ISSUE 6, SPRING 2011

MULTIPLICITY

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In a conversation at our 2010 Holi-day party, Water Quality Systems professor, Paul Mankiewicz, and I

were enjoying the excitement of the end of semester and discussing the stellar company that we share within PSPD’s faculty. “Guild” was the descriptor Paul used. A fitting name for the concentra-tion of practicing architects, designers, planners, advocates and scientists we represent. All unified in our belief in social justice and our pursuits of inno-vation within our respective fields.

It is in this spirit that I write the introduction to our PSPD Spring 2011 Newsletter, focusing on and illustrat-ing faculty and student interests in and innovation with regard to water. From comprehensive watershed and waterfront planning to grass-roots water quality advocacy and green infrastructure design, our faculty and student pursuits are having a major impact on both the City and State’s management of one of our most precious natural resources, water.

The program I direct, Urban Environ-mental Systems Management, explores the nexus of environmental science, design and policy within our City’s management of solid waste, energy and water. Our faculty is leading the charge on water-related issues that are further exacerbated by the impacts of climate change. We do so with an unwavering intent on addressing the challenges of Climate Change. For over a year now

students, faculty and community have collaborated on adaptation and resil-iency plans for our most vulnerable wa-terfront communities. Studios tackled rising tide in Red Hook, economic and social resiliency on the Sunset Park wa-terfront, and sustainability planning for a coastal community near Goa, India. A Friday evening lecture series has been initiated focused on the sustain-able waterfront; I hope you will join us.

Indeed, our most recent curricular innovations are centered within the science, design and policy of “green infrastructure.” Green infrastructure represents the hybridization of our buildings and sidewalks to enable stormwater capture, mitigate combined sewer outfalls, increase biodiversity, and cool our cities. In addition to hosting the Department of Environmen-tal Protection’s Green Infrastructure Community Grant workshop February 28th, we are developing, along with the Institute’s Center for Continuing and Professional Studies, a professional certificate in green infrastructure. We will continue to explore research grants for interested faculty and students. I encourage you to follow our research and progress toward innovative solu-tions related to water management. • Jaime Stein is the Academic Coordinator for Urban Environmental Systems Management.

IntroductionJaime Stein

CONTRIBUTORSCarter Craft

Toby SnyderJaime Stein

Ira SternLaura Stinger

Meg WalkerKate Zidar

Cover Photo: Carter Craft

Spring 2011

PROGRAMS forSUSTAINABLE PLANNING

and DEVELOPMENT

The Ridgewood Reservoir on the border between Queens and Brooklyn near Bushwick has been a contentious site between the community, who largely wants it pre-served and trails restored, and the Parks Department, who has plans to fill it in and turn it into ballparks. For more info on the community preservation effort visit:http://ridgewoodreservoir.blogspot.com/. Photo: dogtooth77 (Flickr)

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components to enhance supply’s stabil-ity, performance, and longevity. While it is well understood that the water-shed itself is comprised of natural and managed areas that produce the clean water that New York City is known for, there are significant City owned assets of green infrastructure that are operated and maintained on a daily, albeit quiet, basis.

This green infrastructure includesreservoir buffer lands that include forestland, fields, wetlands, and riparian areas along streams. Large earthen dams that create the reservoirs need to be maintained in grass cover, burrowing animals need to be con-trolled and drainage systems main-tained. The roads and bridges that the City built to replace infrastructure

in lost communities include a host of stormwater swales and vegetated buffer zones that require constant upkeep. Hydropower facilities were constructed at the outlet of tunnels that move water from one reservoir to another.

A major component of the 1997 Watershed Agreement was to increase the original buffer lands through land acquisition into the watersheds them-selves. Protecting land permanently and keeping it in its natural state is a more reliable strategy than control-ling pollution on developed areas. In addition, although forestland in any state is better for water quality than developed land, research has shown that vigorously growing forests provide better nutrient uptake than a mature forest. Diversity of species and age of

Usually, when the NYC Water Supply is described, there tends to be a focus on the thousands

of miles of water mains, hundreds of miles of tunnels, stone waterworks buildings, dams and spillways, and industrial-sized treatment facilities. This ‘grey’ infrastructure is critical to delivering water to half of NY State’s population and is the target of a sig-nificant proportion of the City’s capital budget.

However, the water supply is as de-pendent on its ‘green’ infrastructure components as it is its vital pipes and valves. Besides the land acquired for the reservoirs themselves, the engi-neers that designed the water supply system, beginning in the mid 1800’s, incorporated a variety of critical green

The Green Infrastructure of the NYC Water Suppy

Ira Stern

design of City engineers. It would take the basic elements of good land use planning and a ‘roll up your sleeves and get to know your neighbors approach’ to implement an effective program. While some may call this is an oversimplification, as a person who was ‘on the ground’, I can say that until relationships were developed between upstate and downstate people, the beginning of trust and cooperation (that has lasted 15 years so far) would not have occurred.

I was lucky enough to lead a watershed planning division in NYC Depart-ment of Environmental Protection that was given responsibility to protect the watershed through the development and

implementation of voluntary water-shed programs to purchase priority lands, develop stream management plans and restoration projects, pro-duce infrastructure plans and build wastewater treatment plants and stormwater projects, work with farm-ers and forest landowners to do pollu-tion prevention plans and implement best management practices. We relied on local capacity building and imple-mentation, peer to peer education, focused on multiple objectives, and created local non-profit organizations (funded by the City) to deliver many of these programs. Pratt taught me to trust the power of good process and to rely on the inherent ability of people to work out solutions when recogniz-ing the benefit of mutual objectives.

Teaching at Pratt has enabled me to reach a cherished level of profes-sional development since I benefit greatly from the energy, knowledge, and experience of my students. It motivates me to keep current in my field and provides an outlet for the

passion I have for the environment and the creativity it takes to work with communities on difficult situations. I want the students to be prepared for this challenge, as my professors at Pratt did for me, and, as a result, I enjoy seeing them develop their own careers and bring Pratt values to their work. • Ira Stern is a Regional Manager at the NYCDEP Bureau of Water Supply, a PSPD alumni and

member of the faculty.

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the forest protect against pestilence and extreme weather. These factors lead to planning and management strategies to ‘maintain’ this critical piece of green infrastructure.

On a landscape level, the ecosystem function of natural and managed lands are dependent on the actions and be-havior of people since all land is owned by some entity – public or private – and all land is classified for tax purposes one way or another. This means that green infrastructure is dependent on people and communities and the dynamic relationships and motivations of the individual and the collective.

