| URBAN
DESIGN & PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE
Master Planning
The private owners of this 20,000 person residential
community (formerly Starrett City) engaged Alyce Russo
and Lee Weintraub Landscape Architect Community Design
to create a plan to redevelop 100-acres of monotonous
grassy open space to help reassert a neighborhood sensibility
and unique identity.
Weintraub and Russo facilitated collaborative working
sessions with community groups, owners and maintenance
staff. The investigation identified a lack of existing
spatial hierarchy and a non-responsive program of open
space for the youth and elderly. It was decided that
the site would be reorganized around the development
of four parks, two of which are nearing completion.
Weintraub and Russo applied the same hierarchy principle
to the built environment, and provided design performance
standards for existing buildings to visually differentiate
public buildings from more private ones. Weintruab and
Russo also recommended and implemented a new name and
identity program, Spring Creek Towers.
Project
Team
In what was initially a 2-mile seawall engineering
project, Ms. Russo, as Director of Planning and Development
for the Roosevelt Island
Operating Corporation, was able to leverage the
community outreach, interagency coordination and technical
data to generate several landmark and open space projects
on this 11-acre site. Many stakeholders were involved
in this site including: on-island residents, off-island
private view holders from the Sutton Area community
to the United Nations, official oversight agencies as
well as the larger New York design communities for the
three landmark ruins, the MTA with their subway line
passing under the site, a private foundation, and the
estates of Louis Kahn interested in the yet to-be-realized
FDR Memorial. Much of this work helped pioneer the role
of ruins in the New York City urban fabric.
Projects realized at Southpoint, creating win/win situations
and unique design solutions include: the demolition
of the landmark City Hospital with a unique asbestos
abatement to allow safe site access and potential space
for a revenue generating structure; rehabilitation of
landmark Strecker Lab as a Transit Authority Substation
(2002 Landmarks Conservancy Award winner); stabilization
of the Smallpox Hospital and Illumination with funding
from Beekman Area residents (also awarded an ISTEA Grant
for illumination);, and shaping of the Southpoint plinth
according to Louis Kahn's FDR Memorial design, to allow
public access and better understanding of this unique
and powerful design.
Project
Team
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