Hunter s Point South Park: Industrial Wasteland to New Urban Ecological Paradigm

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1 2014 ASLA ANNUAL MEETING & EXPO DENVER Saturday, November 22, 2014 Session B10 2:30-3:30 PM Hunter s Point South Park: Industrial Wasteland to New Urban Ecological Paradigm Thomas Balsley Associates / Weiss/Manfredi Hunter s Point South Park: Industrial Wasteland to New Urban Ecological Paradigm Thomas Balsley, FASLA, Thomas Balsley Associates, Co-Designer Christian Gabriel, ASLA, GSA (former Thomas Balsley Associates Project Manager/Design Associate) A unique collaboration of landscape architects and architects has woven infrastructure, landscape and architecture into a new urban ecological paradigm. The design leverages the site s industrial heritage and spectacular skyline views to establish a resilient, multi-layered recreational and cultural site that is both waterfront and city, gateway and sanctuary, blank slate and pentimento. LEARNING OBJECTIVES: 1. Hear why this unique collaboration of landscape architect and architect was formed and to what advantage to the profession and the public. 2. Understand the unique challenges of this post-industrial urban site, its infrastructure, and its larger urban development context. 3. Peek into the complex public process ranging from program consensus to multi-agency and stakeholder design reviews. 4. Tour the park s rich landscape architectural and architectural detailing including innovative material choices. 5. Learn the multi-layered approaches to social, cultural, recreational, economic, and environmental sustainability goals. OUTLINE: A. Introduction: 1. Natural and industrial history 2. Part of larger scale development plans 3. Phased park development starting in 1993 with Gantry Plaza Park B. Forming the Team - Thomas Balsley Associates / Weiss/Manfredi 1. The process of collaboration 2. The advantages to the public and our profession C. Context and Challenges 1. Urban context 2. Site environs 3. Infrastructure 4. Celebrate history in contemporary park language D. Goals 1. Uncover and celebrate the site s history 2. Provide common ground for the existing and new community

2 2014 ASLA ANNUAL MEETING & EXPO DENVER Saturday, November 22, 2014 Session B10 2:30-3:30 PM Hunter s Point South Park: Industrial Wasteland to New Urban Ecological Paradigm Thomas Balsley Associates / Weiss/Manfredi Provide a diverse cultural, recreational, and riparian landscape Enlist line-of-first-defense resiliency strategies E. Public Process and Stakeholder Investment 1. Outreach to diverse constituency 2. Program consensus 3. Design consensus F. Design Exploit the site s heterogeneity, including its diverse topography and water edge Topographic and materiality strategies for resiliency Strategic juxtaposition of program that maximizes synergy Reinforce upland, community, Queens West Park and water taxi connections Previous phases informed this; the last phase Celebrates world-class skyline views in social and contemplative settings Post-industrial nature is replaced with a new urban ecology Innovative sustainability materials and details including wood alternatives to tropical hardwoods G. Conclusion

3 2014 ASLA ANNUAL MEETING & EXPO DENVER Saturday, November 22, 2014 Session B10 2:30-3:30 PM Hunter s Point South Park: Industrial Wasteland to New Urban Ecological Paradigm Thomas Balsley Associates / Weiss/Manfredi SPEAKER BIO Thomas Balsley, FASLA, specializes in urban landscape architecture. His more than 100 NYC public spaces includes Balsley Park on 57th St. In addition to his teachings and lectures at Harvard GSD and others, he is featured in numerous publications throughout the US and abroad including the monograph Thomas Balsley: The Urban Landscape by Spacemaker Press. His award-winning parks and waterfronts include Riverside Park South, Gantry Plaza Park and Capitol Plaza in NYC, Cleveland s Perk Park, Baltimore s West Shore Park, Dallas Main Street Garden, and Tampa s Curtis Hixon Park. Recent first place international design competitions include SIPG Harbor City Parks in Shanghai and Samsung s Digital City Central Park in Seoul. SPEAKER BIO Christian Gabriel is the National Design Director for Landscape Architecture for the GSA s Office of Chief Architect in Washington DC. He works to set design standards in the realm of public space, landscape, site security and sustainability. He reviews and approves design proposals, serves on selection panels, assists on special projects, and advocates for innovation. Prior to joining the GSA, he practiced as a design associate in the offices of Thomas Balsley and Ken Smith. Most recently, as a Design Associate with Thomas Balsley Associates, he served as the team leader for the award winning Hunter s Point South Waterfront project.

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5 A Queens Park Opens, Already a Storm Survivor By DAVID W. DUNLAP Published: September 4, 2013 The Hunters Point South Waterfront Park in Queens opened on Aug. 28. It had already survived Hurricane Sandy. Construction of the 5.5-acre park was well along last October when the storm hit. Surging waters immersed much of the playing surface of synthetic turf. Winds hit a full-scale steel mock-up of the park pavilion. Waves washed over the wood-plank esplanade, where new honey which designed the park in collaboration with Thomas Balsley Associates, a landscape architectural practice, and Arup, an The park passed the test. Water emptied from the green. The pavilion mock-up stood, as did the trees. The planking came manufactured by Kebony, a Norwegian company. The quick turnaround could be credited in part to some common-sense principles embedded in the design: -Build higher than you think the water could possibly come. -Make it tough, but not impossible, for surging water to get in.

6 A Queens Park Opens, Already a Storm Survivor Welcome to the new world of civic design, in which projects bend so that they will not break. built at a cost of $66 million. They are to serve what the Bloomberg administration envisions as a new neighborhood with 5,000 housing units, 60 percent of which would be reserved for middle- and lower-income residents. Therefore, the waterfront park is not merely a public amenity, though it is certainly that, with a dog run, ball courts, play- quarter. That is why one of its most important features can be found at its edge. Running through the plantings along the eastern six inches into the ground, but are partly visible among the grasses. Water will never be trapped in there like a pond, Thomas Balsley, the landscape architect, said. berm. Hard-charging games can be played on the synthetic grass, while parkgoers looking for a comfortable vantage can settle down on the real thing. The compromise was an artful one, said Mr. Benepe, who is now a senior vice president of the Trust for Public Land. It looks good and hopefully will work well.

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