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Learning about watersheds and the rivers and landscape they depend on is fascinating, but it pales in comparison to the people and community dynam-ics that determination the form and function of the landscape. Facilitation, compromise, listening to all perspec-tives, getting the right stakeholders together, and dealing honestly and openly were key to making progress on protecting what is essentially a shared resource. While the watershed supplies the lifeblood to a great City, 75% of the watershed land is owned by private individuals. Whose rights are more important?

My experiential education at Pratt (MS CRP ’85) prepared me well for the chal-lenge of working for NYC beginning in 1995 just when the City needed to settle lawsuits with watershed commu-nities and develop a watershed protec-tion plan that met the requirements of the EPA for Filtration Avoidance. The green infrastructure was in place thanks to the stewardship of watershed residents, farmers, forest landowners, 60 towns and 8 counties, as well as the

Protecting land permanently and keeping it in its natural state is a more reliable strategy than controlling pollution on developed areas.

Project for Public Spaces

Spring TrainingHosted by the PSPD

April 28-29 Streets As Places

May 5-6 How to Turn a Place Around

May 20-11 How to Create Successful Markets

June 9-10 Placemaking: Making It Happen

All courses will take place at the Pratt Manhattan Campus at 144 West 14th Street (between 6th and 7th Aves) in New York City.

For questions, please contact Dana Kitzes at dkitzes@pps.org.

PROGRAMS forSUSTAINABLE PLANNING

and DEVELOPMENT

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The world’s most appealing urban waterfronts, from the Coney Island Boardwalk to Sydney Har-

bor and Vancouver’s Granville Island, are truly accessible, public environ-ments that attract a broad cross section of people, diverse in age, race and cul-tural background. Yet, new waterfront developments and parks in many cities, including New York, too often appeal to only one age group or socioeco-nomic sector, or worse, become private enclaves that serve only the people who live there. How can we avoid the pit-falls of exclusivity, particularly in a city that already struggles with social and ethnic tensions, and cultural insularity? Project for Public Spaces (PPS) helped to plan a number of urban waterfronts recently where the communities’ goals included putting the public first and celebrating pluralism. Here are some principles we have gleaned from these experiences.

MAKE PUBLIC GOALS THE PRIMARY OBJECTIVEHonolulu’s Kaka’ako Makai WaterfrontUrban waterfronts are too valuable to become the domain solely of a private developer or a single user group; they belong to all the people. Private devel-opment is not unwelcome, but the best solutions for revamping waterfronts put public goals first. Community engage-ment – and, ultimately, local owner-ship and pride – depend on this basic premise.

Hawaiians are ensuring that this prin-ciple is born out in practice on their Honolulu waterfront. PPS is part of a team of planners and designers that is working with the Honolulu commu-nity on a master plan for the Kaka’ako

Makai waterfront, a 200-acre state-owned property near the downtown that formerly housed light industry. To kick off the process, an advisory council was created from among the many cultures that make up the local community, with native Hawaiians taking the lead, to formulate guiding principles for the project. The group’s #1 principle states that Kaka’ako should be a Community Cultural Gathering Place that will “celebrate the intertwined cultures of the community by ensuring a welcom-ing gathering place for a broad cross-section of people diverse in age, income and ethnicity.” Consistent with this goal, participants in the planning pro-cess recommended that the waterfront include an outdoor multi-cultural festi-val space for Honolulu’s diverse ethnic communities, educational facilities that communicate the cultural history of the area, and a local food and cultural market place stocked by local farmers, fishers and traditional craftmakers.

CREATE A SHARED COMMUNITY VISION Cleveland’s Downtown LakefrontUnlike a master plan, a community visioning process does not lock a proj-ect into a prescribed solution. It is a citizen-driven initiative that outlines a set of goals–ideals to strive for–that set the stage for people to think boldly, make breakthroughs, and achieve new possibilities. Because a vision is adapt-able and can be implemented gradually, starting with small experiments, it often becomes more powerful through time as public enthusiasm for making bold changes gains support.

Cleveland’s Lake Erie waterfront lies at the heart of the city. Except for its

well-known Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Cleveland Browns Stadium and the Great Lakes Science Center, and a smattering of boats around the underused Voinovich Park, the water-front is dominated by port uses. The Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority is planning to move its port activities east of the downtown so that it can develop its extraordinary 100 acre property. PPS worked with Ehrenkranz Eckstut and Kuhn Architects on the master plan for the site, developing a program of uses for its new public spaces.

In reaching out to dozens of stakeholder organizations, including a variety of cultural arts entities and immigrant groups, we learned that Cleveland-ers identify with their neighborhoods -- separate villages that house homo-geneous populations --and rarely with the city at large. Furthermore, the city functions like a donut with noth-ing in the middle, since the downtown – although blessed with magnificent architecture -- has lost much of its strength as a retail and cultural cen-ter. The lakefront suffers from the same fate: tourists may go to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but rarely do residents venture down there. Out of our interviews and public brainstorm-ing workshops emerged a new vision for the waterfront: flexible plazas, parks and esplanades where all Cleveland-ers can mingle, and where different cultures can share their foods, music, dances and performances throughout the year, indoors and out. And we challenged the City to start achieving this dream immediately, with program-ming and partnerships that activate the underused piers and parking lots right away, even before the planning for the new district is completed, in order to build excitement for the shared vision of a waterfront where everyone feels welcome.

Planning for Diversity on the Waterfront: The PPS Experience

Meg Walker

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and DEVELOPMENT6

serve the broadly diverse population to identify ten different public destina-tions that they would like to see on the waterfront and how they could assist in programming them to serve their needs. Local theater and music groups that lack space saw the potential of flexible outdoor performance areas; the Parks Department would like an outdoor skat-ing rink; a canoeing club identified a safe harbor for educational programs; the African-American youth center wanted to run recreational programs for its kids around a Great Lawn; the Hud-son River Museum envisions galleries exhibiting local artists on the ground floors of residential buildings; and, the Bezak Environmental Center wants more shoreline space for its ecological studies. By constantly emphasizing that riverfront public spaces are for ev-eryone in Yonkers, not just the people who live in the new condo towers, and that they could be flexibly-designed so that they can be shared by a number of local partners, we helped the City understand what a tremendous commu-nity-building asset its waterfront could be. Increased tax revenues are not the only benefits that can be reaped. Rebuilding the pride and identity of the Yonkers around its spectacular Hud-

son River waterfront may do more to economically revive the city than just building luxury residential towers.

