular in general so the more broadly you can learn about things, the richer your designs become. It’s always inspiring to look at other kinds of professions. I’m always interested in looking at other professions, their models, how they solve problems. 

C: This panel is a part of CIVITAS’s initiative called Reimagining the Waterfront that has been leading discussions with community members about their experiences with the waterfront. How do you see community-based initiatives affecting the quality of life for these areas? 

G: Getting buy-in [from the community,] getting people to understand what design is and what it does, and how it’s performative, and what it can accomplish, is important for making any space successful. If we’re going to live in dense cities, we have got to have great public space and making great public space requires people to come together and invest in that space and invest in the understandings of how it works and what its effects are. These are extremely important things. 

To read the complete fall 2013 issue of CIVITAS News, visit http://civitasnyc.org/civitas-newsletters/

CIVITAS Community Announcements: October 14th

It's My Park Day at the East River Esplanade

Sunday, October 20th 10:00 am – 3:00 pm East River Esplanade 96th Street and FDR Drive (east of First Avenue) Volunteer to scrape and paint the railings along the East River Esplanade and plant bulbs that will bloom in the spring.  For more information, please visit: http://www.nycgovparks.org/events/2013/10/20/its-my-park-day-at-east-river-esplanade or call Upper Green Side at (212) 759-6895. Save the Date:  Urban Revitalization and East Harlem Rezoning Wednesday, December 4, 2013 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm Admission is FREE for CIVITAS members. Find out how to join. CIVITAS's discussion series continues this December with an investigation of Urban revitalization through the lens of East Harlem rezoning and updated land use policies. This panel will look specifically at projects currently under way in East Harlem, including the renovation of the former P.S. 109 into affordable live-work space for artists, and the transformation of La Marqueta, a marketplace under the Metro North railway tracks between East 111th and East 116th Streets that was once the economic and social center of the neighborhood. Moderator: Karrie Jacobs - Contributing Editor, Metropolis; founding editor-in-chief, Dwell Panelists: -LaShawn Henry - Chairperson, Land Use, Landmarks & Planning Committee, Community Board 11 -Peggy Shepard - Co-founder and Executive Director, WE ACT for Environmental Justice -Gus Rosado - Executive Director, El Barrio's Operation Fightback All discussions in the series will take place at the National Academy 1083 Fifth Avenue at East 89th Street. map Admission: CIVITAS members: FREE General Admission: $15 Seniors and Students: $10 For tickets, visit the National Academy online or call (212) 369-4880 x 201. CIVITAS members can RSVP by calling the museum at the above number. NYC Clean Heat Webinar on No. 2 Heating Oil Conversion NYC Clean Heat, a city government initiative to encourage the use of cleaner fuels, is holding another webinar to raise awareness of incentives and programs for buildings switching to ultra-low sulfur No. 2 fuel oil and/or biodiesel. The NYC Clean Heat ULS 2 Conversion Specialists, their incentive providers, will be on hand to explain their services and connect with your building. When: Thursday, October 17th, 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm How: All you’ll need is a phone and/or internet access to participate. Find out more at http://nyccleanheat.org/content/uls-2-conversion-specialists. Please RSVP by clicking “Attend Event” on the link above by 5pm on October 16th and NYC Clean Heat will send you the phone number and online log-in details.

Water and the East River Esplanade Panel Discussion: October 2

Join CIVITAS and the National Academy for the first of three panel discussions in our Art, Design, and the Urban Environment series.

Admission is FREE for CIVITAS members. Find out how to join.

The first panel titled Water and the East River Esplanade examines the revitalization of waterfront spaces within the context of the East River Esplanade from 63rd to 125th Streets. Through community visioning events and an international design competition, CIVITAS has been advocating for a better waterfront park along the East River that will serve the recreational and environmental needs of the East Side community. This discussion of the Esplanade is an opportunity to explore both the history of the waterfront along the Upper East Side and East Harlem, as well as the potential in urban waterfronts to add value to our neighborhoods. Read more about our Reimagining the Waterfront Campaign here.

