Rendering: Only If + One Architecture

Back in June, the Regional Plan Association (RPA), an urban research and advocacy organization, in conjunction with the Rockefeller Foundation, announced a design competition asking for proposals that would transform various areas of the New York metropolitan region. One of the four ideas chosen to receive $45,000 was a transportation alternative that would serve the Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn. As 6sqft reported, the proposal, developed by New York-based firm Only If along with Netherlands-based firm One Architecture, focuses on using a light rail to move passengers between the outer boroughs to alleviate some of the overcrowding that has plagued the current subway system with delays. On August 4, the organizations held an event at Fort Tilden to mark the opening of a public presentation of the selected proposals. “4C: Four Corridors: Foreseeing the Region of the Future” spotlighted this plan to strengthen the Triboro Corridor, a plan to address the future of the suburbs, and more.

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As a way to promote inter-religious coexistence and cultural exchange, the American Society for Muslim Advancement and Buro Koray Duman Architects have collaborated to create a design proposal for an Islamic cultural center, the first Muslim-sponsored multi-faith community center in New York City. According to ArchDaily, the design for the center, called Cordoba House, is based on the historic “Kulliye,” an Ottoman Islamic center, and features a vertical landscape design. It will stretch 100,000 square feet and include recreation, culinary, art, retail and administrative spaces.

More this way

Image courtesy of Gotham Greens.
A new bill introduced in New York City Council Thursday addresses the need for an urban agriculture plan that doesn’t fall through the cracks of the city’s zoning and building regulations, the Wall Street Journal reports. The bill, introduced by Councilman Rafael Espinal and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and assigned to the Land Use Committee, also raises the possibility of an office of urban agriculture. If a New York City farm bill seems surprising, you may also be surprised to know that NYC has the country’s largest urban agriculture system, including community gardens, rooftop farms and greenhouses.

Outgrowing the system

Architecture/engineering firm EDG, noting that New York City faces a unique and complex set of challenges when it comes to navigating highways and byways, has offered an equally unique and innovative proposal: LoopNYC suggests the conversion of one lane of existing cross streets and highways into driverless automobile expressways. The result? A safe, sustainable and efficient “microhighway” automated traffic grid.

So how would it work?

The 1960s Cold War years were America’s peak fear/fantasy period as far as the threat of nuclear weapons being deployed. Related scenarios played heavily in science fiction works and frequently surfaced in art and writing. On occasion the line between sci-fi and urban planning tends to blur, at least in hindsight; such is the case for architect and city planner Oscar Newman’s probably tongue-in-cheek vision of an enormous spherical underground replica of Manhattan located thousands of feet below the city itself, to be switched into action in the event of a nuclear event. Atlas Obscura reveals Newman’s fantastical map to a subterranean metropolis where New Yorkers would wait out the fallout.

Head underground for a look-see

Image courtesy of the United States Patent Office

The massive online retailer company Amazon, which recently acquired the grocery chain Whole Foods for $13.4 billion, is attempting to push even further into the future of internet commerce. The company has recently patented a “multi-level fulfillment center for unmanned vehicles,” or in simpler terms, a drone skyscraper. As co.design discovered, while patents do not necessarily mean this tower will be created, the plan has detailed sketches showing a giant beehive from where drones would fly in and out.

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Rendering courtesy of SCAPE Landscape Architecture

The Gowanus Canal Conservancy (GCC) has announced the launch of Gowanus Lowlands, a new comprehensive vision for the transformation of Brooklyn’s Gowanus neighborhood and a ‘blueprint for NYC’s next great park.’ As 6sqft has previously reported, between developers eyeing the pricey parcel of southwest Brooklyn land as Paris on the Gowanus and the city’s ambitions to transform the long-embattled area into “Little Venice,” all eyes have been on the neighborhood and the once-toxic, steadily improving Superfund canal that anchors it. With an important rezoning on the horizon–the process kicked off last October with meetings to gauge community opinion–passions are running high. The conservancy has identified SCAPE landscape architecture studio to guide the Lowlands vision toward reality.

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