In his 2007 report, entitled “E Pluribus Unum: Diversity and Community in the Twenty-First Century,” Robert Putnam, the author of Bowling Alone, writes:“Tolerance for difference is but a first step. To strengthen shared identities, we need more opportunities for mean-ingful interaction across ethnic lines where Americans (new and old) work, learn, recreate, and live.”

Water, like food, is a magnet for ev-eryone, a social leveler. The natural attraction of being near the water, of touching it and, even better, of get-ting onto it draws young and old, of all races and cultures. Our waterfront public spaces offer one of the best opportunities for the “meaningful interaction across ethnic lines” that Putnam describes if we plan for it from the beginning and sustain it over time through the continuing involvement of a wide range of partners.• Meg Walker is a Vice President at the Project for Public Spaces.

For more information, go to pps.org

A sketch of the envisioned Cleveland Lakefront Promenade by Ehrenkranz Eckstut and Kuhn Architects

CREATE MULTIPLE MULTI-USE DESTINTIONSYonkers Hudson River WaterfrontPPS has found that an effective way to propel a visioning process is to set a goal of creating ten great destinations along a waterfront, an idea we call the “Power of Ten.” This focus on des-tinations, rather than “open space” or parks, enables a genuine community-led process to take root. Residents, businesses, community organizations and other stakeholders identify the key public destinations. The same principle is applied at each destination to come up with a list of ten activities resulting in a wealth of things to do that broadens the appeal of the destination, encouraging round-the-clock use.

In our work on Yonkers’ Hudson River waterfront (for the Point Street Landing project with Perkins Eastman Archi-tects), we stressed the need to create a wide range of public destinations on the waterfront to counter the privatization that could potentially result from the large amount of residential develop-ment planned. We asked community groups and non-profit organizations that

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Combined Sewer Overflow is everybody and nobody’s problem. During a rainstorm

in New York City, the storm drains in the street essentially shunt the total volume of local weather into the same set of pipes as our toilets. When the combined system fills up with rain, the overage – a frothy mix of human waste, runoff from roadways and any form of litter imaginable - is released directly to local water bodies, without treatment. This is happening almost every time it rains at the waterfronts New Yorkers utilize for employment and recreation. We might see (or smell) some evi-dence of a CSO overflow where float-able garbage collects via currents or is quarantined behind floating booms, but you basically need to be peering over the bulkhead at a known outfall (in the rain, at low tide) to know for sure if CSO overflows are happening.

From a planning perspective, this is an elegant (yet completely gross) illustra-tion of infrastructure carrying capac-ity. From the perspective of boaters, open water swimmers and fishermen, it’s a stinky mess they might witness up close, raising serious public heath concerns. For community gardeners and urban farmers, rain is a cherished resource to be carefully stored, not squandered down a drain. For policy makers, regulators and engineers – this

is a looming problem, extremely dif-ficult to solve through “conventional” means, that requires and expansion of their current skill set.

Where all of these viewpoints have an opportunity to come together is the Stormwater Infrastructure Matters (S.W.I.M.) Coalition, an alliance of over 70 groups dedicated to ensuring swim-mable waters around New York City through natural, sustainable stormwater management practices. Through policy, education, outreach, implementation and monitoring, S.W.I.M. members con-tribute to the collective understanding of how CSO pollution can be reduced while providing environmental benefits upland through Green Infrastructure.

Last year, the S.W.I.M. Coalition launched Minds in the Gutter, a call for submissions to anyone — professionals, students, the general public — with ideas for managing stormwater run-off from New York City roadways and sidewalks, and an exploration into how agencies, communities and individuals are working on these issues. The jury brought leaders from city government, academia, urban pedagogy and state-level green infrastructure planning to the table to consider the submissions. The 15 designs that were selected for the exhibit showcase a broad range of physical and environmental

opportunities in the gutter, coming from a diverse array of sources. Minds in the Gutter launched on Earth Day, April 22, 2010 at the Museum of the City of New York with a viewing of the designs and a panel discussion about the proj-ect, featuring some of the competition’s jurors, exhibiting designers and repre-sentatives of the S.W.I.M. Coalition.In the year since its launch, Minds in the Gutter has traveled to multiple professional conferences and served as a curriculum for formal and informal educational events, including Pratt Institute. Minds in the Gutter inspired a 2010 summer design/build course on stormwater in the Urban Environmental Systems Management program. Using the city and campus as a classroom, this course explored stormwater man-agement as a planning, policy, design and social justice issue. Students gained exposure to local current events involving stormwater management, the broader Green Infrastructure move-ment, and hands-on experience with planning and implementation of proj-ects currently underway. For their final projects, students created concepts for stormwater management interventions on multiple sites within the Newtown Creek sewershed. • Minds in the Gutter lives online at www.mindsinthegutter.org, and was created with the support of NYC Environmental Fund. Kate Zidar is a PSPD graduate and mem-ber of the faculty.

Newtown Creek, which borders Queens and Brooklyn, was the site of the Design/Build ESM course. Photo: Verbunkos (Flickr)

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Kate Zidar

Minds in the Gutter

PROGRAMS forSUSTAINABLE PLANNING

and DEVELOPMENT8

Mark Twain once advised, “Buy land, they’re not making it anymore.” No doubt he was

aware of the sky-rocketing cost of land in the rapidly urbanizing world of the Industrial Revolution. Although well-traveled, perhaps he was not familiar with the practice of land reclamation, in which shallow bodies of water are filled in to create developable and/or arable land. Essentially, they are still making it.

Building the Ground

A case in point is FXFOWLE’s award winning entry, City Regenerative, in an international competition for the Nordhavnen district, currently a con-tainer port and cruise ship terminal, in Copenhagen, Denmark. Our vision for the 200-hectare waterfront site con-nects urban infrastructure, extends the existing waterway, weaves open space through a series of neighborhoods and commercial nodes, and sets a new stan-dard for low-carbon consumption. And,

it proposed reclamation of approximate-ly 150,000 square meters of land.Thomas McKnight, Senior Vice President of Development at the NYC Economic Development Corporation, recently took note of the project and asked, “If they can do all of that land reclamation in Copenhagen, why can’t we do it here in New York?” Puzzled, I began researching land reclamation, which has been practiced around the world for centuries, from the creation of farm land in Holland and of city neigh-borhoods in Miami to airports around the world. Recently, however, the U.S. has viewed it with greater suspicion than Denmark has. I found that physi-cal geography, economy, history, and culture contribute to the differences in shaping our respective policies.

