Our 2012 Final Presentation at the Center for Architecture

Great job everyone!  Have a great summer!  Go Team 8!!!!

Taylor Housing and Site Selection

Housing-

The housing area of New Town Creek is a 12,000 acreage plot of land located at what is currently Calvary Cemetery and consists of two residential towers. Although the zoning of the area that we wished to use for housing was originally an R4, we converted to R6 in order to build the apartment buildings that would give working class Brooklyn and Queens residents an opportunity to enjoy luxury apartments comparable to those in Manhattan at an affordable cost. However, we designed the towers at 6 stories high because buildings between 4-7 stories high have a lower energy footprint than those that are over 7 stories high which are considered high rises. The towers are made of fiber glass with a concrete foundation that also serves as the underground garage. In front of the New Town Creek towers, my team and I also designed a commercial center consisting and 150 ft. boardwalk meant for the use of both residents and non-residents.

Our Year End Presentation

Greeting Team 8,

Our Year End Presentation is scheduled for
Monday, May 07, 2012 4:00 PM-7:30 PM
Where: Center For Architecture, 536 LaGuardia Place

Here is the agenda:

The Center for Architecture 

http://cfa.aiany.org/index.php?section=center-for-architecture>

4PM Set-up – Mentors and Students arrive

4:30PM Reception – Guests arrive

5:00PM Program - Welcome and Student Presentations begin

7:00PM Scholarships/Graduation

Parents, teachers and friends are welcome to attend.

Congratulations Team 8!!! We received Honorable Mention as 2^nd Runner –Up in the Waterfront/Riverside Park Category in this year’s  CIRT – ACE Design Competition out of a record 39 entries!  Though the jurors did not select our proposal for the Finals, you all should be very proud of this Honor, especially since all of you competed in this competition for the very first time.   Your vision, hard work and dedication undoubtedly impressed the judges.  As a result of our success, ACE NYC receives a $500 Award towards its scholarship fund.

Congratulations to you all and best of luck to this year’s finalists!

Now let’s focus on our Team 8 Year End Presentation.  Our next meeting will take place at DDC/SCA located at 30-30 Thomson Ave, LIC from 4 to 6 on Monday April 2^nd.  See you all here!

Go Team 8!

The Team 8 - 2012 CIRT Design Competition Entry has been sent!!!

Team 8,  congratulations to everyone for your hard work.  The Pippin Park presentation boards have been plotted, mounted, packaged and sent to the CIRT judges in Washington DC.  No matter what the judges decide, your mentors are truly impressed with everyone's ability to work together.

Job well done!  You should all be very proud!

We still have a lot of work to do!  See you all at our next meeting!

Here are the final boards as they went out!

Amenities

amenities

Pippin park will attract people of different age groups. Therefore the team thought it was necessary to incorporate recreational features appropriate for all ages. These features are differentiated according to their role. Commercial amenities including an outdoor shopping mall, cafe, and a ferris wheel are all located near the intersection of new town creek and the east river. Active recreation amenities including baseball fields, tennis courts, and soccer fields are located in the west side of Newtown creek.

LEED Rating -gold

22 point for sustainable sites
6 for water efficiency
21 in energy and atmosphere
3 in materials and resources
8 for indoor environmental quality
2 for innovation and design process
1 for regional priority credits
Total: 63 points

Certified- 40-49 points     Silver:50-59      Gold: 60-79       Platinum: 80+

Job opportunities

Job opportunities

Pippin Park presents various positions for the communities surrounding it. Some of these jobs include amusement park operator, concert promoter, facility manager, activities coordinator, and so much more.These jobs would benefit many of the people who are unemployed. Moreover, by providing these positions, Pippin Park would create an increase in economic activity.

Site Selection

Site Selection

Team 8 wanted to create a waterfront park in an underdeveloped area. We wanted to create a new atmosphere for the people surrounding it as well. We concluded that Newtown Creek was the most appropriate location. Newtown Creek is the best site because it is located in an industrial area surrounded by residential zones on both sides of the creek. Instead of having the industrial area, we wanted a waterfront park that would provide recreational activities, residential housing, and commercial amenities.

The team reviewed planning maps of the area surrounding Newtown Creek to identify transit availability, school proximity, irremovable factories, nearby parks, etc. We concluded that this 375 acre site situated in an industrial area, parallel to the Long Island and Queens Midtown expressways was the most suitable area to plan our park.

Making the graphs

Can someone post a picture of the recent site plan?

