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on the waterfront

By Matt Chaban 10/17/12 7:00pm

on the waterfront

Former Ambassador William Vanden Heuvel led the charge to finally open Four Freedoms Park. (Diane Donfareff/FFP)

Four Freedoms Park: A Memorial for These Challenging Times

It took 40 years, some 14,600 days, between the creation of Roosevelt Island to the ribbon cutting today for Four Freedoms Park, a memorial to the 32nd president at the island’s southern tip. Today was the greatest of all those days, not simply because Louis Kahn’s dramatic, elemental vision for the park had finally been realized, but also it was a beautiful day, one full of promise, just like the memorial itself.

The bright blue sky, the beaming sun, the crisp fall air, the weather truly was suited to this place. Mayor Bloomberg joked with Governor Cuomo before the ceremony began that he had sent all the rainy weather that had been expected upstate, to which the governor responded that was fine, he would just bottle the water and sell it back to us.

But beyond the levity of friends, families and dignitaries, beyond the excitement of one of New York’s longest-suffering projects being realized, there was an twinge of trauma. The weight of history hung heavily on this place. Seasoned politicos and power brokers jammed the folding seats arrayed on Kahn’s sloping emerald lawn. They were all too well aware of the challenges facing the nation, in many ways as great as when Franklin Roosevelt invoked his Four Freedoms almost seven decades ago. Read More

By Matt Chaban 10/12/12 4:37pm

on the waterfront

6 Photos

Part of a new mega development at the northern tip of Greenpoint is about to get underway.

Greenpoint Giant! Park Tower Group Building Two of First Ten Rental Towers By Next Year

It was about this time last year that The Observer had first heard that Greenpoint Landing, the just gigantic 10-building development at the mouth of Newtown Creek, was about to come back to life after having been forgotten following the building boom and subsequent collapse in North Brooklyn. “The project has been there a long time, but now the market is finally there,” one of the people involved in the project said at the time. It was predicted buildings would begin rising this year.

But here we are in October with nothing to show for it. Well, nothing but a blog post from Greenpointers hearing that work may just be beginning. The evidence? A message from the local councilman’s office and the apparent departure of the boardwalk from Boardwalk Empire that has been on one of the lots since the show debuted. But it’s true. While a year later than promised, The Observer has confirmed that the project is again underway. Read More

By Kit Dillon 10/09/12 2:08pm

on the waterfront

design-image-01

Dipping Into the Future: Can +POOL Show the Way to the Future of Funding Architecture?

Last week, +POOL, that brilliant, crazy, possibly over-designed, possibly perfectly designed project that places a floating, self-filtering pool in the East River announced it was going to try and raise $1 million in the next six months to make its aquatic dreams come true. It is a prospect, which makes The Observer giddy with child-like joy. Swimming in the river, in river water no less.

That youthful excitement is infectious, especially when talking to Dong-Ping Wong, one +POOL’s founders. “It’s a simple idea that didn’t really come from anywhere,” he explained in an interview. “As for ‘Why the idea?’ It was a combination of a few things, a hot and sweaty summer looking at the water, taking the train over the water, and riding my bike over the water but never really seeing it at all. I’m from San Diego, we use and view water very differently than we do from here.” Read More

By Kim Velsey 9/28/12 5:41pm

on the waterfront

Will Hart Island ever be accessible? Photo courtesy of Kingston Lounge.

An Open Hart Island: Off the Coast of the Bronx Lie 850,000 Lost Souls—the City Council Hopes to Pay Its Respects

For decades, the barriers that have separated the people of New York and Hart Island have been nearly as insuperable as the boundaries between the living and the dead.

Visiting the city’s potter’s field—one of the few in the country that is still in active use—has been almost entirely forbidden, with family members of the approximately 850,000 people buried there granted highly-restricted, and some say grudging access, to a small, fenced-off area by the island’s ferry dock. The city purchased the 101-acre island off the coast of City Island in the Bronx in 1868 and designated it “a public burial place for the poor and strangers.” Although the island once housed a reformatory, a workhouse, a convalescent hospital and a prisoner of war camp, the Department of Corrections, the island’s caretaker, has always cited security concerns in defense of its strict closed-off policies. Prisoners from Rikers perform the burials.

