12-11-2013
Seaport City: 2409
Every so often, ideas, events, and schedules come together so nicely, one might consider the moment serendipitous. The culmination of FXFOWLE's Green October was one of these finer moments, due in large part to thoughtful planning and outreach on the part of our Director of Sustainability, Ilana Judah, and our inspired Team Green.
So what happened? If you chase our blog trail back, you will see an October full of interesting events and speakers, one of whom was Dr. Eric Sanderson. If you're familiar with his beautiful book MANNAHATTA: A Natural History of New York City or the related website, The Welikia Project, then you're familiar with his ambitious work. If not, know that he and his researchers used a rich collection of mapping data to envision the ecology of Manhattan at the time of Henry Hudson's arrival to New York in 1609.
In his presentation, Dr. Sanderson explained how his new research looks to the future by adopting lessons from his particular vision of the past. The website for his new project describes Mannahatta 2409, which "will be a map-based web application meant to inspire, inform, and generate new ideas about sustainable urban forms from the many diverse people who love New York City." The objective of the project is "to engage everyone, from city officials to school children, in the search for ecologically informed sustainability, as measured by ecological performance indicators related to carbon, water, biodiversity, and population." This was, in part, the inspiration for the FXFOWLE Seaport City 2409 charrette.
On October 25, 2013 teams of FXFOWLE staff gathered to imagine the future of New York, (Seaport City, in particular) as a growing global metropolis with ever-increasing temperatures, sea-level rise, water and air-pollution, as well as food-supply vulnerability. For those unfamiliar with Seaport City, it is an extension of the East Side of Manhattan adjacent to the Financial District north of the East Village. Most of the area is not yet developed, so, this hypothetical realm, along with many others, informed the problem statements each team would address in this mad-dash charrette.
critics review
In order to gauge the ideas and dissect the discussion further, two fantastic critics joined the event. Toby Snyder from FXFOWLE's Urban Studio and his contribution to the award-winning City Regenerative Nordhavn competition made him the perfect candidate to address the manifold urban and ecological issues at play in Seaport City. In addition, Simon David, former Gabriel Prize winner and Senior Project Manager from Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates provided a keen sensibility and critical eye for urban landscape design principles as well as representation.
Over the course of a few hours, each team analyzed their prompts and proposed a solution in the form of plan, section, perspective, and diagram drawings. Due to the short timeframe, the teams relied heavily on their hand drawing and collaging skills. As you will see, the teams proposed aspirational ideas that reshaped, or at least accommodated, vast climate-related changes to the New York City landscape. At the end of the time allotted, the groups and critics gathered to discuss the ideas, their implications, and their representational strategies. Special thanks to Sonny Xu, Pascale Sablan, Christina Galati, and Kourtenay Mott for authoring the problem statements.
hand-drawn site plan
Biodiversity Team - Brandon Massey, Alexandra Pollock, Thomas Reeves, Howard Russell, Tim Sudweeks
The problem statement for the Biodiversity Team presupposed a New York in which development had become protective of the interconnection of human and animal life by necessity. Accordingly, the team was charged, at the end of 2409, to develop a concept design for a "mixed-use, residential tower" that would provide habitat for humans as well as one endangered species in each of the following phyla:
1. mollusks
2. insects
3. fishes
4. amphibians
5. reptiles
6. birds
7. mammals (not including humans)
In addition to creating some beautiful drawings, the Biodiversity team conceived of a planning metric called Species F.A.R. or "food area ratio." With this principle at play and by maximizing the surface area of their model "residential tower" as well as its solar orientation, it would greatly increase the amount of potential habitat.
plan and section diagram
plan with overlay
section
perspective ideogram
Sea Level Rise Team - Luis Bustamante, Sonny Xu, Alexandria Lee, Haley Cohen, Cristina Rodriguez-Vazquez
Forced to reconcile the idea that Seaport City—which was once an extension to the East side and is in 2409 an island connected by a bridge to Manhattan—the Sea Level Rise Team was asked to develop a new vision for Manhattan using Seaport City as a starting point.
