Lifes of grass by Mathilde Roussel Giraudy

Figural sculptures composed of soil, wheat seeds, and recycled metal by Mathilde Roussel Giraudy were displayed at Farm City 2010.  This work - lifes of grass - shows that "the natural world, ingested as food becomes a component of human being."

Mercer Plaza: Make way for NYU green initiatives

Image: Pre-construction, 251 Mercer Street, facing south (source)

About four years ago, residents of the 250 Mercer Street co-op protested against NYU's underground heat and power plant renovation because approximately 18 mature trees would have to be removed.  An incomplete slum clearance/ urban renewal project in the 1950s resulted in superwide sidewalks on LaGuardia Place and Mercer Street between West 3rd and Houston Streets.  If any of the afore-mentioned trees were planted then, then they were at least 50 years old.  Opponents of the project argued that the trees could be saved if the university built its power plant underneath Gould Plaza instead of under the public right-of-way at 251 Mercer Street.The City eventually approved the university's plan and the trees were removed. 

Interestingly, the power plant project was endorsed by the U.S. EPA.  The agency cited a 43,315 ton reduction in annual carbon emissions with a combined heat and power (co-generation) system.  I wonder if the university, the City, and other institutional actors compared that reduction to the "net CO₂ reduction" of 113,016 tons across an estimated population of 592,130 street trees (source: New York Municipal Forest Resource Analysis, Paula J. Peper et al., 2007).

Image: Post-construction, Mercer Plaza at 251 Mercer Street, facing north

A 13,000 square foot plaza -- and sidewalk -- replaced the original parallel sidewalks and fenced landscape areas this fall.  (Is the plaza considered a POPOS or privately owned public open space?)  The plaza was designed by Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects and planted with trees, shrubs, and herbaceous perennials.  The original tree palette listed witch hazel (Hammemelis virginiana is technically a shrub), hophornbeam (Ostrya virginiana), cockspur hawthorn (Crataegus crus-galli L.), tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera), willow and shingle oaks (Quercus phellos and Q. imbricaria), and sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua).  A Curbed NY story provided the species growing on the site in 2006: Japanese lilac (Syringa reticulata), honey locust (Gleditsia triacanthos) and Callery pear (Pyrus calleryana), none of which are native to the region.

Image: Trees at Mercer Plaza

The street trees -- willow oaks -- planted as part of the project are larger than the Parks Department's minimum size requirement (2.5 inch diameter).

Finally, a design element I particularly like is the elevated walkway through parts of the plaza which separates foot traffic from the root zones of the trees.  As a result, there should be less soil compaction and thus greater air and water penetration into the soil.  I wish the entire plaza had been constructed in this way.

Editor's note: August 2, 2011: I hope this boardwalk design is different from the one used at Washington Square Park in which the Zelkovas are dying.

Reel time in city gardens and parks

Potrero Hill Community Garden, San Francisco

If you, like me, are on a wait list for a plot in your local community garden, you could spend some reel time in a (New York City) garden with any one of the following documentaries via the New York Public Library (NYPL) film collection.

• Plant a Seed (1975)
• 40,000 Acres, with View (1984)
• Green Streets (1989)

Los Angeles's South Central Farm was the subject of an Oscar-nominated documentary titled The Garden in 2008.  The film series, Another world is plantable!, chronicles community gardens in three four cities -- Buenos Aires (2003), Cape Town and Johannesburg (2005), and Berlin (2006).  (See also City Farmer News coverage.)

NYPL's collection also includes films about parks (A Park on Our Block (1969), A Community Park (1970)); public murals (The Mural On Our Street (1964)); urban renewal projects (The Heart of Losaida (1979), Bronx River Restoration (1980), 24th and Tomorrow (1965), A Sense of Pride: Hamilton Heights (1977)); and community services and housing rights (People’s Firehouse #1 (1979), Metropolitan Avenue (1985), Where Can I Live: A Story of Gentrification (1983), Yes, On our Block!: The Capitol Hall Story (2001)).

Related post:
Reel affairs with New York City parks

Your Place-mat or Mine?

A bit of whimsy on this grey day morning in New York City.  British domestic architecture placemats by people will always need plates seen at Urban Neighborhood.

Image: Screen capture of Your Placemat or Mine? Placemats B 1960s to 2000s (source)

Grate seating

Photographed on West Broadway in Tribeca, this subway grate-seating-bike rack has a fourth use: to prevent stormwater runoff from entering the subway ventilation system.  Downtown Express journalist Julie Shapiro described the goal and design of the MTA's sidewalk furniture:

To prevent the ventilation grates in Lower Manhattan from becoming storm sewers, New York City Transit is raising a handful of low-lying grates 6 inches. So people don’t trip over the grates, the agency is planning to put benches on either end and a bike rack on top.

