Starting on January 22nd, the World Financial Center’s Winter Garden will be illuminated with a dazzling Aurora Borealis-inspired LED installation. Created by lighting designer Anne Militello, the intricate Light Cycles display will adorn the Winter Garden’s arched glass facade and ten-story barrel-vaulted roof with strands of LED-embedded glass discs which will shimmer above and among the interior’s lush 45-foot palm trees.

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Post tags: Anne Militello, art nyc, eco art, green art, LED Art, LED installation art, LED lighting, led lights, Light Cycles, Pelli Clarke Pelli, sustainable art, Winter Gardens, World Financial Center

In the 10 weeks since Hurricane Sandy made landfall on the East Coast and claimed 131 lives, there has been much discussion about the failures in infrastructure that left New York City at a virtual standstill for days. In an article published in this week’s New Yorker, sociologist Eric Klinenberg discusses some of these concerns in a piece called “How Can Cities Be Climate-Proofed?”. Emphasizing that “[t]he fundamental threat to the human species is, of course, our collective inability to reduce our carbon emissions and slow the pace of climate change,” Klinenberg broaches Sandy from the perspective of how we might rethink a wide range of key design, infrastructure, regulatory and social components so as to adapt to rising sea levels and increase resiliency against these now inevitable extreme weather events.

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Post tags: army corps of engineers, climate change, climate proof, community resiliency, disaster management, eric klinenberg, flood defences, floodwalls nyc, global warming, horizontal organizing, Hurricane Sandy, infrastructure, MTA flooding, natural disasters, new york city, public transit, Sandy, sea level rise, storm surge nyc, subways sandy, superstorm sandy, urban development, urban planning

After a month of planning, NYC has finalized a program which will make 2,500 vacant apartments throughout the five boroughs available as temporary housing to those displaced by Hurricane Sandy. Working with local and federal agencies, the city program aims to alleviate strain on shelters, which is expected to increase as temperatures drop and areas remain without power. Listed on the Urban Edge website, the apartments will reportedly be leased on a first-come, first-served basis to those receiving housing assistance through FEMA.

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Post tags: displace sandy victims, displaced residents, Environmental destruction, federal emergency management agency, fema assistance, governor cuomo, homelessness, housing assistance, housing programs, hurricane nyc, Hurricane Sandy, hurricane sandy shelter, sandy shelter

Since Hurricane Sandy tore through the East Coast two weeks ago, many parts of the Rockaways and Hamilton Beach – which are home to around 80,000 people – have remained without power, and the latest reports suggest that it could take the Long Island Power Authority until as late as Mid-December to restore electricity. As freezing winter temperatures approach, Greater NYC for Change and a coalition of 45 political and advocacy groups are campaigning for the city and FEMA to bolster their relief efforts and provide more comprehensive support and fully-equipped shelters for at-risk residents.

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Post tags: andrew cuomo, Climate Central, climate change, disaster preparedness, far rockaway, federal emergency management agency, FEMA, generators, global warming, Greenpeace, health hazard, hurricane irene, hurricane nyc, Hurricane Sandy, LIPA, Long Island, long island power authority, new york city housing authority, nyc disaster, nycha, Queens, Red Cross, rockaways, sea level rise, solar generator, Storm Surge

After Hurricane Sandy crashed through the east coast on Monday, Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) Chairman Joseph J. Lhota described the storm as having “wreaked havoc” on NYC’s public transportation system. In the following hours, as all public transit service remained suspended, estimates for the restoration of the 108-year-old subway system—parts of which were severely flooded by the storm—ranged from three weeks to several months. While there is still no definitive timeline on a return to full service, Governor Andrew Cuomo stated this afternoon that some limited subway service will be restored as early as tomorrow.

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Post tags: andrew cuomo, Climate Central, climate change, cuomo, disaster preparedness, global warming, hurricane irene, hurricane nyc, Hurricane Sandy, nyc commute, nyc disaster, sea level rise, subway closures, subway flooding

As Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) officials begin to assess the damage wreaked on the city’s public transit system by Hurricane Sandy, all services in New York City remain suspended. This includes not only the 108-year-old subway system, which experienced substantial, unprecedented flooding, but also all bus services, bridges and tunnels, as well as all Long Island Railroad, and Metro North lines. As of yesterday night, seven subway tunnels under the East River have flooded, in addition to commuter tunnels, subway stations, rail yards and bus stations.