Moderator:
Gregg Pasquarelli - Principal and Founding Partner, SHoP Architects
Panelists:
Cecilia Alemani - Donald R. Mullen, Jr. Curator & Director, High Line Art
Al Appleton - Former Commissioner, NYC Department of Environmental Protection and former Director, NYC Water and Sewer System
Michael Marrella - Director, Waterfront and Open Space, NYC Department of City Planning
Charles Birnbaum - Founder and President of the Cultural Landscape Foundation 

All discussions in the series will take place at the National Academy:
1083 Fifth Avenue at East 89th Street
New York, NY 10128

Admission: $15
Seniors and Students:$10
CIVITAS members: FREE

For tickets, visit www.nationalacademy.org or call 212.369.4880 x 201

---

Save the Date for Additional Discussions:

Urban Revitalization and East Harlem Rezoning
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
6:30 - 8:00 pm

Transportation and the Second Avenue Subway
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
6:30 - 8:00 pm

Rockefeller University eyes platform over FDR

By Matt Chaban - Reprinted from Crain's New York Business

In a proposal to be formally unveiled Wednesday night, the Upper East Side school will unveil plans to build a two-story research building with a landscaped green roof and a conference center over the highway.

Rendering of a deck Rockefeller University would build over the FDR Highway.
Photo by Rafael Vinoly Architects.

Rockefeller University on the Upper East Side is preparing plans to grow, but with no space left on its campus, the school has come up with a tried and true solution: building new facilities on a deck the school would build over the FDR Highway.

The university, which stretches from East 62nd to East 68th streets along York Avenue, will unveil plans Wednesday night to build two small buildings on a platform over the highway along the East River. There will be a two-story research building measuring 160,000 square feet with a landscaped green roof and a conference center. The platform will extend roughly from East 64th Street to East 68th Street.

"The new building is critical to maintaining the university's excellent standards for research and teaching, by allowing for the recruitment of new faculty to replace those lost by attrition, and for the renewal of laboratory space that is outdated and poorly suited to modern science," said a spokesman in an email.

He stressed that the small buildings would not impede views of or from Manhattan, nor would they expand the university's size "in terms of personnel or activities." This is thanks to an innovative design from local architect Rafael Viñoly, where the two-story building will actually be built into the platform, so that the roof is level with the rest of the campus. This will create a larger quad without taking up space on the expanded campus. Whether the older research buildings will be replaced or redeveloped is still being determined.
This is the not the first time the university, established by John D. Rockefeller in 1901 to champion medical research, has expanded over the busy highway below. In 1987, a dormitory building opened atop a platform over the southbound lanes of the FDR between 62nd and 63rd streets. Five years later, a new research building was finished over both lanes of the highway at 64th Street. The new platform will extend from there all the way up to the northern edge of the campus.

The university is not the only institution to take advantage of cantilevered real estate: both the United Nations to the south, and Weill Cornell Medical Center directly to the north overhang the highway.

On terra firma, the university also has plans to convert a parking lot on the northwest corner of the campus, at East 68th Street and York Avenue, into a new athletic center, which will consolidate facilities from across campus. 

The project does not yet have a price tag or a firm timeline, though it will need zoning approvals before it can move forward. Wednesday night, the plans will be presented to the local community board's land-use committee, which will eventually vote on the project. The university already owns the air rights over the highway, so once it has the city's blessing, building should not be a problem. 

Hunter Armstrong, executive director Civitas, an Upper East Side advocacy group focused on open space issues in the neighborhood, said the idea was interesting, but it raised cause for concern over impacts on the adjacent East River Esplanade. “We’re trying to rescue the esplanade, which has long been neglected, so we have to be careful of the impacts of these cantilevers on our park,” Mr. Armstrong said.

The Rockefeller spokesman noted that it would be proposing improvements to the esplanade along the length of the campus as public benefit from the expansion, though it would require city support and planning to do so. One dream of Mr. Armstrong’s, that the university would open up its 14-acre campus to the public—a space that will grow larger with the new platform—remains unlikely.

“The nature of some of the work we do here, it’s not appropriate to the public coming onto the campus,” the spokesman said.

Mr. Armstrong feared the expansion could set a dangerous precedent, or accelerate one already under way. “I don’t want to see these cantilevered buildings becoming a model for all future development on the east side of the East Side,” he said. “They’re quite uninviting spaces and they can become echo chambers.” 