City Regenerative - FXFOWLE’s vision for urban planning and innovative architectural strategies to house 40,000 residents, create 40,000 jobs, and provide access for 40,000 bicycles.

Toby Snyder, LEED

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UNEQUAL GEOGRAPHYPhysically, one of the greatest threats to reclaimed land is the water around it. In general, areas with dramatic tidal changes, such as the northeastern United States, are more vulnerable to inundation and erosion than areas with small fluctuation, such as the Oresund, the strait that separates Denmark from Sweden. Furthermore, climate induced sea level rises are predicted to increase non-uniformly around the globe; the Oresund should experience less in-crease than the U.S. Atlantic coast. The threat of inundation is greater here as well, which, due to its particular ocean and wind currents, suffers hurricanes, storm surges, and floods more frequent-ly than the well-protected Oresund. In fact, in 500-years of practicing land reclamation Copenhagen has not recorded a single flood. 

Approaches to indigenous wildlife also differentiate our respective approaches

to land reclamation. Both the U.S. and Denmark protect wildlife habitat with regulations that limit or prevent land reclamation, dredging, pier construc-tion, and shoreline reconstruction. Since enacting the Endangered Species Act in 1970, many U.S. construction projects have been stopped or delayed. The most famous case is perhaps in protecting the snail darter fish (percina tanasi) from the Tennessee Valley Au-thority’s construction of the Tellico Dam (constructed only after being delayed through injunctions that were argued before the Supreme Court). Such mea-sures are not uniformly applied—much depends on the specifics of each spe-cies and habitat. A new pier in the East River at the Northside Piers project in Williamsburg was stymied following a moratorium that prohibited disrupting the river bed and shoreline during the fish mating season. 

Contrast our approach with the Danes’ treatment of the species found on the

competition site. The Danes discovered that a large population of green toads (bufo viridis), protected by the Euro-pean Economic Community Habitats Directive, had established themselves in the shallow ponds at the end of the Nordhavnen peninsula. Essentially, as long as sufficient measures were taken to create new habitats elsewhere on site, the toads and their ponds could be moved.

ECONOMIC REALITYFew development authorities can gen-erate the funds to reclaim land. In most U.S. cash-strapped municipalities, pri-vate entities with small capital reserves own the majority of land. Conversely, in Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Dubai, South Korea, and Hong Kong, each govern-ment owns a majority of the land—pri-vate property is often held in 99-year land leases. While these well-financed cities draw on national capital reserves for urban projects, the resulting re-claimed land represents a

The Nordhavnen peninsula today, with the city center of Copenhagen in the distance.

PROGRAMS forSUSTAINABLE PLANNING

and DEVELOPMENT

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smaller share of the government’s total property portfolio. In recent years, land reclamation projects have occurred where low-cost flat land is scarce—Foster + Partners’ Hong Kong Inter-national Airport (9.4 km2 reclaimed), Renzo Piano’s Kansai International Air-port (10 km2) in Osaka, most of Tokyo Bay (249 km2) or Bahrain (410 km2), for that matter, all the Palm developments in Dubai—and the resulting land value would be profitable.

Historically, the United States prac-ticed land reclamation more often than it does today, examples include: the Back Bay and Logan Airport in Boston (1,800 acres reclaimed); much of the San Francisco harbor; the Port of Providence and East Providence, Rhode Island; and the 92-acre Battery Park City in New York; as well as much of Lower Manhattan. The post-war period of suburban sprawl, which greatly spared Copenhagen, has done more to proportionally reduce the value of U.S. waterfront sites, making it unlikely that any reclamation proj-ect could generate comparative value. When high-value land does warrant

added expense, the common practice is to build up rather than out. Skyscrapers are not common at all in Copenhagen; rather, the Danes developed a high-density mid-rise urbanism.

The soil and fill needed for reclamation projects, depending on their scale, is enormous, and “filling” can only

preserved as pure and untouched.

Copenhagen’s population is very conscious of its role in constructing the landscape. A much longer shared civic history dates as far back as the Vikings and Romans. Copenhagen has built up its harbor over time, from the construction of the Citadel at the city’s heart and the fortification of Slotshol-men to the creation and expansion of the Nordhavnen Peninsula itself. With such a long history of continuously set-tling the land, it is nearly impossible to conceive of “pure” land in Denmark or consider the forces of development as threatening.

Perhaps the U.S., with its sprawling metropolitan regions, labyrinthine property laws, infrastructural fragmen-tation, and jurisdictional redundancy, can shift its policies to a simpler, yet more nuanced, understanding of how best to fit into the American landscape. Not that we should simply adopt Danish practices, but we should take a more holistic approach towards deciding where to develop land and where to preserve it. The value of Twain’s quote may yet prove to be prescient advice, not as a rapacious investment strategy, but as a reminder of the scarce and pre-cious resource we should not squander or exhaust. • Toby Snyder is a designer for

FXFOWLE and a PSPD faculty member.

A park created from reclaimed land in “City Regenerative.”

Historical growth of the Nordhavnen peninsula over the last 400 years, with the “City Regenerative” proposal for the next 45 years.

take place where enough “cutting” balances it. This was the case in the 1970s when 1.2 million cubic yards were excavated from the World Trade Center site and ’dumped’ at the Battery Park City site in the Hudson River. The Nordhavnen project in Copenhagen can only now be realized as a result of the increased construction activity taking place around the city, most notably the massive highway tunneling under the Oresund harbor.

CULTURAL SPECULATIONSStating that all reclamation projects get a green light in Copenhagen and

a red light in the U.S. oversimplifies it. Americans often regard their cities as constructed out of a wilderness on “virgin” soil from an often mysterious and unknown natural world. This has led our development to assume either a frontiersman-like “battle against nature” or its inverse corollary, deference to sacred land to be

Think about any new waterfront development you’ve seen re-cently. There was probably a lot

of glass, carefully selected to accentu-ate the reflections off the water or catch the color of the sky. An interesting light fixture, reminding you that modern aesthetics almost always change – or at least our tastes do. Nearest the water’s edge there was a railing, finished in brushed metal and likely topped by a dense hardwood not native to North America. It may even have won some award, but it’s relationship to the water is probably nothing more than a visual connection. That’s not just unfortunate, it’s wrong.