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Post tags: 1 train, airports closed, communter tunnels, Frankenstorm, hurricane damage, hurricane safety, Hurricane Sandy, hurricane travel, LIRR Yards flooding, metro north flooded, metropolitain transit authority, new york city, public transit, public transit suspended, regional transit, subway flooding

During the endless news cycle of the election year, climate change appeared to be an afterthought in the American consciousness. The issue has been conspicuously absent in the run-up to the presidential election; it wasn’t so much as discussed during four broad-ranging televised debates. But with large portions of the Mid-Atlantic region underwater and without power, Hurricane Sandy is bringing climate change back into the public discourse. Of course, we can’t blame Sandy directly on climate change any more than we can cite global warming as the cause of any other single extreme weather event. But as ocean temperatures rise and hurricanes impact the Eastern Seaboard, we’re seeing an undeniable increase in the frequency and severity of devastating storms.

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Post tags: East Coast, hurricane sand new york, Hurricane Sandy, hurricane sandy ny, hurricane sandy nyc, new york city, NOAA, Sandy, Satellite Image

New York-based artist Leo Villareal is set to install a 30-foot tall “Buckyball” sculpture comprised of 180 glowing LED tubes in Madison Square Park later this year. The sculpture will be formed of one LED rendition of the distinct spherical fullerene structures nested inside another. The installation promises to have an extraordinary dynamic presence in the park as programmable pixels located every 1.2 inches throughout the tubes will have the capacity to glow in any one of 16 million colors.

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Post tags: buckminister fuller, buckyballs, carbon-60 molecule, geodesic sphere, LED Art, led lights, LED tubes, leo villareal, light emitting diode, madison square garden, madison square park, Public Art, public sculpture

We recently wrote about the Cornell NYCTech facility coming to Roosevelt Island, and now we’re excited to say that NYC’s Columbia University has announced it will be getting a new tech campus of its own. Even more interesting, the new Institute for Data Sciences and Engineering won’t exactly be “new.” Rather it will be housed within existing buildings at the University’s Morningside Heights and Washington Heights campuses, demonstrating the practicality and efficacy of renovating and retrofitting older buildings.The Columbia institute is expected to create more than 4,500 jobs in the next three decades as the institute works in conjunction with the Applied Sciences NYC initiative to “dramatically increase New York City’s capacity for applied sciences and engineering while strengthening and transforming the City’s economy for generations.”

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Post tags: applied sciences nyc, audubon center, columbia university, Columbia university medical center, cornell university, Data Sciences, Engineering School NYC, Fu Foundation, Institute for Data Sciences and Engineering, Lee Bollinger, Michael Bloomberg, Morningside Heights, nyc tech campus, NYCTech, Seeley Mudd Building, tech campus nyc, Washington Heights

The 20th floor of New York’s Waldorf-Astoria now accommodates some rather unusual residents — around 250,000 bees living on the roof of the prestigious hotel. Transported to their new midtown Manhattan digs by a Lincoln Towncar, the pollinating inhabitants of the six beehives were placed there to support the PlaNYC initiative to plant 1,000,000 new trees over the next decade. The hotel will benefit directly too, with their own in-house supply of sustainable honey!

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Post tags: bee hotel, bee population, bees in nyc, central park, colony collapse, honey bees, pollination urban, sustainable honey, urban bee keeping, waldorf astoria

The American Lung Association’s 2012 State of the Air report is out, and it contains some positive news for New Yorkers. According to the findings, the city’s air pollution is at its lowest levels since the reports began 13 years ago – but there’s still significant room for improvement. Overall, the city received C and D grades, with the Bronx declared to be the “dirtiest county in the metro region for high particle pollution,” while Staten Island received a failing grade for its ozone levels.

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Post tags: air pollution, air quality, American Lung Association, car pollution, carbon emissions, fossil fuels, greenhouse gas, Ozone concentration, Ozone levels, Particle Pollution, planyc, respiatory illness, State of the Air, state of the air 2012

A 1.5 acre area of Long Island City has been transformed from a commuter parking lot into an eco-friendly green space. Dutch Kills Green, officially opened by Mayor Michael Bloomberg on April 4, features a wetlands park of 489 native trees and grasses which will naturally filter pollutants from storm water. The mini-park sits alongside pedestrian walkways and bike paths to create a usable, peaceful green space in the rapidly evolving post-industrial Queens waterfront neighborhood.

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Post tags: Artifical Wetlands, Bike Paths, Dutch Kills Green, green space, Long Island City, Margie Ruddick, Marpillero Pollak Architects, Michael Bloomberg, Michael Singer Studio, New York City Parks, Parking Lot, Storm Water, water pollution