Taylor and Tynasisa Narratives

Elements of Pippin Park: Soils

Similar to other construction projects, fertile soil is essential to the up keeping and sustainability of our rennovative design of New Town Creek. Within site we expect our soil to serve beneficial functions such as support for vegetation, regulation of water supply, treatment and filtration of water pollutants, support for nutrient cycling, sequestration of carbon, and provision of biological habitats. However, being that Newtown Creek is a superfund site, meaning that it contains large amounts of contamination that is currently trying to be cleaned up by various organizations, healthy, productive soil cannot be planted until there has been a total rejuvenation of existing soil conditions. Although New Tow Creek has experienced various industrial contaminations over the years, its most extreme contamination was due to the Exxon Oil Spill of 2007 that dumped between 17 and 30 million gallons of oil into the site.

So, how do we plan to improve the land of this site? To start, we plan to create a soil assessment report which will show the toxicity levels of the area. Next, we plan to enter the process of remediation or clean up steps which include our basic structures for our complex such as rip rap along our boardwalks to contain contamination and prevent soil erosion. We then must identify which areas of the site demand proper soil for planting, such as our amphitheaters and parks. The types of soil that we plan to “refurnish” the area with include top soil, which is crucial to the sustainability of indigenous plants and contracted soil which is impermeable.

Elements of Pippin Park: Housing

Housing can be one of the most difficult aspects of a project to undertake. However, we believe that creating waterfront apartments to those in New York who do not live in Manhattan or those who cannot afford luxury Manhattan apartment prices, is worth the effort. Therefore, Team 8 created what we would like to call, the “Pippin Park ‘Partments”. In order to create this site which includes two towers with a combined underground garage, we switched our zoning scales form R4 to R6, which allowed us to build the towers at 730 ft. in height, giving it 7 floors, and 400 ft by 300 ft as its base. The buildings are composed of clay brick, with a glass surrounding and each tower has its own circular rooftop garden which is approximately 150 ft. in diameter. We believed it was important to build the towers at approximately 6 stories high because buildings between 4 and 7 stories tend to have a lower energy footprint per meter squared than do high rises greater than 7 stories. In front of the towers is a commercial center and 50 ft. boardwalk, allowing both the residents of the area and non residents to enjoying shopping or kayaking on the creek.

Elements of Pippin Park: Art Sculpture Garden

The Art Sculpture Garden is considered as an area of the Pippin Park complex that does not detract from the nature themed, recreational “Nature Walk”, but instead gives park goers an area with more of a creative twist. The Sculpture Garden is located directly across the creek from the apartment towers and boardwalk, and is set out at 300 ft by 200 ft. The area aside from abstract sculptures, which are all done by local Brooklyn and Queens artists, includes a small playground area for children, park benches, and various indigenous vegetation including milkweed bushes and fitting pippin apple trees. However, much of the park is open space intended to give a relaxing and free environment for artistic inspiration or to find tranquility.

Elements of Pippin Park: The Builders and The Inspiration.

It is only natural for people to believe that when a project is created, the architects, construction workers, and engineers of the projects, although important, are not as important to what the project will deliver to the community for the future. However, we of Team 8 as aspiring architects, construction workers, and engineers believe that both are equally important and that we could not have created this project if it were not for our backgrounds as Queens and other inner city borough residents that in turn inspired us to not only build a new site but to rejuvenate an entire area that would hopefully bridge the communities of Brooklyn and Queens together. As teenagers of a large metropolitan area, where most of the interesting aspects of the city are divided we believed it would be interesting to create an area that would finally include all of the elements of nature and an eco-friendly environment, entertainment centers, recreational centers, and even residential complexes.

Site description

The purpose of the proposed actions, is to implement a development plan for a small scale waterfront park that provides entertainment for the communities of Brooklyn and Queens and unite them as well. The waterfront park would provide retail amenities large amounts of open outdoor space waterfront recreation areas affordable residential units and informative educational centers. Overall the proposed actions would transform the industrial area into an enlivened waterfront park. These actions would provide significant improvements to the underdeveloped are between the Borough of Queens and the Borough of Brooklyn.

NY Times Article on NYC Wind Power

Projects to Add Wind Power for City Gain Momentum

Despite Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s long-expressed dream of putting wind turbines on skyscrapers and bridges, the constraints of an urban landscape have so far proved too challenging for reliable wind power in the city, energy experts said. As a result, New York City has been largely inactive — and behind the national curve — in embracing wind power.

But that is about to change. This spring, the city’s Department of Environmental Protection will solicit plans for the first major wind project, the installation of turbines atop the Fresh Kills landfill in Staten Island. And city planners are working on zoning changes, now under review by the City Planning Commission, to allow turbines up to 55 feet high on the rooftops of buildings taller than 100 feet, and even taller turbines on commercial and industrial sites along the waterfront.

