Last year, a not-entirely outrageous proposal by urban theorist and Columbia professor Vishaan Chakrabarti was put forward to use landfill to connect Governors Island to Lower Manhattan, creating an entirely new Battery Park City South of sorts. Compared to landfill efforts in Tokyo and other parts of China, the idea is actually incredibly modest. And here is how it could be done.
The idea was originally conceived by a handful of Columbia architecture grad students, and their professor, architect Laurie Hawkinson, presented an in-depth look at just why such a plan is viable and reasonable to Urban Omnibus.
The really brilliant part is that way the landfill connects existing Lower Manhattan to Governors Island. The real estate angle is the strong feeling that the proximity to – the extension of — Lower Manhattan is what will maximize value. And they did this without compromising the landmarked park space on the Northern end of Governors Island. So it makes for a kind of Central Park green space.
She goes on to discuss the viability of the project and how “dead serious” she and Mr. Chakrabarti are about realizing it in real life. To see how such a thing could take shape, and only in 20 years time no less, check out the attached slideshow.
The promoters of this project are simply another iteration of a long line of handmaidens to the NYC real estate cabal. Why pretend that its anything else?