A Detroit native, Molly strongly supports the movement for green design and innovation. She moved to New York years ago to attend the Christie's MA in Art Business program. After spending most of her time with 19th Century American paintings, she joined the living art world, and has become a freelance writer and researcher for artists, galleries, and curators. She most recently spent a summer studying Art Crime in Italy, and that is all she is allowed to say about that.
Playgrounds may be a favorite place for New York City children, but they have also become an ideal environmental solution for city officials. With a possibly rainy summer season ahead, the Department of Environmental Protection is teaming up with the Trust for Public Land to create unique water run-off solutions inside 10 new playgrounds throughout the city. The green public play areas will be equipped with the latest in rainwater capturing tools, including barrels, raised gardens, porous pavement, and underground storage layers.
image © Amanda Silvana Coen for Inhabitat
The iconic U.N. Headquarters is in the midst of a $1.8 billion renovation aptly named the “Capital Master Plan.” However, you won’t be seeing any construction on the Turtle Bay area buildings, as the overhaul is mainly focused on internal design. Not only are technology and security being updated with state of the art capabilities, but the Master Plan is also calling for a green cleaning, swapping out old interior designs and habits from the 1950s for new and sustainable features, with the aim of granting the building LEED Silver status.
If you’ve ever strolled around the Lower East Side, you may have noticed some gaping holes in the cityscape. In fact, the cluster of blocks around Delancy and Essex is the largest plot of city-owned and undeveloped land in all of Manhattan! Last year, we reported on the massive redevelopment ideas for this spot called the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area (SPURA), and things are finally moving along. Plans for the enormous space that has been known to many New Yorkers as an eyesore of parking lots for the last 40 years, will include hundreds of apartments, dozens of retailers, and a 10,000 square foot park.
The discovery was published in the March 1 issue of Nature
Last week, scientists found evidence of a 300-million-year old forest below a coal mine in China. Now, remnants of an even older collection of trees and plants have been uncovered right here in New York. Researchers discovered the floor of a 385 million year old forest — believed to be the world’s oldest — while excavating a quarry upstate near the Gilboa Dam. The fossils and forest floor are so well preserved, scientists can see and study what looks to have been a complex ecosystem of plants, which could shed new light on the role of today’s forests and their impact on climate change.
Sawkill Lumber has just announced the 12 designers who have been selected to participate in the first ever 12 x 12 design exhibition this spring. Debuting at Design Week in May this year, the exhibition will feature twelve unique pieces of furniture created with salvaged lumber from twelve demolished NYC buildings. These lucky designers have the unique opportunity to combine historic pieces of New York with their own contemporary ideas.
More photos at DNAinfo
It was almost a year ago to date when the Department of Transportation set its eye on an unused triangular plot of land in Chinatown and envisioned the city’s next High Line Park. Though much smaller, the raised area at the foot of the Manhattan Bridge was poised to become a new public plaza complete with plants, seating, and art installations. Plans are finally coming to life as new details have emerged for the Chinatown mini High Line, including an amazing artistic design by McArthur Fellow artist Xu Bing.
New Yorkers throw away nearly 200,000 tons of clothing a year. But thanks to a recent spurt of recycling programs throughout New York City, collecting and reusing textiles is becoming easier than ever. One program called Re-fashionNYC was just launched last year and has already collected over 50 tons of textiles in its first six months. Re-fashioNYC, who places clothing recycling bins in apartment buildings throughout the five boroughs, has 130 participating buildings so far and hundreds of requests flowing in daily.
A few months ago, we reported the tragic crashing of a recycled art installation called Harvest Dome into Rikers Island. We have finally heard the great news that reconstruction is in the works and soon the amazing floating artwork made of discarded umbrellas spokes and soda bottles will be back up and running. Decked out with a LED light system and tiny solar cells, Harvest Dome 2.0 is more sustainable then ever – and hopefully crash proof!