Both Streetsblog New York City and I (heart) Public Space have written about the subway grate design shown above.  Two of the concerns raised about the new subway grate are (1) they will reduce the sidewalk right-of-way and (2) there is limited space between sitters and cyclists (un)locking their bicycles.  What do you think?

This grate is one of three new designs developed collaboratively by DOT, the Public Design Commission of the City of New York, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, and the Municipal Art Society.  The first of the new grates was designed by Rogers Marvel Architects and di Domenico & Partners and can be seen on the City Room blog.

Nature-made: Pennsylvania Garden in San Francisco

On an overcast morning in March 2009, we met with Annie Shaw, founder and head gardener of the Pennsylvania Garden at Pennsylvania Avenue and 18th Street in San Francisco's Potrero Hill neighborhood.  The garden is located on Caltrans (California Department of Transportation) land adjacent to the Mariposa Street off-ramp.  Grey though the day was, the garden provided small splashes of local color.

We were shown the loquats in the garden which were "original" to the site as well as the Princess Plant (Tibouchina urvilleana) which had been moved to several locations in the neighborhood before being planted in the garden by residents Jim and Carrie. The Princess Plant inspired Annie to further landscape the site. That was in 2008.  (Recent photographs of the Princess Plant can be viewed here.)

Wanting the garden to receive official recognition, Annie contacted Caltrans for permission. She was given permission to landscape but edibles and trees were not permitted. The former because of contaminated fill used in the 1970s as well as exhaust and runoff from the nearby off ramp. Trees are not permitted for safety reasons; they would interfere with sight lines. Since 2004, Caltrans has weeded and mulched the site after removing Monterey pines (Pinus radiata) that had succumbed to a beetle infestation, or it could have been infected by pine pitch canker. (Read more about its the pine's "damaging agents"). Caltrans provided plan drawings of the site and will pay for irrigation with access on-site.

The site had been used as an informal dog park and Annie wanted to maintain this use. She worked with dog owners to widen paths and to create a "dog only area" (see garden map). At the time of our visit, a neighbor had volunteered to make a map of the garden while another volunteered to install a second dog bag dispenser yet another, an arborist, volunteered to prune the trees, and a local iron worker volunteered to make an archway.  There is "a bit of everything for everybody" and Annie accepts all offers of volunteerism and encourages "ownership of plants [people] plant."  Volunteers are important to the success of this garden and Annie has written about "working magic" with volunteers for the Neighborhood Empowerment Network.

In terms of design with ecological intent, Ceanothus or California lilac, a popular bee species, has been planted and bees have been seen in the garden. Bumble bees "adore [Ceanothus 'Ray Hartman']," according to the University of California Urban Bee Gardens.  (The garden's blog has detailed plant profiles.)  With the establishment of the garden, Annie saw more birds such as hummingbirds.  (An adjacent building owner wanted to add a bird feeder.)  A recent Eaton and Sullivan article in the San Francisco Chronicle listed the wildlife seen at the garden: skippers, red admirals, an anise swallowtail, bumblebees, honeybees, and goldfinches.  How fitting that this nature-made site is off Mariposa Street; mariposa is the Spanish word for butterfly!

Read our other nature-made profiles.

Unlimited Urban Woods

Image: Unlimited Urban Woods, photo by Pieter Kers, via Hedwig Heinsman of DUS

If only urban aforestation was as straightforward as the Unlimited Urban Woods pavilion by DUS Architects Amsterdam!  The "never-ending forest in the middle of town" was created with one tree in a 4-meter high pavilion of mirrored interior walls.   The pavilion was displayed in front of the New Amsterdam Public Library from May 28 to June 28, 2010.

Image: Unlimited Urban Woods, photo by Pieter Kers, via Hedwig Heinsman of DUS

I can imagine urban woods pavilions in places that currently lack the infrastructure to support extensive tree cover.  While they might not fulfill ecosystem service goals, these "never ending forest[s]" could relieve "directed attention fatigue" and elicit wonderment.

DUS describes itself as

a young and ambitious architecture office that works according to the slogan: “design by doing”. DUS often builds scale 1:1 models in the public domain which function as site-analysis, design test case and social condenser. Architecture built from daily recognizable objects with minimal budget, but with maximal social value. Some interventions appear only one night, but remain eternal worth in the collective memory of the visitor.