But the biggest potential for supplying wind power to the city lies offshore, where the Bloomberg administration is supporting an application filed last September by a coalition led by the New York Power Authority to lease a swath of the ocean floor for a wind farm 13 miles off the coast of the Rockaways in Queens.

City officials say they are ready to take advantage of their coastal proximity to seek bigger renewable-energy projects and quicken the pace toward cleaner air and the jobs and economic benefits that would accompany those projects. A study commissioned by the city last year said wind farms could play a major role in replacing power now generated by the Indian Point nuclear power plant in Westchester County. The plant supplies up to 25 percent of consumption in Consolidated Edison’s service area, including New York City.

“When you’re talking about huge wind, offshore is really a unique opportunity,” said Farrell Sklerov, a spokesman for the city’s Department of Environmental Protection.

The proposal for the offshore wind farm, which is scheduled for a public hearing before the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management next month, is considered a game changer in that it would start at 350 megawatts but have the potential to double its capacity — eventually generating enough electricity to power a half-million homes in New York City and Long Island.

The plans are in the initial stages, but they are part of a push by states along the Eastern Seaboard to make wind power a significant staple of their energy mix. The region lags behind the West and Midwest, where flat, open spaces are plentiful and wind turbines already supply up to 20 percent of electric power in some states.

“We certainly have an ocean in our backyard that can host these turbines,” said Katherine Kennedy, clean-energy counsel at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “If we can develop wind and solar, all of a sudden we look like a European city.”

Through most of the last decade, turbines have been springing up all over the country, including in dairy farms in upstate New York. As a result, New York State, which has set a goal of deriving 30 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2015, now ranks 12th among the states in wind power installations, with 1,400 megawatts, or enough to meet 2 percent of the state’s electricity demand, says the American Wind Energy Association, a trade group.

Some states got a lift this month when federal officials from the Department of the Interior cleared the way for companies to seek federal leases in wind-energy areas off New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, speeding the process to approve wind projects.

Environmental groups say New York has been less focused on tapping into wind than some of these neighboring states but this year the New York Department of State is expected to identify the most viable locations for offshore wind farms with an eye toward protecting shipping, commercial fishing and ocean habitats — an approach that experts say should save time and red tape and help attract developers looking to begin such a project.

Long processes to win approvals and the higher cost of wind compared with less sustainable sources of electricity are not the only obstacles to developing wind installations. The projects must also withstand public scrutiny. Despite support from environmental groups, the only federally approved offshore wind project to date, Cape Wind in Nantucket Sound off the coast of Cape Cod, has been stalled, in part by opposition over aesthetics and the impact on American Indian artifacts and burial grounds, among other issues.

Bonnie Brady, executive director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association, opposed a proposed wind farm three-and-a-half to five miles off Jones Beach in Long Island over concerns about the potential harm to fish. The project was ultimately derailed in 2007 by high costs. Ms. Brady said the proposal off the Rockaways, while farther offshore, was still worrisome. It calls for at least 70 wind turbines that could each soar 430 feet above the water.

“The biggest problem we have is that there’s really no science to either support or negate wind power as something that wouldn’t affect the fish negatively,” she said. “If there’s a problem, once you’ve done the damage, who’s responsible?”

While more expensive to produce than wind power, solar energy is more suited to cities, energy experts said, because it can be harnessed more discreetly from thousands of rooftops. New York City has so far grown its solar production to seven megawatts, a modest amount but well over its practically nonexistent wind production. This runs counter to what is occurring in the rest of the state and the country, where wind installed capacity, 46,000 megawatts, vastly outpaces the 3,800 megawatts of solar.

Some New York buildings are already experimenting with private wind production, like the Eltona apartments in the Melrose section of the Bronx. But they have found that they do not get enough wind to make turbines a reliable source of power. City planners are revising zoning regulations to allow more private turbines, but still concede that wind turbines may not thrive here unless they are on or near the shore.

City officials say the former environmental wasteland known as Fresh Kills is an ideal location. The Department of Environmental Protection will, in the next two months, ask for wind and solar proposals to develop 75 acres of the landfill, with the goal of adding 15 megawatts of energy, enough to power 3,300 homes. Officials said at least a third of the production would be wind power.

The Fresh Kills plan could double the city’s solar output, but it is the wind turbines that excite the Staten Island borough president, James P. Molinaro, who has lobbied for a wind farm for years, and persuaded the state to finance a study that showed the site could support seven 400-foot turbines.