Groundhog Day is here and spring is in the air — at least for New Yorkers. This day of weather reckoning, where we put all our sunny spring hopes on a furry animal and his shadow, has produced mixed results this year! While famed fur ball Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow this morning in Pennsylvania, thus predicting six more weeks of winter, Staten Island Chuck did not. This is great news for New Yorkers who can look forward to enjoying an early spring, if they aren’t already.
This week, MoMA PS1 unveiled a winter weather friendly performance dome in their iconic courtyard. Known as one of the hottest spots for summer music parties and avant-garde installations, the PS1 courtyard will spend the next few months showcasing a series of artist performances and works inside the dome for a fresh seasonal program called “Sunday Sessions.”
The days of planning your weekend so you can finally lug that hefty old computer to the occasional e-waste drop off are over. The Lower East Side Ecology Center, host of many electronic waste collections, has just opened a permanent drop-off site in Brooklyn. Grab your faxes, printers, scanners, even cell phones and pagers and head on down to the new warehouse at 469 President Street in Gowanus to help the nonprofit’s recycling efforts.
The winning design has just been announced for the New York City AIDS Memorial Park across from St. Vincent’s Hospital. An international team of architects including Brooklyn based studio a+i have created an interactive site entitled “Infinite Forest.” The memorial park will not only honor the over 100,000 New York City residents who died of AIDS, but will also recognize the continual effort and support against the pandemic. The jury announced last week that architects John Thurtle, Insook Kim, and Esteban Erlich have joined a+i’s Mateao Paiva and Lily Lim in creating the winning memorial design, with renderings by Guillaume Paturel. The team beat out 475 entires from 26 states and 32 countries for honorable first place.
Folks, it’s finally here!! Beginning February 1st, New York City subway riders can refill their 7-day and 30-day unlimited ride MetroCards! A long time coming, this innovation is not only user friendly, but great for the environment as well, reducing the need for thousands of printed MetroCards. Many subway riders purchase a monthly card and hold onto it for dear life until it expires 30 days later. Soon MetroCards will not only be reusable, but they will also be able to hold a back-up refill that can be purchased before your time period is over.
Disturbing news about a number of teens coming down with unexplained Tourette-like symptoms in New York State has been buzzing through the internet. Gizmodo recently reported about the YouTube diary videos of Lori Brownell, one of the 17 affected students, who has been documenting her strange illness over the past several months. Of the 17 students showing these symptoms, 15 attend the same LeRoy High School in Genesee County, and all but one are female. The two other girls, Lori and a classmate from Corinth in Saratoga County coincidentally travelled through LeRoy last year for a softball tournament. While doctors are stumped, the National Institute of Health and even Erin Brockovich are preparing to investigate the cause of this mysterious outbreak. Check out Lori’s video showing her symptoms after the jump.
Two rusted gantry cranes towering over the East River near 134th Street may be an eyesore to some, but for others, they are a symbol of the possibility for growth throughout the South Bronx community. A group called “Friends of Brook Park” and other locals are joining together in hopes of turning the decaying riverfront into a dynamic green space for the underdeveloped area of neighborhood. The two five-story arches haven’t been used since the 1960s when they hoisted ferries in and out of the river on a day-to-day basis. Today, they are fenced off and surrounded by overgrown weeds and piles of garbage.
While Lower Manhattan is chock-full of skyscrapers, one in particular has a shiny top unlike any other in the country. The Deutsche Bank American Headquarters at 60 Wall Street now dons a 122.4kW solar array that is not only the largest in Manhattan, but also the tallest flat panel PV array in the world, soaring 737 feet above ground. Part of the company’s global goal toward sustainable building, the newly installed array aims to reduce the carbon emissions of the building by 100 metric tons per year.
Construction in New York is endless. While scaffolding, cones and jackhammers have become part of the city’s natural scenery, a group of New Yorkers have taken to the streets to beautify one of the affected areas on the brink of the East Village and Lower East Side. John Neville and Pebbles Russell, two streetwise artists, are transforming a large gray construction trailer into a rotating outdoor gallery featuring the works of local artists on every surface of the structure. The Centre-Fuge public art project launches this week, and it will showcase a new artist every two months for at least the next year.