Break Through the Surface, Here’s How

What most of today’s waterfront devel-opments seem to do best is to keep peo-ple from making contact with the actual water. This is unfortunate and unneces-sary. Unfortunate mainly because water quality in urban rivers, harbors and bays has improved so dramatically in the last four decades since the passage of the Clean Water Act. It’s unnecessary because with a little more consideration of the natural characteristics of the water, and just a touch of imagination, every new waterfront development can help us all reconnect to what historical-ly was the most vibrant harbor and port in the western hemisphere. This harbor is historically a place where recreation and commerce have long coexisted, and

Carter Craft often side-by-side. In many ways these activities complemented each other, and they may yet again.

When faced with your next waterfront design or development opportunity, think about the following aspects of your site: bottom condition, water depth, water quality, movement, and the water’s edge. Historic maps will give you some ideas, but in an estuary so dramatically altered by human ingenu-ity and intervention, there is no sub-stitute for doing your own investigating firsthand – or at least up to your knees.

BOTTOM CONDITIONThe condition of the bay-, creek- or river bottom will show you a number of useful things. Rocky bottoms will tell you there’s probably a lot of wave and wake action there. The finer grain silts get washed away by the currents.  If there’s silt or even muck there then you might have some options. Calm waters are ripe for some human connec-tion. The finer silts here can help hold roots for submerged plants or inter-tidal grasses. Muck can swallow your shoe, but at the same time not provide enough structure for plantlife to take hold. The best of all worlds is sand, it provides some structure, it’s uniform and easy to handle, it’s generally clean, and it’s easy on the feet.

As you head farther away from the shoreline, you’ll start to find a different bottom condition at different distances. For instance, at East River State Park in Williamsburg you can see the sand up near the high water line, and heavier rocks farther. Depending on the size of your site you may be able to create different zones of water-related activ-ity: a mooring area there for sailboats, a kayak launch here, even some spar-tina marsh along the edge if it can be protected both from wave action and human interference. Pay close attention to the slope of the bottom – along the many shipping channels in and around

You CAN Get There From Here: Each year NYC Swim hosts the Brooklyn Bridge swim, where hundreds of swimmers negotiate the tides and currents for 1 kilometer in the East River. Photo: Carter Craft

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New York it is not unusual to find some steep drop-off not at all far from shore. No one likes to get in over their head if they’re not ready for it.  WATER DEPTH  At waterfront sites in New York City, the most important thing to keep in mind about water depth is that it

changes: the ocean’s tides have a dra-matic influence throughout the water-front zone. As the North Atlantic Ocean sloshes back and forth between North America on the east and Europe on the west, the level and the height of the water rises and falls almost 5 feet every six hours throughout much of NYC. But in places like the Upper East River, along the south Bronx, northern Queens and western Long Island Sound, where the tidal influence is more complex, the level of the water can rise and fall close to eight feet with every cycle. This variation happens because when the tide is coming in ocean water first starts pushing westward through Long Island Sound, along the coast of New England. Soon the High Tide reaches the area around the Throgs Neck and Whit-estone Bridges. Meanwhile, the same surge of the Atlantic has also been pushing in along the south shore of Long Island and enters the Narrows. As the tide moves up through the Harbor, it can enter into the Kills around Staten Island, go up the Hudson, or up the East River Thus, along the Upper East River for much of the day the tide is pushing in from both directions.

Water depth is critical for two reasons.  For human use, what may look like an attractive wading beach in the Inner Harbor at low tide will disappear in a

matter of hours. Unless you know the tide cycle quite well it can be hard to even plan an activity in certain areas.  For boats, water depth is also very important. Every vessel has a dimen-sion known as “draft.” This is the depth of the boat’s hull or structure below the water line.  For something lightweight like a kayak, the draft can be just a few inches.  For a small motor boat plan on 1-2 feet.  For a water taxi it might be

PROGRAMS forSUSTAINABLE PLANNING

and DEVELOPMENT

The Water Beckons: the Harlem River has a number of opportunities to better connect land and water activities. Photo: Carter Craft

3-5 feet, depending on the design of the boat. For many of the larger dinner and party boats the draft could be 7-10 feet and for working tugs plan on 8-15 feet. If the vessel is ocean going then the draft can be much larger. Surging and stormy seas demand a deeper keel to help keep the ship upright. Large commercial ships are in a league of their own. Most of the modern con-tainer ships have a draft of 45-50 feet or more. This issue of draft is what is driving the largest dredging project ever in this Port; the US Army Corps of Engineers is now in its 2nd decade of a $1.3 billion plus project to deepen all of the primary shipping channels into

the Port. Add to this amount the almost 5-foot tidal variation and suddenly its clear why boating doesn’t always work everywhere we might hope.

Sailboats deserve a special mention. Many have a fixed, often deep keel. This is the part of the hull which ex-tends deep down into the water to help maintain the boat’s stability while in rough seas or heavy wind. If your sail-boat has a centerboard - a removable or pivoting part of the keel that can be raised up or removed in shallow waters –it can dock just about anywhere in the harbor. However, if your sailboat has a fixed keel then you’ll have to be much more careful. If you are at the dock at low tide and the bottom condi-tions are fine grain silts, you might have some scuffing or minor damage to the keel.  But if that bottom condition at low tide is rock or stone, or the water is just too shallow, it’s possible that your keel could get wedged, and function like a pry bar pushing your sailboat up against or away from the dock. This can be very dangerous- both for the struc-tural integrity of the vessel as well as anyone trying to get on or off the boat. 

(Continued from previous page)

When faced with your next waterfront design or development opportunity, think about the following aspects of your site: bottom condition, water depth, water quality, movement, and the water’s edge. 

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MOVEMENT Most importantly, keep in mind the Harbor’s water is almost always moving.  Just the wind can have such a dramatic influence on the water’s flow speed and direction that it alone warrants a much longer article. But basic geography and physical form play large roles too. Where the river or bay is broad like a wide pool the rate is slower. Where the waterway is constricted and narrow the pace is much more rapid. The efforts to capture tidal energy in the estuary are concentrated along the East River where the water is the fastest-moving current anywhere in or near New York City.   But just as the tide rises, so the currents speed up and then slow before the tide starts to fall. That period when the current seems to stop – when the tide is turning – is called “slack” tide.  Slack tide is when many sensi-tive in-water activities get scheduled.  The annual swim under the Brooklyn Bridge and the docking of many cruise or container ships are all scheduled at or near slack tide so as to minimize the potential influence of the tide on the activity that needs to happen.  