In a clever turn, the Sea Level Rise Team looked beyond 2409 to 2809, wherein a large sea wall had encompassed the island. This "ring-wall" contained the majority of New York's population, dwellings, and basic commercial functions while the island of Manhattan had become a mildly cultivated yet vastly wild terrain. Here, mainly autochthonous plants and animals had reestablished themselves as primary inhabitants as well as attractions for adventure tourists. Imagine a Bushwick, Manhattan, Jurassic Park Mix-up sadly devoid of Jeff Goldblum.
concept map
tourist map
concept section
plan
Temperature Team - June Kim, Seiji Watanabe, Rachel Hillery, Jenny Kim, Rajas Karnik
It's 2409, and weather patterns have shifted to the extent that the shoulder seasons (fall and spring) have become no more than memories. Throughout the year, there are only two weeks of truly habitable weather, while the temperature during the remainder of the year varies drastically from -20 to 130 Fahrenheit. To respond to these extreme conditions, the team was charged to create an innovative and responsive constructed urban typology that can open fully to the exterior environment during the brief periods of pleasant weather.
Approaching the problem in a chiefly sectional manner, the team envisaged a dense core of supertall structures with cultural and natural amenities at the edges. Beyond the edges, they proposed a large island floating atop the former underpinnings of Seaport City. With a mixed but predominately educational program, this island adopted hundreds of years of discarded plastic bottles as its flotation device, and featured a connection to the subways running below in the form of energy-free hydraulic elevators. If Ito's Sendai Mediatheque could surf, it would most resemble this new typology.
concept section
concept section detail of Seaport Island
plan
While the thought of predicting the urban ecological future of New York as far as 2409 bordered on the absurd, it emphasized the point that extreme circumstances can generate thoughtful, anticipatory, and compelling urban landscape strategies and building typologies. As recognized by the critics, the ideas and solutions proposed at the charrette were as innovative as the problem statements that framed their development. I suspect the valuable information gleaned and shared throughout Green October was a major factor in shaping the outcome of such a successful and entertaining exercise.
by Jack Coble
So what happened? If you chase our blog trail back, you will see an October full of interesting events and speakers, one of whom was Dr. Eric Sanderson. If you're familiar with his beautiful book MANNAHATTA: A Natural History of New York City or the related website, The Welikia Project, then you're familiar with his ambitious work. If not, know that he and his researchers used a rich collection of mapping data to envision the ecology of Manhattan at the time of Henry Hudson's arrival to New York in 1609.
In his presentation, Dr. Sanderson explained how his new research looks to the future by adopting lessons from his particular vision of the past. The website for his new project describes Mannahatta 2409, which "will be a map-based web application meant to inspire, inform, and generate new ideas about sustainable urban forms from the many diverse people who love New York City." The objective of the project is "to engage everyone, from city officials to school children, in the search for ecologically informed sustainability, as measured by ecological performance indicators related to carbon, water, biodiversity, and population." This was, in part, the inspiration for the FXFOWLE Seaport City 2409 charrette.
On October 25, 2013 teams of FXFOWLE staff gathered to imagine the future of New York, (Seaport City, in particular) as a growing global metropolis with ever-increasing temperatures, sea-level rise, water and air-pollution, as well as food-supply vulnerability. For those unfamiliar with Seaport City, it is an extension of the East Side of Manhattan adjacent to the Financial District north of the East Village. Most of the area is not yet developed, so, this hypothetical realm, along with many others, informed the problem statements each team would address in this mad-dash charrette.
critics reviewIn order to gauge the ideas and dissect the discussion further, two fantastic critics joined the event. Toby Snyder from FXFOWLE's Urban Studio and his contribution to the award-winning City Regenerative Nordhavn competition made him the perfect candidate to address the manifold urban and ecological issues at play in Seaport City. In addition, Simon David, former Gabriel Prize winner and Senior Project Manager from Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates provided a keen sensibility and critical eye for urban landscape design principles as well as representation.
