This is Brooklyn - 1

A walking tour through Vinegar Hill and the Brooklyn Navy Yards, just east of DUMBO shows some unexpected realities existing in Brooklyn.


Typical DUMBO - ever present new development (or halted new development in this case) over the old.
There is a Buddhist center in a most unsuspecting spot (more on this later).



Preserved (and now historically landmarked) brownstones.. few and far between.


The rest of the landmarked district (the only working class district to be landmarked in NYC) - a 1850s-1940s business district is now fully residential - living rooms function behind shaded storefronts.



Most unbelievable for the area, one particularly fortunate family lives in a mansion - the old Navy Commandants' home which is now private property. 28 rooms on 4 acres of land purchased in the early 90s for just $2 million. This is at the crest of Vinegar Hill, maybe 1/2 mile from the waterfront, with a view to lower Manhattan.

The other side of the Navy Yards show an easily missed hot debate topic in the preservation world. 10 + historic buildings formerly owned by the US Navy await their fates as developers consider their demolition for the purpose of providing a supermarket with a 350 car parking lot. The Municipal Arts Society is fighting for their restoration and rehabilitation.

These plastic flowers have been placed with care in the midst of the chaos of overgrowth, which has a powerful aesthetic all of it's own.

The Presidio (and Goldsworthy) - II

The Presidio exhibit related to the Andy Goldsworthy piece related much of the history of the site, along with Goldsworthy's interpretation. The story is quite interesting - more here (http://www.presidio.gov/experiences/spire.htm). To paraphrase, several species of the originally planted trees have been dying for various reasons, including climate, species selection, and soil conditions. Recently, the organization which oversees the Presidio has been planting new batches of trees to replace those dying - a new 2 to 3 acres of trees are planted each year to stagger the age of the growth and maintenance requirements.

Several articles I have read about this project since the trip speak of the "militaristic" alignment of the existing/original trees in the park. Apparently the army chose to plant trees in a grid, and this practice is being continued. From what I witnessed, the 2-3 acres being planted each year seem to follow with large swaths of single species. Given my brief experience in landscape architecture, I find this curious when current practices greatly discourage monocultures. I would like to dig up more information about what ecologists and arborists think about the Presidio from the standpoint of biodiversity. On the other hand, the aesthetic effect of the grids of plantings surrounding Goldsworthy's 'Spire' of matured and fallen trees is a powerful one.

The Presidio (and Goldsworthy) - I

When in San Francisco, I had an objective to get out of the city and into a more natural surrounding. Amidst the rain, I realized that I would likely have to settle for a hike through the Presidio during the few clear hours of my visit. Reinforcing this idea was the news that Andy Goldsworthy had recently installed a 'spire' in the park so I set out to learn more about it.

Little did I know before this trip, but the lush seeming Presidio that stands today is a man-made forest. What is more incredible is that the land originally (and not that long ago) consisted of marshy swamps and windblown sand dunes. In 1846, the US Army and eventually the Army Corps of Engineers worked to fill the land in order to build the better known military post and plant what has grown into a forest.


Hiking through the park, the Presidio as it stands today, open to the public, I was impressed to see some passive infrastructures at work. It seemed that hiking through the day after heavy rains was a good time to see the land at work.

Also interesting was spotting the breakdown of some of the enhanced natural systems and human interface of sandbags and piping.

The state of the park varied, particulary during the 'off season' for vegetation in CA. But the quality of the trees, meadows, and the chance to spot some more natural growth still gives a more wild and natural feel than a visitor might expect of a manmade site around 150 years old.

San Francisco in the Rain

Not heeding the mild warnings of friends resident to Northern California, I visited San Francisco in the midst of their rainy season. And rain it did, for 4 of the 5 days I was there. However, the break from snowy, icy New York and the attitude of the locals even enjoying the marked change in weather lead me to embrace the season and make what I could of exploring the city. It was interesting to see some pacific dwelling plants in funky hibernation modes which I never experienced on my previous summer visits.

This being my third time in San Francisco, I sought to gain further insight on the city's relationship to nature. Surrounded by water and topographically shaped by strong geological forces, no amount of pavement, concrete, and building mass can deny the natural substrate the city was founded on.



As I have noted before, the long growing season and climate makes lush green spaces possible on every scale. It's great to see how residents individually embrace vegetation allowing both manicured landscapes and wild unmaintained plants to thrive.

Weather, Infrastructure, Civilization

It has been too long since I've written - I blame the weather, the cold turning people within themselves, making it ever so much more difficult to look beyond the layers of warm clothing they wear and slow down to observe what is going on around them.