Ask any Harbor Pilot about the move-ment of the water and he or she may give you a long treatise reminding you that colder water coming in from the ocean sinks below warmer water flowing down the river.  Ocean water is saltier as well, causing it to come in like a

wedge beneath the Hudson’s salt-free water flowing out on top. The water’s particular movement in any location therefore isn’t just influenced by the tide, but also it’s temperature and salt content.  Thus a ship that has a draft of 20 or 30 feet may actually be dealing with a current pushing them along 25 feet below, while at the surface of the water the tide is working against their vessel. Think for a minute what these conflicting forces might do if you were trying to move sideways, which you often need to when docking a boat.  

THE WATERS EDGE If you ever find yourself in a situation where you can’t make headway against the wind or the tide, chances are you will look for some place to wait for conditions to change, or to tie up, go get coffee or even come back tomorrow.  This is when the unfortunate reality of our inflexible edges will strike you.  There just aren’t many places to get out.  It’s hard with a boat – but even harder if you ever find yourself in the water looking for a place to get out.  The best models for today are probably the ones used here years ago:  staircases, ramps, and floating docks or barges.  Ladders are needed at regular intervals to help swimmers and scuba divers to get in and out, in areas where those activities are taking place.

Looking at all these factors above:  bottom condition, water depth, water quality, movement and wind it is clear that planning for the waterfront is just as complex as planning for the land.  Just as important but not discussed in this article is the issue of water quality – the physical, biological and chemical makeup of the water itself. It’s a very dynamic environment and our vision for it ought to be as well. As our water quality continues to improve its impor-tant to remember we must try also to find the balance between human use and enjoyment and the ecological func-tions needed to support the biodiversity that defines any healthy environment, particularly an urban one. Though our nation’s politics offer us little hope that such a balance exists, the fact that this estuary remains home to virtually all the native species of fish that dwelled here before European settlement make it clear we are blessed with a biologi-cally rich environment. We owe it to ourselves and future generations to create new connections to and into the water that can help us create syn-ergy between human use and natural function, or at least a better balance than the industrial revolution has yet achieved. • Carter Craft teaches Waterfront Planning in the PSPD. He is USCG-licenced Captain and principal of Outside New York, a consulting firm specializing in programming, education, infrastructure design, and events.

Oyster Cove at Pier 101 on Governors Island is home to many water-based programs, including those of the Downtown Boathouse and the Urban Assembly New York Harbor School. The NYC School Construction Authority is renovating an adjacent building to become an oyster hatchery, boat maintenance shop, and SCUBA program support space for the School. Photo: Carter Craft

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Sunset Park, a community-of-color on the waterfront is par-ticularly vulnerable to the effects

of climate change. A recent editorial published in the journal, Environmental Justice, explained the uneven impacts of climate change this way, “Climate researchers report that vulnerable com-munities, even in the most prosperous nations, will be the first and worst hit. In this country, the most impacted areas will be communities-of-color, Indig-enous Peoples, and low-income com-munities that are socio-economically disadvantaged, disproportionately burdened by poor environmental qual-ity, and least able to adapt. They will be the first to experience extreme heat events, respiratory illness, vector-borne infectious diseases, food insecurity, and natural disasters.” In the Sunset Park studio led by Ron Shiffman, Mercedes Narciso, Ellen Neises, Eddie Bautista, and Stuart Pertz, our client, the environmental justice community organization UPROSE (United Puerto Rican Organization of Sunset Park), posed to us the mandate to create a holistic plan to create community resilience in the face of climate change. Our approach to resilience was broad, and neces-sarily so, encompassing urban design, community capacity building, land-scape design, economic development, affordable housing, disaster planning, and city and regional policy. We looked into ways to foster economic resilience, resilience of the built form, tenure and security for long term residents, a resil-ient culture, and a diverse and healthy waterfront and open space network that

Improving the Resiliency ofCoastal Communities

could not only weather the effects of climate change but slow them and help protect the community from them.

Sunset Park is a coastal neighbor-hood in Brooklyn, south of Red Hook and north of Bay Ridge. The diverse community of, among others, Puerto Rican, Mexican, Chinese, and Pales-tinian residents runs upland from the waterfront to the park that carries its namesake. The waterfront is a working waterfront and is a source of employ-ment for residents, 20% of Sunset Park residents walk to work. The waterfront is a significant maritime industrial area, an SMIA, and as such has special zon-ing that is meant to keep manufactur-ing in the area but has the unfortunate and dangerous side effect of allowing

Laura Stinger

polluting infrastructure to be sited near the water and homes with little or no environmental review. As the residents of the community are already burdened by the Gowanus Expressway, a freeway-like Fourth Avenue that cuts them off from the waterfront, a waste transfer station, multiple brownfields, and a severe lack of public space, environmental justice is of the utmost concern. Sunset Park has been the subject of many planning endeavors. There is a 197-A plan, a Greenway plan, a Vision Plan from the Economic Development Corporation, and the new Waterfront Revitalization Plan. All these plans vary in their commitment and innova-tion to raising the quality of life for

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Sunset Park residents, but they share one thing in common, they were made before it was clear that the effects of climate change must be a main thread woven through any look at a waterfront community, especially one with pollut-ing infrastructure in a storm surge zone. We knew that any initiative must be led by the community and therefore empower and strengthen the commu-nity, as UPROSE has been doing for decades. After a disaster, it has been shown again and again that an affected community that had a strong and well-established social network recovered faster, with more residents returning, crucial services up and running again in a shorter time, and in some cases, improved facilities compared to pre-disaster. Thus many of our recom-mendations went beyond land-use and looked to build and support the vibrant networks that already exist in the area; an informed group of activist youth, a lively tradition of street vending and entrepreneurship, strong community organizations, and an active street life. Taken as a whole, we knew that our recommendations must simultaneously raise the economic capital, the social capital, and the built capital while hav-ing a strong framework for ensuring that long-term residents are not displaced by gentrification.