Other works by the firm include Bamboo City Building Workshop (September 2010), Urban Plan Starter-Houses on Soccer Field (2007), and Interactive Space of Inner Bicycle Tubes (2001).

Image: Unlimited Urban Woods, photo by Pieter Kers, via Hedwig Heinsman of DUS

Thank you to Hedwig Heinsman for permission to use photographs by Pieter Kers.  And hat tip to WebEcoist.

DIY tree planting and planting table

Image: Arbor Day 2009, First Street SW, Rochester, MN; photo by Jonathunder (source)

Planting your own street tree is one of two permitted ways to have a tree planted in front of your home or business in New York City. The other way is to request a tree via the Parks Department's forestry service request system. The NYC Parks provides a 23-page Tree Planting Standards document to those who opt to plant a tree. I wish the City offered a video like the one offered by San Francisco's Friends of the Urban Forest (FUF) which can be viewed here.

Image: Forest table by Tori Johnson and Judith Wong at Chaumont-sur-Loire 2008; photo by Calips (source)

If you already have a tree in front of your home or business and would like some greenspace in your home or garden, check out the Planting Table, a Scout Regalia Cutsheet Project 01 (hat tip: L.A. at Home blog). The table was designed for outdoors but I can imagine it an apartment by a north-facing window.  The firm is self-described as "dedicated to supporting local fabricators, and aspires to embody innovation, discipline, and inquisitiveness in all the work that is produced."

DUMBO Underwater

Artist, designer, programmer Eric Corriel has created a video installation of the East River submerging DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Brooklyn Overpass). Corriel designed DUMBO Underwater in response to predictions of rising sea levels in New York City.  For example, the Columbia University Center for Climate Systems Research has projected a "five inch (5") further rise" in sea level in the city between 2000 and 2030.


DUMBO Underwater from Eric Corriel on Vimeo.

More of Corriel's work can be viewed at his website.

Managing stormwater with Greenstreets

Two weeks ago we first ran a story about Curbolution, Team Sang-ayuna's submission to the Minds in the Gutter search for stormwater capture technologies.  Today we follow-up with a profile of the City's Greenstreets Program.

What: Greenstreets for stormwater capture

Furmanville Ave, 80th St and Dry Harbor Rd, Queens

Who: New York Parks and Recreation Department in partnership with the Department of Transportation.  DOT owns the roadways -- roadways are used because they offer greater storage capacity than sidewalks -- and Parks provides design services, designation, maintenance, and assumes liability.

Inlet (Furmanville Ave)

How: Greenstreets for runoff mitigation differ from the City's conventional greenstreets in their physical design and location.  While both types of Greenstreets are landscaped with trees, shrubs, and herbaceous perennials, the stormwater ones are located in flooding hotspots and in neighborhoods adjacent to areas with "troubled" water quality.  Stormwater Greenstreets are designed to meet a performance standard of 1.7 inches of rain.  This is accomplished with elements such as inlets and outlets (curb cuts), bioswales, and layered engineered soil profiles (two feet of soil, geotextile, and one foot of bluestone) to capture, store, and infiltrate stormwater.  Future design elements will include concrete weirs with gravel for sediment filtration.

In May of this year, I went on a tour of Greenstreets with Adriana Jacykewycz and Nandan Shetty of NYC Parks (thank you!). The stormwater-capture Greenstreet at Furmanville Ave in Queens was an early project and was completed in 2007. It is composed of a "bumpout with curb cut inlet, deep excavation, bioswale, and crushed bluestone reservoir; soil moisture sensors have been installed as part of a rainwater and evaporation monitoring collaborative of Drexel University, NYC Soil and Water Conservation District, and Atlas Scientific and funded by NYS DEC and NYS DOS.  The Church Ave Greenstreet in Brooklyn was completed in the spring of 2009 and is a triangular space with a "curb cut inlet, deep excavation, bioswale, and crushed bluestone reservoir."

Outlet and bioswale at Church Ave, 14th Ave and 35 St, Brooklyn

Under the 2007 PlaNYC initiative, the Greenstreets Program was charged to develop a total of 800 new greenstreets  All Greenstreets will contribute to the City's goal of a 30% reduction in "global warming emissions."  The program received $2 million in federal stimulus money (ARRA) to construct 26 new stormwater greenstreets in the next two years.

We missed Adriana Jacykewycz  webinar about Greenstreets via the Urban Natural Resources Institute.