City officials say it has taken them this long to evaluate the challenges of installing wind turbines on the landfill’s unique subsurface.

Fresh Kills closed as a landfill handling the city’s residential garbage more than a decade ago and is now undergoing a transformation into a 2,200-acre park.

“It’d change the biggest tragedy that ever happened to Staten Island and convert it to something wonderful,” Mr. Molinaro said. “Windmills that would give us clean energy in a beautiful park. It’d be a model for the rest of the world to look at.”

By MIREYA NAVARRO

Multi Phase Extraction System

The following images are provided by Dr. Fatemeh Ashkan, our DDC Tank Unit who was our guest speaker a few weeks back and presented the different types of system used in remediating contaminated sites.

More Reference Material

Everyone, The Central Park Conservancy has created a tree database for all trees in existence at Central Park.  Check out the link below
http://www.centralparknyc.org/visit/trees-blooms/tree-database/

Also, Check out the NYC Audubon Soicety for information on Native birds in our area.
http://www.nycaudubon.org/home

In addition, here is a link to the NYC Dept. of Park and Recreation Tree Planting guidelines:
http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_your_park/trees_greenstreets/images/TreePlantingStandards.pdf.pdf

Second test image

first test image

Info on windmills/solar panels.

Solar Panels:
a panel's power is expressed in peak watts.
maximum sun intensity is 1.000 w/m^2.
factors that influence the amounts of sunlight reascing the PV (solar) panels are:
weather conditions (clouds, fog, etc.)
altitude of the sun.
number of daylight hours.
www.glrea.org/articles/howdosolarpanelswork.html

Windimills:
in a wide open area, (no buildings nearby) a 12-ft. tower may be sufficient.
in not so open areas, 16-ft. and 20-ft. towers are reccomended.
a windmill with a single diaphragm pump is mainly for one-acre or less.

LEED Neighborhood Development Certification

Going for a LEED Certified design on neighborhood development:
 LEED 2009 for Neighborhood Development Certification Levels
100 base points plus 6 possible Innovation and Design Process and 4 possible Regional Priority Credit points
Certified 40–49 points
Silver 50–59 points
Gold 60–79 points
Platinum 80 points and above
Smart Location and Linkage 27 possible points
Prerequisite 1 Smart Location R equired
Prerequisite 2 I mperiled Species and Ecological Communities R equired
 Prerequisite 3 Wetland and Water Body Conservation R equired
 Prerequisite 4 Agricultural Land Conservation R equired
 Prerequisite 5 F loodplain Avoidance R equired
 Credit 1 P referred Locations 10
 Credit 2 B rownfield Redevelopment 2
 Credit 3 Locations with Reduced Automobile Dependence 7
 Credit 4 B icycle Network and Storage 1
 Credit 5 H ousing and Jobs Proximity 3
 Credit 6 Steep Slope Protection 1
 Credit 7 Site Design for Habitat or Wetland and Water Body Conservation 1
 Credit 8 R estoration of Habitat or Wetlands and Water Bodies 1
 Credit 9 Long-Term Conservation Management of Habitat or Wetlands and Water Bodies 1
Neighborhood Pattern and Design 44 possible points
Prerequisite 1 Walkable Streets R equired
 Prerequisite 2 Compact Development R equired
 Prerequisite 3 Connected and Open Community R equired
 Credit 1 Walkable Streets 12
 Credit 2 Compact Development 6
 Credit 3 M ixed-Use Neighborhood Centers 4
 Credit 4 M ixed-Income Diverse Communities 7
 Credit 5 R educed Parking Footprint 1
 Credit 6 Street Network 2
 Credit 7 T ransit Facilities 1
 Credit 8 T ransportation Demand Management 2
 Credit 9 Access to Civic and Public Spaces 1
 Credit 10 Access to Recreation Facilities 1
 Credit 11 V isitability and Universal Design 1
 Credit 12 Community Outreach and Involvement 2
 Credit 13 Local Food Production 1
 Credit 14 T ree-Lined and Shaded Streets 2
 Credit 15 Neighborhood Schools 1
Green Infrastructure and Buildings 29 possible points
 Prerequisite 1 Certified Green Building R equired
 Prerequisite 2 M inimum Building Energy Efficiency R equired
 Prerequisite 3 M inimum Building Water Efficiency R equired
 Prerequisite 4 Construction Activity Pollution Prevention R equired
Credit 1 Certified Green Buildings 5
 Credit 2 B uilding Energy Efficiency 2
 Credit 3 B uilding Water Efficiency 1
 Credit 4 Water-Efficient Landscaping 1
 Credit 5 Existing Building Reuse 1
 Credit 6 H istoric Resource Preservation and Adaptive Use 1
 Credit 7 M inimized Site Disturbance in Design and Construction 1
 Credit 8 Stormwater Management 4
 Credit 9 H eat Island Reduction 1
 Credit 10 Solar Orientation 1
 Credit 11 O n-Site Renewable Energy Sources 3
 Credit 12 District Heating and Cooling 2
 Credit 13 I nfrastructure Energy Efficiency 1
 Credit 14 Wastewater Management 2
 Credit 15 R ecycled Content in Infrastructure 1
 Credit 16 Solid Waste Management Infrastructure 1
 Credit 17 Light Pollution Reduction 1
Innovation and Design Process 6 possible points
 Credit 1 I nnovation and Exemplary Performance 1–5
 Credit 2 LEED® Accredited Professional 1
Regional Priority Credit 4 possible points
 Credit 1 R egional Priority 1–4
________________________________________________________________________