Our recommendations laid out a greener and stronger Sunset Park and included:1 Innovative ways to create more open space and manage storm water: A A backyard farming network with resource and knowledge sharing, work-days, all connected to emergency food distribution.B Raised bed food production and a lo-cal vendors market on a former brown-field.C Green waterfront connector streets running upland all the way to the water and featuring bio-swales, extended tree pits, and pedestrian-only weekends

with programming and events.D Innovative ways to help small, green manufacturing thrive on the waterfront:E A community kitchen for vendors to develop ideas, upscale production, and cut down on sanitation violations. Designed as a closed-loop system, the building would also house large-scale composting, a wholesale produce dis-tributor sourcing from upstate farmers and transported via the Hudson to the waterfront rail barge connection, a roof-top farm, and a wash cut and bag facil-ity, providing jobs and fresh produce for the NYC school system.2 Innovative ways to build capacity and social capacity:A A foreign language teaching coopera-tive.B A mobile health clinic.C Connecting the elderly population with the rest of the community through an intergenerational video project documenting their history and stories.3 Innovative economic development:A Sustainable materials management in

the industrial sectorB Making sure the new park at bush terminal uses local vendors.3 Support for continuing environmental health and justice:A Using the bay ridge salt flats which lie just off the coast of Sunset Park as a wave attenuation buffer, utilizing ecol-ogy restoration and oyster reefs.B Building a ecology center for youth environmental education on the wa-terfront; including oyster cultivation, wetland construction, water testing, soil testing, urban agriculture.4 Housing and rights of tenure:A Using the TIL program, convert foreclosed properties into affordable housing co-ops. B Collaborate with local community de-velopment corporations and innovative design-build firms to create housing where the future residents participate in the design, building, and mainte-nance of the buildings. • Laura Stinger is a second year student in City and Regional Planning.

Previous Page and Above: Images from the final presentation and report by the Sunset Park Studio

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Looking for a solution to food scar-city, excessive chemicals on our foods, too much energy used in

growing and transporting food, nutrient runoff, the disappearance of low skilled jobs in urban areas, and food that just plain doesn’t taste very good? Then welcome to the vertical farm revolution, and the foundational book on Vertical Farming by the movement’s leading light, Columbia University Professor Emeritus Dickson Daniel Despommier.

“The Vertical Farm” is a tour de force of the promise of this latest agricultural revolution. Just as humans developed

Future Farming

The ubiquity of smartphones has begun to start to weave their way into the urban fabric, and a new,

readily accessible layer of an “augmented reality” is beginning to emerge. Prior to the development of these devices, history was marked geographically by staid plaques hiding roadside and in the bushes. Now we are able to tune into the wavelengths of history as easy as pressing a few buttons on the devices already in our pockets.

PSPD GIS instructor Steven Romalewski has developed a mobile app called Landmarks: New York. It lists the official landmarked buildings near you anywhere in the 5 boroughs, providing details such as when the landmark was designated, if it’s in a Historic District, thumbnail photos, and Wikipedia links. You can view each location on a map, and email details

about the landmark with just a single tap. It’s designed for students doing field work, architects, historic preser-vationists, urban planners, and even tourists and anyone else curious about New York’s rich architectural history. The app has been featured on the New York Times’ City Room Blog as well as DNAinfo.com. He has also created versions for Boston and San Francisco. Currently, it is built for the Palm Pre or Pixi, but an iPhone version is coming soon. • Learn more at www.spatialityapps.com

Landmarks West (and East, North, South)

agriculture, then mechanized it and added fertilizers and chemicals, we are now on the cusp of the third agricul-tural revolution: growing food in urban areas, using less land, water and fossil fuels, while applying fewer chemicals.

After a fascinating time travel through the invention of primitive and modern agriculture–with all their advantages and problems–Dr. Despommier, a microbiologist, lifts us into the coming world of high-rise farming. In new or refurbished buildings, farmers of tomor-row will grow all kinds of food that we can be eating the next day.

The illustrations are lively and infor-mative; the style is easy and friendly; and the message is compelling: we eat better and the eco-sphere can heal itself and once again provide all those wonderful services–carbon sequestration and clean water, to mention two–that it used to do. So while you’re reading “The Vertical Farm”- and it is truly a must-read–contemplate all those advantages, and taste that fresh food. • Gelvin Stevenson teaches Envi-

ronmental Economics in the PSPD.

Upcoming Facilities

ManagementProgram

Thursday, April 14, 2011Development as a Contact SportRobert Sanna, Exec VP & Director, Forest City Ratner CompaniesAtlantic Yards as a development scenario has all the hallmarks and the travails of current property issues. Anecdotes about policy, costs, procedures, marketing and the ultimate goals will elucidate the story of this new Brooklyn landmark. 6:30 PM, Room 213, Pratt Manhattan.

PROGRAMS forSUSTAINABLE PLANNING

and DEVELOPMENT

Gelvin StevensonBook review of The Vertical Farmby Dr. Dickson Despommier2010, Thomas Dunne Books$25.99, 320 pages

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ALUMNI INFOAlison Cordero (Class of 1991) has a long history in serving the communi-ties of North Brooklyn. Starting at St. Nick’s Alliance in 1984 as a Pratt Institute intern, Alison has served as the Deputy Director for Community Preservation since 1997. Her nearly 30 years of service to the Greenpoint-Williamsburg community is undeterred. As Frank Lang, Housing Director at St. Nick Alliance attests, “Alison’s big-gest strength is her consistent desire to work in a collaborative manner with all facets of the neighborhood to coordinate and build consensus toward an advo-cacy agenda.”

As some of you may know, Alison experienced a stroke in May 2010 just as the department was preparing to celebrate its 50th Anniversary. Alison,

as usual, was engaged in the planning of the event and had volunteered to co-chair the newly reformed PPAA. In the last 10 months, she has had a remark-able recovery that has her speaking and writing more clearly every day.An event will be held in Alison’s honor, helping to raise funds for Trinity Hu-man Services Center (140 Montrose Av-enue, Brooklyn, NY 11206) on Sunday, April 3rd at 2pm. A raffle will be held to help support Alison’s family with the medical costs they have incurred. For more information contact Yadhira Deras (THSC) at 718-388-3176 or Rolando Guzman (St. Nicks) at rguzman@stnicksalliance.org.

PSPD SPRING LECTURE SERIES Last month, Programs for Sustainable Planning and Development launched its Spring Lecture Series. This compel-ling series features local leaders and internationally renowned practitioners discussing and debating current plan-ning, preservation and environmental topics. Lectures have been contempo-rary and compelling and audience dis-cussion has been lively and engaging. Please mark the series in your calendar and be sure to share it with friends and colleagues in New York City. We look forward to seeing you there! Reception 5:30; Lecture 6:00; Q+A 7:00

Pratt Manhattan Campus144 West 14th Street, New YorkRoom 213 (Unless otherwise noted)RSVP prattpspd@gmail.com

April 1: Vision 2020 Comprehensive Waterfront Plan with Mike MarrellaApril 8: Cultural Heritage: Roots, Relations, Rationales, Rights and

Alumni UpdatesRedemption with Carsten Paludan- MüllerApril 15: Redefining Artistic Advocacy with Aaron LevyApril 29: New York State Climate Ac-tion Plan with Alan Belensz

CONNECT WITH PPAA ONLINEPratt Institute Alumni Association has recently launched it’s new and enhanced website: alumni.pratt.edu. The new site features an online direc-tory, alumni news and networking groups. The site will also help alumni take advantage of benefits including discounted membership to Pratt’s ath-letic facility and free entry to some city museums.