View the original article at Crain's New York Business.
and "Space-Starved East Side University Wants To Expand Over FDR" on Curbed NY.



 

 

Soft Edges- Hard Lessons

Signe Nielsen 

Recent events have demonstrated that regardless of one’s point of view on the topic of global warming, we are experiencing more frequent and destructive storms. In 2011 Irene caused massive flooding as a result of rainfall and in 2012 Sandy demonstrated the vulnerability of our shorelines to storm surge and high tides. The future of sea level rise, though uncertain in terms of its rapidity, will further threaten our coastlines. New York City must begin to make some significant changes to become more resilient to these forces of nature.

Hunts Point Landing two days after Superstorm Sandy hit. Photo courtesy of Signe Nielsen.

Solutions to flood mitigation will take enormous political will and civic support. Indeed there is not a “one-size-fits-all” solution. Barrier islands created by natural sand deposits such as the Rockaways are very different from the bedrock of Manhattan. However, much of Manhattan’s shoreline once contained mud flats, tidal marshes and sandy beaches. Decades of landfill have now artificially elevated thousands of acres using seawalls to retain their new contours. Given the density of people, buildings and infrastructure that surround the edges of Manhattan, multiple strategies will be required to recalibrate our past and future relationship to our estuarine reality. 

Many people, including designers, have begun to explore both theoretical and built examples of ways to mitigate the damaging effects of water. Premised on the notion that resilient and ecologically productive natural edges are formed as a gradual gradient from river bottom to land surface, several new public waterfronts exemplify this “soft edge” approach. These newly contoured shorelines are intended to reduce the damaging impact of wave energy creating a gentle transition from land to water which is then planted in combination with boulders or similar wave attenuating materials. Soft edges, however, presume that water will flow in and out and that the plants and rocks can withstand the effects of salinity, tidal action and even forceful waves. They are not designed to stop flooding but rather buffer the damaging effects of storm surges. 

Reef balls at Hunts Point Landing. A reef ball is made from concrete and imitates the habitat conditions preferred by mussels when set within the intertidal zone. Photo courtesy of Signe Nielsen. 

Under current regulations promulgated by an alphabet soup of federal, state and local agencies, soft edges cannot project out into the rivers; rather, they need to be created by carving into the land. The extent to which a soft edge penetrates landward is a function of the bathymetry, or topography of the river bed. The steeper the shoreline drops off, the greater the soft edge must cut landward. At the present time, this approach is only viable where the real estate is otherwise unoccupied by residents, critical infrastructure, or water-dependent industry. 

As yet unbuilt ideas include creating artificial reefs, wave-attenuating bridges and filling in parts of the rivers to create new salt marshes. While there is hard scientific evidence to support these concepts, there is also concern that they may do permanent harm to existing habitat, jeopardize the shipping industry, and fail to provide adequate flood protection against future, more violent and frequent storms. 

Some of the soft edge public shorelines that have been built recently are Brooklyn Bridge Park, Hunts Point Landing and Riverside South Park. Others that have existed for a long time include the gently sloping stone-lined edge along Fort Washington Park and Manhattan’s only remaining natural wetland in Inwood Hill Park. I visited each of these sites within a week after Superstorm Sandy and was surprised to see how unscathed they were. In the case of Hunts Point Landing in the South Bronx, a park I designed and completed just two months before the storm, the only damage was to the fixed furnishings which were either knocked off their footings or dislodged by floatables carried by the rushing tide. The grasses in the intertidal wetland remained firmly rooted and the boulder wave attenuation edge did not move. Even more surprising was that the oyster “reef balls” which we placed at the base of the tidal wetland remained unharmed. We have also conducted soil tests within the planted areas that we had not expected to receive saline flood water and the results did not show elevated salt levels. I will only feel confident that our plant palette was successfully resilient until this spring when I can observe how well they reemerge from winter dormancy. While I was not the designer of the other parks mentioned, my observation is that they too withstood record high saline water inundation with minimal damage, most of which was as a result of water-borne debris. 

