This is an amazingly touching story captured through the archival oral history project, StoryCorps. A couple of the stories have been animated such as the story of Danny & Annie above and more are planned. Be sure to check out the StoryCorps website to find out more about this amazing project and listen to more of the interviews.
StoryCorps is an independent nonprofit whose mission is to provide Americans of all backgrounds and beliefs with the opportunity to record, share, and preserve the stories of our lives. Since 2003, StoryCorps has collected and archived more than 30,000 interviews from more than 60,000 participants. Each conversation is recorded on a free CD to share, and is preserved at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. StoryCorps is one of the largest oral history projects of its kind, and millions listen to our weekly broadcasts on NPR’s Morning Edition and on our Listen pages.
Click and zoom into each Borough for finer details:
Slowly but steadily this city is learning to return to its water. We have such a long way to go especially in contrast to my former home of San Francisco. Enjoy clicking around the waterfronts of NYC.
Jungle Jim and Slide Area with Giant Wood Tree House
Sandbox Area
Pier 4 looking North. Imagine what this will look like in 5 years once everything is complete.
I had the fortune to get a guided preview of the new Brooklyn Bridge Park by Ellen Ryan, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships for the Brooklyn Bridge Park Development Corporation this past week. Designed by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates it is a perfect precedent for an upcoming Waterfront Park Design Summer Camp for 6 - 8th graders that I’ll be teaching in late July at the Center for Architecture. I had visited Pier 1 since its opening in late March but had not been able to see the recently opened Pier 6 which opened on June 5th. If you haven’t seen either then be sure to put it at the top of your summer list. I am continuously amazed at how fast this city has begun to re-engage with its waterways (Highline, Renovated East River Park, Governors Island, West Side Piers, etc.) and become an extroverted island over the fervent concrete jungle I remember just 10 years ago.
If you don’t know much about this park then please check out the images and video below to begin to understand the significance in such a space for the city. In all the park will total 85 acres and has been called by many to be Mayor Bloomberg’s greatest imprint on the city.
While doing research for a Waterfront Park design summer camp (spots still available) that I’m leading in late July with Junior High students at the Center for Architecture, I came across all these great videos for the Rising Currents exhibition. I’ve seen this exhibition in person and went on a private boat tour a month back which had each design team present their concepts at their sites around the harbor. Some very inspiring ideas to engage the inevitable sea level rise and use it as a benefit for human and natural health. Definitely well worth the time to check out these videos in your leisure at home, work, or across the globe. Be sure to watch all five team videos.
The winning design for the “ideas competition” to rework the Pearl Street Triangle in DUMBO adjacent to the Manhattan Bridge was announced last night. Local team Coburn Architecture won and their submission can be viewed on the Gothamist. A seemingly safe, cheap and adequate design solution however the design titled “Anchoring Dumbo” above caught my eye. This inspiring design imagines connecting the foot and bike paths on the bridge down into the neighborhood through clever material connections:
“What a thrill to descend from the Belvedere of the Manhattan Bridge, 90 feet above Dumbo on your bicycle and arrive in the newly conceived Dumbo Anchorage Square. Or walking from the pedestrian path of the Manhattan Bridge from Chinatown, and descending wide stairs with landings, similar to SOHO fire escapes, that allow visitors to linger and take in the waterfront vistas of Dumbo and the Manhattan skyline beyond. Below the street, visitors can partake in the spontaneous and organized events in the Square, travel to the water’s edge at the Empire Fulton Ferry Park, or visit the various cafes, shops and stores in Dumbo.” - via Dumbo NYC
The slow but steady progression in the quality of public space in New York is something I have been able to watch over the past 8 years. Proposals such as Anchoring Dumbo remind us of how truly dynamic and inspiring public spaces in this city could be.
and if you find it, its yours. And if you don’t believe that, believe this; it’s hosted by a bunch of muppet’s. For more information go to welostourgold.com, the clues begin on August 1 2010.
The new subway maps have started going up throughout the city. The island of Manhattan continues to get fatter while Staten Island has been downsized. Other changes are a deeper blue water, a greener and lighter land color, parks have turned a more olive shade of green, and the subway lines now have shadows.
It also seems like they’ve simplified or eliminated a lot the bus, rail and ferry information which I think is a shame. Not sure why in this age you would dumb down a transit map. I would prefer them to continue illustrating the diversify in modes of transit available. I guess it is visual overload to the tourists if they can’t cleverly design these layers of information to recede into the map.
I think this is the second year of cinemaFEST which is going on now through June 20 at BAM in Brooklyn. I did not make it last year and just now caught wind of this years lineup. Not sure if we will make it, but give us some feedback if you do attend.
Opens in New York on July 9th at the IFC. Get tickets now. Also, be sure to check the list of theaters that the film is currently being shown at around the country here.
Notice the music in the trailer? It is one of my favorite bands from my hometown via Brooklyn, The National.
The Maloof Flushing Meadows Skate Park opened up just in time for the 2010 Money Cup. Today is the last day of the event in which more than $250,000 is at stake. The project cost $1.15 million and was actually built above the old Astral Fountain from the 1964 World’s Fair. I have always been obsessed with skateparks as a built product and wished that liability didn’t prevent designers from integrating them into the rest of our built environment.