To make this experi ence valuable, we need your help. Please visit to alumni.pratt.edu to log into Pratt’s online alumni database and make sure that the Institute has your most current contact information, preferred email ad-dress and any personal or professional accomplish ments you’d like to share. Once you’ve logged-in to the site, please find the Pratt Planning Alumni Association (search “Groups” on the left hand side), created just for PSPD alumni. PPAA will disseminate as all relevant news for PSPD alumni through this group.

We would also encourage you to con-nect with PPAA on our LinkedIn page. Our group name is “Pratt Planning”. We look forward to seeing you online!

What is PPAA? The Pratt Planning Alumni Association (PPAA) aims to invigorate our dynamic alumni network to bring the benefits, resources and expertise to alumni and to current students. To provide PPAA with financial contributions or volunteer time, please email PPAA Co-Chairs Nancy Campbell and Anna Peccianti at prattplanningalum@gmail.com.

Nancy Campbell and Anna Peccianti

Allison Cordero leading a public workshop. Photo: PPAA

Click here to visit our LinkedIn page.

SAVE THE DATE!Saturday, April 16 11am - 6pm Re:Construction: Rebuilding Dialogues, a sym-posium on diversity sponsored by PIPSA and LEAP will be taking place in Higgins Hall.

AAKRITI, the journal of the Goa College for Architecture, wrote an article about the experience of Pratt’s studio on the coast of India. The studio wil be covered in full in the summer issue of Multiplicity. Click here to read the article.

PROGRAMS forSUSTAINABLE PLANNING

and DEVELOPMENT18

Accomplishments

In December, Eddie Bautista was a part of the White House’s first panel on Environmental Justice. He spoke on the Healthy Communities and Place-based Initiatives panel and requested federal assistance to support local efforts by City officials and NYC-EJA members to reform the Significant Maritime Industrial Area’s designa-tion found in the NYC Waterfront Revitalization Program.

Joan Byron was a part of a panel discussion, Roads to Nowhere: Public Works in a Time of Crisis. The panel was co-sponsored by the Pratt Center and the Regional Plan Association as a part of the Musuem of the City of New York’s on going Urban Forum series on New York Infrastructure.

Steve Jones from McGraw-Hill construction shared research findings with Construction and Facilities Management students on how BIM is transforming building design, construction and operation, with profound implications for future Construction Managers.

Ned Kaufman will give the keynote speech at the Looking Forward Symposium being put together by Historic New England and Roger Williams University. The event is to take place on the 1st of October, 2011.

Lee Miller, ‘13, a joint-degree student at the Pratt Institute and Brooklyn Law School was awarded the American Planning Association’s (APA) Daniel J. Curtin, Jr., Planning Law Fel-lowship. The APA’s Planning Law Division awards the Fellowship to one student annually to foster greater interest in the study of land use planning and its interrelationship with the law. The recipient advocates for thoughtful planning by preparing articles on land use for publication, assisting in the APA’s educational programs and the solicitation and review of session proposals submitted by Planning Law Division members for the annual National APA Conference.

Adedayo Ologundudu put together a forum at Columbia University as a kick off event for the non-profit he has founded, the Global Environ-mental Management Foundation. Additionally he serves as Associate Lecturer and Research Fellow within the Department of Quantity Sur-veying, School of Environmental Technology at Federal University of Technology in Akure, Ni-geria, and is Chief Priest of the Yoruba culture.

Nadine Post, Editor at ENR, lead a discussion in project delivery systems and BIM at Pratt Manhattan in January, as well as other forms of collaborative delivery. The “lean” construction initiative, specifically the Lean Construction Institute, was reviewed.

In January, Manhattan’s Community Board 3 approved a set of guidelines to redevelop six acres of largely vacant City-owned property on the Lower East Side – one of the largest tracts of such land remaining in Manhattan – collec-tively known as the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area. Over the past 40 years, efforts to rebuild on the sites, which were originally raised as part of an urban renewal scheme, have been immobilized by strong community disagreement over what should be built there, and for whom. Since April 2010, the City has been working with a designated CB3 committee to create a plan that represents a good compromise between divergent community voices. The meetings have been facilitated (and the guidelines drafted) by PSPD’s Chair John Shapiro, PSPD Professor Eve Baron, and Simon Kawitzky, a recent graduate. As approved, the guidelines call for more than 800 units of housing, approximately half of which will be affordable. Also called for are substantial amounts of retail, commercial, and community space, as well as public open space. The City intends to use the guidelines to

craft Requests for Proposals to redevelop to the area, while continuing to consult with the Com-munity Board.

Eric Allison spoke at the Neighborhood Pres-ervation Center co-sponsored by the Historic Districts Council, discussing the new book he co-authored with Lauren Peters, Historic Preservation and the Livable City. The book serves as “a guide to how historic preservation can enhance the economic and environmental sustainability of cities and towns.

Sciame Construction sponsored this se-mester’s OSHA-10 certification classes. This event was held at the Sciame offices in Lower Manhattan.

A book that included a contribution from Ron Shiffman, What We See: Advancing the Observa-tions of Jane Jacobs, has been named one of the top books of 2010 by re:place Magazine. It was also recently listed as one of the ten best books of 2010 in urban planning, design, and develop-ment by Planetizen.

Jaime Stein was a speaker at the second instal-lation of the NYC Future Metropolis events put on by Solar One, a Green Energy, Arts, and Education Center located in Stuyvesant Cove Park. She spoke on the subject of Green Infrastructure.

PSPD and the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany co-sponsored a discussion at the Center for Architecture in December with Englebert Daldrup and Peter Zionicky, authors of the book, Large Scale Project in German Cities: Urban Development 1990-2010. In this work, the authors examine nineteen large-scale projects that have been undertaken over the past twenty years. They discussed a few of these proj-ects, focusing on Hamburg and Stuttgart, and whether these efforts have indeed contributed to the ‘renaissance of the European city.’ The book is available for order on Amazon.

EDITORIAL William Calabrese

Geoffrey Dyck

CHAIRJohn Shapiro