Signe Nielsen is a Principal with Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects, and has been practicing as a landscape architect and urban designer in New York since 1978. She is the president of the NYC Public Design Commission. 

To read the complete spring 2013 issue of CIVITAS News, visit http://civitasnyc.org/civitas-newsletters/

Reimagining the Waterfront Exhibition Now Open

Winning designs for Reimagining the Waterfront are on display at the Museum of the City of New York June 6 through October 28, 2012.

Competition winners from across the world attended the June 5 opening reception.  Architects and landscape architects traveled from as far as Spain, Canada and Puerto Rico to be recognized.
Read recent press about the competition and exhibition in NY Daily News.

Reimagining the Waterfront is a CIVITAS-sponsored program to solicit design ideas for the East River Esplanade between East 60th and 125th Streets.  The exhibition, curated by Andrea Renner, the Museum’s Andrew W. Mellon Post Doctoral Curatorial Fellow, features the eight winning proposals as well as historic images of the East River Esplanade and photographs of the site today.

The museum is located at 1220 Fifth Avenue (at 103rd Street) and "suggested admission" is $10.
Click here for details about the exhibit and visiting the Museum of the City of New York.

We hope you'll visit the exhibition and tell us what you think.  See below for details.

Upcoming Public Programs for Reimagining the Waterfront at the Museum of the City of New York

EAST RIVER ESPLANADE: JUDGING FROM THE WATERFRONT
Tuesday, June 26 at 6:30 PM

RESERVATIONS REQUIRED.
Register at www.boxoffice.mcny.org or call 917-492-3395*. Use the Discount Code "CIVITAS626" to receive the $6 admission rate.

Reimagining the Waterfront is a CIVITAS-sponsored program to solicit design ideas for the East River Esplanade between East 60th and 125th Streets. The exhibition, curated by Andrea Renner, the Museum’s Andrew W. Mellon Post Doctoral Curatorial Fellow, features the eight winning proposals as well as historic images of the East River Esplanade and photographs of the site today. Join members of the selection jury including Signe Nielsen, Principal at Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects, lawyer and Upper East Sider Albert K. Butzel, veteran of the battle over Westway, Warren James, Principal at Warren A. James Architects + Planners, and Adam Yarinksky, Principal at Architecture Research Office (ARO) to hear about the winners they chose from 91 proposals. Presented in conjunction with the exhibition Reimagining the Waterfront: Manhattan's East River Esplanade and in partnership with CIVITAS.

*A two dollar surcharge applies for unreserved, walk-in participants.

REIMAGINING THE WATERFRONT: FAMILY PROGRAM

Friday, July 13 from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM

and Saturday, July 21 from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM 

FREE. RESERVATIONS REQUIRED.
Register at www.boxoffice.mcny.org or call 917-492-3395

Learn about the East River waterfront in a family-friendly walking tour and exploration of the exhibition Reimagining the Waterfront: Manhattan's East River Esplanade. After discussing the relationship between the river, FDR Drive, and adjacent neighborhoods, participants will create their own proposals for the redesign of the waterfront.  Recommended for ages 7 to 12.

REIMAGINING THE WATERFRONT: GALLERY TOUR

Saturday, July 14 at 3:00 PM

and Tuesday, August 7 at 3:00 PM

FREE WITH MUSEUM ADMISSION. RESERVATIONS REQUIRED.

Register at www.boxoffice.mcny.org or call 917-492-3395

Join exhibition curator Andrea Renner for a tour of the eight winning designs from CIVITAS's ideas competition for redesigning and revitalizing the East River Esplanade as it snakes its way from the Ed Koch-Queensboro Bridge at 60th Street to the RFK-Triborough Bridge at 125th Street. The tour will include an investigation of the visions for the future, as well as photographs of this often-underutilized waterfront site through history.  Presented in conjunction with the exhibition Reimagining the Waterfront.  FREE with Museum admission. 

What do you think about the winning designs?

We want to hear from you!  Share your thoughts on the competition designs, and your visions for a re-imagined East River Esplanade.  You can do this by filling in comment cards at the exhibit. Or by contacting us at info@civitasnyc.org or 212.996.0745. 