I have, however, been thinking a lot about the weather. In thinking about Norway, in living through cold days in New York, I realize that it is in the cold that we are most dependent on infrastructure - to whatever extent we may or may not notice it. It seems no surprise to me that people in the deserts of Austrailia remained light-travelling nomads for so many centuries, while Northern Europe and mountain communities worldwide quickly settled into villages and developed systems to pool their resources.

Cities and rural areas become incapacitated in snowy or icy conditions without proper vehicles, labor, planning, and foresight to clear and salt roads and routes. I can remember North Carolina schools and businesses closing upon even a slight possibility of snow or freezing rain because over their vast areas of land, they simply did not have the infrastructure in place to make a safe commute for its residents.

In New York, the clearing of the streets is taken as a given, with most residents rarely even witnessing the early morning plows hard at work. Sidewalks are expected to be walkable under any circumstance, with local property owners I've seen finding any range of solution from shovelling, to salting, to pouring antifreeze - as seems to be the preference of some auto mechanic shops in queens. I see the outages and delays in the subway system, the ongoing weekend track replacement work on the 7 line, and for once I truly realize - it takes a lot of labor to sustain so many people living in a cold climate.

Urban Farming

Just reflecting/thinking publicly after today's charette for the Grant Houses Community Gardens at Columbia.. Hopefully I will find more time to develop this a bit further..

Queens West - Dense Suburbanism

As I begin orchestrating a move after two years of living in Long Island City, I want to dedicate a bit of blog time to the ever-changing neighborhood which more and more residents are attempting to make a home of. I have long held mixed feelings about the developments going on along the river, but the focus today is on a recent one, nearly complete in construction which has broken any sense of order in the urban fabric that the previous towers have attempted to abide by. My street now ends in a 10' tall metal fence.

Ironically, the name of the offending development is The View (http://www.queenswest.com/maps/condos_coops/rockrose-condos), and it first caught my attention in early stages of construction when it's massing slowly grew to block a formerly direct and framed view of the United Nations building across the East river from my street (46th Road). It was these lines of sight directly back to Manhattan which had originally attracted me to the still fairly industrial community.


Other towers growing along the coast in the past 15 or so years all managed to abide by some sense of urbanism. The other buildings are oriented so their wide facades face the North and the South, intelligent for maximizing daylight and minimizing heat gain in this climate. Urbanistically, this creates less major shadows on the existing neighborhood, view corridors are preserved, sidewalks at street level remain defined with commercial use where feasible, and open space is left along the water, where it enhances the Gantry Park and will someday be connected north and south to a system of East River coast park spaces from Brooklyn up to the Queensboro Bridge and beyond.

Some shots of maintained view corridors to Manhattan with the previous developments:



"The View", however demonstrates a departure from all of these basic principles. The building is massive, with the bulk of exposure being East and West to maximize views with no obvious concern for shadowing excessive parts of the neighborhood, or internally saving energy which will be required to maintain comfortable temperatures in the predominantly glass housing units. The site planning around the building is even more unfortunate, as a baseball field has been built directly east of the building, where it extends beyond the street grid, forcing 46th Road to end premature of the water and abruptly with a tall fence.


Living in an urban area, and having programmed baseball fields into dense residential greenways, I understand the both the need for such sport facilities and the challenge of finding the space for such, but the siting here is preposterous for several reasons. First, the field will be completely in the shadow of the adjacent buildings for most of the day (particularly after the construction site across the street is also developed). The siting and size destroys the urban fabric by not conforming to the established street grid, leaving the future development of 46th Road to loading and manufacturing rather than encouraging further small scale residential and commercial when the current industrial uses run their course. The fence along the field makes an unwelcoming edge which breaks down the continuation of 5th Street which will be an important corridor when the coast continues development north towards the Silver Cup site at the 59th Street Bridge. The lack of windowed facades facing this portion of the street cause it to feel unsafe in the evenings for pedestrians despite it's proximity (1 block north) to the newly opened residential amenities of a grocery store and pharmacy.


I find it entirely unfortunate that the siting for this development was not better though through. The land was clearly already owned, and a simple siting switch of building and field space could have allowed the community east of this building to continue to grow productively, and given the field to the coastal park, where it could be more of an open and public amenity, rather than a gated intrusion destroying public access to the river and blocking the view which reminds residents of Long Island City's best feature - its proximity to Manhattan.

This development re-emphasizes 46th Road as an edge, the end of residential Long Island City. North of 46th Road, even Vernon Boulevard becomes sparse and inconsistent. A great opportunity to reconnect the old neighborhood with the new has been missed, and with such planning practices as employed at "The View", it seems that the outlying areas will remain neglected - the backs of new development turned upon them and the broad sides of new massing blocking visual connections to Manhattan.


The last new commercial effort on Vernon Blvd. before 46th Road, beyond which taxi repair facilities and industrial warehouses take over amongst scattered residential.