Now the City Council is considering two likely-to-pass bills (introduced by council member Elizabeth Crowley, who chairs the Committee on Fire & Criminal Justice Services) that would make Hart Island a more open and accessible place. Read More

By Kit Dillon 9/25/12 5:36pm

on the waterfront

16 Photos

Hunts Point Landing Now Open

EDC and Congressman Serrano Open Hunts Point Landing Park, Go Kayaking

Much has been made of the transformation of the city’s waterfront, but it is usually tonier precincts like Manhattan and bourgey Brooklyn getting all the attention. Meanwhile, the Bronx waterfront has undergone a quieter transformation that has still managed to maintain its industrial character while introducing greenspace and recreation to the area.

Yesterday, the latest piece of this aquatic puzzle opened, a fun-looking 1.5-acre park in the Hunt’s Point section of the borough.  It includes a new fishing pier, a kayak launch, and a restored shoreline with tidal pools that, according to the city’s Economic Development Corporation, will naturally absorb storm water runoff.  The park is liberally sprinkled with large granite slabs of city history, remnants of the deconstructed Willis Avenue Bridge, which make up much of the comfortable looking boulder seating area and grass retaining wall. Read More

By Sarah Grothjan 6/28/12 12:37pm

on the waterfront

Guess what else is swimming in the water? (Moonman82, flickr)

Befouled Waters Stymie Would-Be Swimmers

New Yorkers seeking a day at the beach might find themselves enjoying an extended visit to the bathroom instead.

The New York-New Jersey area has the fourth-highest rate in the U.S. for exceeding the national recommended daily standard for bacteria, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council. And given that those standards are pretty lax, this means that New York’s waters are, well, less than pristine. Read More

By Matt Chaban 6/21/12 6:41pm

on the waterfront

Jed Walentas is ready to set up his Domino. (Getty)

Two Trees Takes Root in Williamsburg: $160 M. Deal for Domino Complex Closes

So much for those other bidders.

Two Trees has indeed taken over the sprawling Domino Sugar site in South Williamsburg, a deal said to be worth $160 million. CPC Resources, the for-profit arm of non-profit builders CPC that had been developing the site since 2006, announced the deal closed this evening.

“CPCR’s goal for Domino Sugar has always been to bring to the project a well established, reputable real estate company that knows New York and is committed to building neighborhoods and creating communities,” CPC’s President & CEO Rafael Cestero said in a release. “Two Trees is just that, and this deal is a great opportunity to realize our vision for Domino as a vibrant, mixed-income, mixed-use waterfront community and to maximize the economic benefit to CPCR and our partners.” Read More

By Matt Chaban 6/19/12 5:05pm

on the waterfront

8 Photos

A Marvel on the Shore

Anchormen: A New Hotel and Other Developments as Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Pier 1 Approved

As expected, a team of Toll Brothers and Starwood Capital won the right to develop Pier 1 at Brooklyn Bridge Park today. They will be building a new hotel of 200 rooms and a neighboring apartment building with 159 units, a complex that peaks near Fulton Street entrance and sloping down toward the park. The project is designed by Rogers Marvel Architects, whom Toll has initially tapped, with Dumbo-based Bernheimer Architects apparently getting the boot. There will be no mash-up on the shore here. Read More

By Matt Chaban 5/04/12 5:48pm

on the waterfront

All aboard.

Fair-y Ferry! Not Just for Frieze, Randall’s Island Ferry Here for the Summer

The Observer is already well acquainted with the new ferry out to Randall’s Island, launched in the service of the Frieze Art Fair. But it turns out this is not just benevolent benefit for the gallery-going hordes headed to the island this weekend.

The city has reached an agreement with New York Water Taxi to run a weekend ferry to Randall’s Island all summer long, according to DNAinfo. Assuming the service is successful, it will return next year. Read More