water dock foundations

FIBERGLASS COMPOSITE PILINGS are today’s preferred building material for waterfront foundations, docks, piers and bridges. Our composite pilings are stronger than wood, steel or Containing no chemical preservatives that leach into the water, sustainable fiberglass composite pilings are environmentally friendly and are the choice of “green” developers of clean concrete pilings, and because they will not rust, rot or crumble, they will last virtually forever. marinas and waterfront properties.

ATLANTIS MARINA REPLACES WOOD PILINGS WITH FIBERGLASS COMPOSITE PILINGS Paradise Island, Bahamas The world class Atlantis Marina on Paradise Island, Bahamas has recently replaced all 400 of its greenheart, Brazilian hardwood pilings with Fiberglass Pilings. The long term investment will virtually eliminate the cost of replacing pilings again.
New State-of-the-Art Launching Facility!Falls Township, PA An all-new, public access boat ramp and 2500-feet of floating docks were built at Quaker Penn Park, located 20-miles north of Philadelphia.

Weeping willowsUSA zones Salix caprea pendula - Dwarf Weeping Willow or Kilmarnock Willow - An ornamental dwarf weeping willow tree suitable for small gardens.Golden CurlsThe Golden Curls willow tree (Salix matsudana), sometimes called a dragon's claw willow or Peking willow, is a cultivar that features golden-yellow bark and pale yellow flowers that bloom during spring. Native to east Asia, this variety is hardy in USDA zones 5 to 8. Ranging from 20- to 30-foot high, Golden Curls willows grow twisted branches and shorter leaves than other types of weeping willow trees. The leaves feature bright green tops and white-green undersides. This tree is not recommended for residential use because the twisted branches make it hard to find suitable planting sitesRead more: Types of Weeping Willow Trees Garden Guides http://www.gardenguides.com/87926-types-weeping-willow-trees.html#ixzz1lHMlyf9Kshidarezakura Cherry Blossom, or weeping Cherry, has branches that fall like those of a weeping willow, bearing cascades of pink flowers.The Japanese Cherry starts flowering profusely from the first warmer days in April, heralding the coming of spring. The pink or white flowers grow in racemose clusters at nodes on short spurs. They are past flowering early in May.Because of the fact that Cherry Blossom trees bloom early in spring and are susceptible to damage from late spring frosts, the site for growing Cherries should be slightly higher and sloped than the surrounding ground to prevent frosty air from settling in the low spots.Cherry Blossom trees should be placed in a sheltered location with full sun, in soil that is deep, fertile and moist, but well drained.Full sun exposure for Cherry Blossom trees is necessary to produce delicious Cherries and strong trees.Cherry Blossom trees grown in shade will produce spindly branches and fewer cherries that are less sweet.Sweet and sour Cherries are susceptible to most of the same problems.Cherry Blossom Plant CareMaintaining a clean surrounding is very important to keep pest and disease problems down for Cherry Blossom trees.Bird problems on Cherry Blossom trees can be prevented by planting your trees near people or pets and by netting.Diseased fruit, leaves, and prunings on Cherry Blossom trees should be removed immediately and either burned to kill insect larvae and disease spores or destroyed in a hot compost pile.Some common problems seen in Cherry Blossom trees are Plum curculio, Brown rot, cherry fruit flies, cherry leaf spot and bacterial canker

community garden large model and floor plans

community garden small model

Ikea Brooklyn Waterfront 2

IKEA Brooklyn waterfront

More Site Photos