Call for Designs: East River Waterfront Competition

By Sharon E. Pope

Prepared for the CIVITAS Fall 2011 Newsletter

In September 2011, CIVITAS launched Reimagining the Waterfront, an ideas competition to tackle design problems on the East River Esplanade, 60th to 125th Streets. As we documented in our Spring 2011 newsletter, multiple sections of the Esplanade are in severe disrepair and even sinking into the East River. CIVITAS is proud to organize the competition with the growing number of public officials, neighbors and advocates who are calling for a better future for the waterfront park.

Reimagining the Waterfront is a first step toward developing a vision for improving the Esplanade. The CIVITAS team of volunteer architects and planners organizing the competition selected the boundaries East 60th to 125th Streets. This emphasizes the broad span of park between the Ed Koch Queensboro and Robert F. Kennedy Bridges and the role the Esplanade does, and could, play in many diverse communities.

Open to architects, urbanists, students and community stakeholders, the competition is intended to produce exceptional designs and ideas that profoundly enhance the public’s relationship with the park and river, and bridge the urban and the aquatic.

The waterfront is the transitional boundary between New York City’s hard and soft edges, between life on land and life on water. As such, urban waterfronts offer infinite opportunities to craft and maintain that relationship. In his book, Waterfront: A Journey Around Manhattan, writer Phillip Lopate stated “Any redesign on the waterfront must start from the premise of public access.” Competition design goals include public access, attention to active and passive uses, effective use of existing amenities, and neighborhood context.

The competition will be open to submissions through January 15, and winners will be determined in winter 2012 by a jury of renowned, highly-skilled designers, park advocates and representatives of the Upper East Side and East Harlem. Winning and creative submissions will be available on the competition website for the public to review and to envision an improved park in the future. Competition winners will receive monetary prizes and publicity for their top-notch designs.

It is important to distinguish between an ideas competition, such as Reimagining the Waterfront, and a design competition, which results in a commission for the winner and includes construction documents for the project. There is not yet money available for an ambitious redesign of the Esplanade, but CIVITAS’ goal for the ideas competition is to begin developing the necessary community and political support.

Fortunately, funding is already being allocated to make much-needed repairs to the Esplanade. Council Member Jessica Lappin has secured over $1 million to fix some of the worst sinkholes and to conduct an engineering study. Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney and Council Member Lappin co-chair a task force of elected officials and government agencies to address Esplanade concerns.

CIVITAS is grateful for competition support, which includes grants from Council Member Lappin and the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation. We will publicize the competition and the winning designs during 2011 and 2012 through public events, including an October 26 lecture by Lopate.

The grassroots citizen efforts of the Friends of the East River Esplanade, Community Boards 8 and 11, and Transportation Alternatives have helped raise the waterfront discourse through which the CIVITAS competition can explore designs and ideas of not only what is possible for the Esplanade but what can be dreamed for it as well.

On a recent cloudy day, an intrepid jogger was asked what he would like to see for the East River Esplanade. He gazed forlornly up and down the waterfront. He decided instead to discuss what he generally liked about the Hudson River and Riverside Park greenways. He is envious of West Siders, but that may change over the coming years as the East River waterfront is improved. Through the combined efforts of the competition and other stakeholders, the spotlight of scrutiny will help to formulate a long-term plan for the park incorporating definitive, targeted waterfront designs and substantial improvements. These actions will produce a waterfront that engages everyone. Only then will the Esplanade along the Upper East Side and East Harlem become, observes Lopate, “the place that will finally tell us we have arrived.”

Learn more about the competition at www.reimaginethewaterfront-civitas.com

CIVITAS Reimagine The Waterfront: Design-Ideas Competition for the East River Esplanade and Upcoming Events in the Community

Reimagine the East River Waterfront: Design-Ideas Competition for the East River Esplanade

CIVITAS is pleased to announce the Reimagining the Waterfront Design-Ideas Competition for the East River Esplanade, East 60th to East 125th Street. We are launching the competition this month to create a vision for the future of this potentially world-class park. We are calling architects, landscape architects, urban planners and professional designers to develop dramatic and original concepts for the waterfront between 60th and 125th Streets. Our goal is to jump-start a process that aspires to the transformation of the entire East River Esplanade experience. Stay tuned to the CIVITAS website and watch your email for announcements of upcoming public events for Reimagining the Waterfront Design-Ideas Competition.