Over the course of a few hours, each team analyzed their prompts and proposed a solution in the form of plan, section, perspective, and diagram drawings. Due to the short timeframe, the teams relied heavily on their hand drawing and collaging skills. As you will see, the teams proposed aspirational ideas that reshaped, or at least accommodated, vast climate-related changes to the New York City landscape. At the end of the time allotted, the groups and critics gathered to discuss the ideas, their implications, and their representational strategies. Special thanks to Sonny Xu, Pascale Sablan, Christina Galati, and Kourtenay Mott for authoring the problem statements.
hand-drawn site planBiodiversity Team - Brandon Massey, Alexandra Pollock, Thomas Reeves, Howard Russell, Tim Sudweeks
The problem statement for the Biodiversity Team presupposed a New York in which development had become protective of the interconnection of human and animal life by necessity. Accordingly, the team was charged, at the end of 2409, to develop a concept design for a "mixed-use, residential tower" that would provide habitat for humans as well as one endangered species in each of the following phyla:
1. mollusks
2. insects
3. fishes
4. amphibians
5. reptiles
6. birds
7. mammals (not including humans)
In addition to creating some beautiful drawings, the Biodiversity team conceived of a planning metric called Species F.A.R. or "food area ratio." With this principle at play and by maximizing the surface area of their model "residential tower" as well as its solar orientation, it would greatly increase the amount of potential habitat.
plan and section diagramplan with overlaysectionperspective ideogramSea Level Rise Team - Luis Bustamante, Sonny Xu, Alexandria Lee, Haley Cohen, Cristina Rodriguez-Vazquez
Forced to reconcile the idea that Seaport City—which was once an extension to the East side and is in 2409 an island connected by a bridge to Manhattan—the Sea Level Rise Team was asked to develop a new vision for Manhattan using Seaport City as a starting point.
In a clever turn, the Sea Level Rise Team looked beyond 2409 to 2809, wherein a large sea wall had encompassed the island. This "ring-wall" contained the majority of New York's population, dwellings, and basic commercial functions while the island of Manhattan had become a mildly cultivated yet vastly wild terrain. Here, mainly autochthonous plants and animals had reestablished themselves as primary inhabitants as well as attractions for adventure tourists. Imagine a Bushwick, Manhattan, Jurassic Park Mix-up sadly devoid of Jeff Goldblum.
concept maptourist mapconcept sectionplanTemperature Team - June Kim, Seiji Watanabe, Rachel Hillery, Jenny Kim, Rajas Karnik
It's 2409, and weather patterns have shifted to the extent that the shoulder seasons (fall and spring) have become no more than memories. Throughout the year, there are only two weeks of truly habitable weather, while the temperature during the remainder of the year varies drastically from -20 to 130 Fahrenheit. To respond to these extreme conditions, the team was charged to create an innovative and responsive constructed urban typology that can open fully to the exterior environment during the brief periods of pleasant weather.
Approaching the problem in a chiefly sectional manner, the team envisaged a dense core of supertall structures with cultural and natural amenities at the edges. Beyond the edges, they proposed a large island floating atop the former underpinnings of Seaport City. With a mixed but predominately educational program, this island adopted hundreds of years of discarded plastic bottles as its flotation device, and featured a connection to the subways running below in the form of energy-free hydraulic elevators. If Ito's Sendai Mediatheque could surf, it would most resemble this new typology.
concept sectionconcept section detail of Seaport IslandplanWhile the thought of predicting the urban ecological future of New York as far as 2409 bordered on the absurd, it emphasized the point that extreme circumstances can generate thoughtful, anticipatory, and compelling urban landscape strategies and building typologies. As recognized by the critics, the ideas and solutions proposed at the charrette were as innovative as the problem statements that framed their development. I suspect the valuable information gleaned and shared throughout Green October was a major factor in shaping the outcome of such a successful and entertaining exercise.
by Jack Coble