Submissions from professional designers will be judged by the competition jury, including:

Al Butzel, Principal, Albert K. Butzel Law Offices

Warren James, Principal, Warren A. James Architects + Planners

Hon. William Castro, Manhattan Borough Commissioner, NYC Department of Parks and Recreation

Signe Nielsen, FASLA Principal, Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects

Rob Rogers, FAIA, Partner, Rogers Marvel Architects

Jack Travis, FAIA, Principal, Jack Travis Architects

Billie Tsien, AIA, Principal, Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects

Adam Yarinsky, FAIA LEED AP, Principal & Co-Founder, Architecture Research Office (ARO)

Visit the competition website www.reimaginethewaterfront-civitas.com for information about the competition including guidelines, prizes, and helpful resources. Registration will begin on September 15. Competition winners will be announced winter 2012.

PROUDLY ORGANIZED BY CIVITAS

WITH:

U.S. Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney

NYC Council Member Jessica Lappin

NYC Council Member Melissa Mark-Viverito

CO-SPONSORED BY:

U.S. Congressman Charles B. Rangel

Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer

NYS Senator Liz Krueger

NYS Senator Jose M. Serrano

NYS Assemblyman Micah Z. Kellner

NYS Assemblyman Robert J. Rodriguez

NYC Council Member Daniel R. Garodnick

The competition is made possible through a grant from NYC Council Member Jessica Lappin and the generous support of the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation.

In the News

East River Esplanade

Check out the August 11 issue of Our Town which profiles work that is underway to improve the crumbling infrastructure along many sections of the East River Esplanade in the article "Esplanade Emergency".

You can also read about the Esplanade in CIVITAS' Spring 2011 newsletter, "East River Esplanade: A Gaping Hole in NYC's Waterfront".

Upcoming CIVITAS Events

Discussion and Drinks Meetup at The Lexington Social

Join CIVITAS members for a casual get-together at The Lexington Social.

Come introduce yourself and tell us what urban planning and quality of life issues interest you.

Tuesday, October 4th, 2011

6:30 – 8:00 pm

Lexington Avenue between 103rd and 104th Streets

RSVP by email: info@civitasnyc.org or phone: 212.996.0745 or through our Meetup Group: http://www.meetup.com/CIVITAS/.

Join the Meetup to find out about upcoming events.

2011 openhousenewyork Walking Tour

For the second year, CIVITAS will participate in openhousenewyork weekend with a walking tour Shaping Urban Design & Policy: The East 96th Street Corridor. The tour will focus on the way zoning and land use policy shape the physical landscape of New York, and how city policies and neighborhood advocacy have affected the built environment of the Upper East Side and East Harlem.

The event will take place on October 15, 2011. Stay tuned for more details and registration instructions.

Upcoming Community Events

Department of Transportation Community Presentation on First and Second Avenue Bike Lanes

Presentation to Community Board 8

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

6:30 pm

NY Blood Center, 310 East 67th St (between 1st and 2nd Avenues)

Visit the CB8 website for the most up to date details.

Community Forum On Parks & Waterfront Access On The East Side

Hosted By:

NYS Senator Liz Krueger

NYS Assemblymember Brian Kavanagh

NYC Council Member Daniel R. Garodnick

And Community Boards 6 and 8

Thursday, September 8

4:00-7:00 pm

Sutton Place Synagogue

225 East 51st Street (between Second and Third Aves.)

Please visit www.eastsideopenspace.com for more information.

Recycling Events

Third Avenue Street Fair/Recycle- O-Rama

Saturday, September 10

Visit the first "Green Block" - Third Avenue between 83rd-84th Streets - to recycle electronics,

paper items for shredding, textiles, and more. For a full list, visit: http://thisweekatthemarket.wordpress.com/

Electronics Recycling

Tuesday, September 20

11 am to 7 pm

Church of the Heavenly Rest

Rally To Save Ruppert Playground

Saturday, Sept. 10, 2011 at 2:00p.m.

Between 92nd & 93rd Sts and Second & Third Avenues