Project Statement:
eRiver Park NYC: Re-framing the dialog
between a dense urban condition and its waterfront through
formal, ecological, digital and social architectures.
This design envisions a series of pocket parks that
offer dynamic community interactions and foster the
discourse on social and environmental responsibility.
eRiver Park is manifested as a play between an interactive
digital museum focused on community memory and an intensive
water treatment system that doubles as an outdoor waterfront
park.
Project Narrative:
New York City is undergoing a waterfront
renaissance. This marks a shift in the image of the
city from one that is defined by the fabric of its urban
forms to an image that will embrace its environment
both in planning and as an identity. The environmental
ideology has become a standard by which cities measure
their status in the global market. The image that New
York City will embody is stated in PlanNYC, a city planning
document endorsed by Mayor Bloomberg. It includes plans
that will amount to a cleaner city, but also one that
turns its focus to the waterfront. One of the flagship
visions is a closed circuit Manhattan Greenway that
will encircle the island. The success of this green
ring is contingent upon both the quality of its amenity
and the sense of place it embodies for the population.
eRiver Park presents an opportunity to physically close
this green loop, provide continuous flow of access to
a high quality amenity and create a uniquely responsive
place that reflects and reinforces community identity
on local and global scales.
Location
Located between 54th and 62nd street on the east side
of Manhattan, the space sits as a remnant road bed between
the East River and FDR drive while passing under the
Queensborough Bridge. This nonplace is currently defined
by the weave of its surrounding systems. Most notably,
the adjacent East River which is a tidal estuary that
connects Long Island Sound to the New York/New Jersey
Harbor as well as the surrounding Manhattan community.
The East River is currently in a highly
polluted state. Its estuarine population is sparse and
contaminated (DEP warns against eating more than one
fish a month caught in the river) and the water is unsafe
for swimming. A major contributing factor to this pollution
is the existence of a combined sewer system in the city.
As a result, sewage overflows into the East River approximately
once a week, or in any rainfall event of more than 0.1
inches.
Concept
One formula for achieving a successful waterfront park
can be derived by looking at the systems that are currently
in the way of this vision. The current state of imbalance
consists of existing asymmetries that materialize as
barriers, discomforts and hazards. These include an
unhealthy amount of polluted water and also a social
detachment from the public space. These imbalances can
be realized as the chemistry of a highly energetic and
unique space. This potential can act as an impetus for
the exchange and subsequent encouragement of flow in
a contemporary urban context. The focus of the eRiver
park
intervention will therefore be on the relationship between
waters (polluted and non-polluted) and the community.
Design Intent
Using the potential of imbalance, users will experience
periods of detachment from the site both physi¬cally
and cognitively. This fluctuating relationship to the
site will create value in the way the site is perceived
as constantly changing. The intention is also to link
to the Manhattan Greenway and provide armatures for
increasing social capital on-site.
eRiver Park park provides the opportunity to both clean
and give access to the East River while involv ing the
public through experience and education. This design
proposes to bring more pollution to the site with intent
to mitigate the water. The filtering process is designed
by looking at two existing forms of water treatment,
a saltwater treatment wetland and the subsurface sand
filter treatment train. The idea is to bring the river
directly into the site, treat it and give it back to
the public as a clean, educational amenity. At the same
time, a forum for exchange of public thought is provided
in the form of a digital museum.
Design Program
Program intends to weave infrastructural and cultural
uses as well as blur the boundaries between public and
private communication. Zones of detachment manifest
in physical and emotional forms as a way to increase
value and heighten awareness. Physical detachment is
controlled by access to a variety of pocket parks. These
small intimate spaces are separated from the main park
by channels that are capable of receiving an artificial
tide. Partitions within the channel allow multiple variations
of park access as water may be directed to flood specific
locations. When water is not flooding the channel, users
can easily walk across and enjoy the pocket parks. Accessibility
to these verdant lounges is choreographed to provide
a fluctuating park experience on a daily basis.
Emotional detachment is facilitated via
the “me-museum”, a physically experienced
digital community forum. This space is dedicated to
providing armature for temporary introspection in the
form of “diary cubes”. The museum spans
the upper and lower decks of an existing remnant structure
leftover from FDR reconstruction. Entrance to the park
is experienced as a series of ramps and digital screens.
“Diary” entries from the local community
are displayed both as text and video feed. Park users
may choose to add their entries to the archive of video
blogs and over time a bank of memories is collected
and accessed remotely over the Internet. These temporary
moments of introversion will enhance a subsequent bond
to the greater community as people share in the collective
museum experience. Moreover, the strength of a “collective”
voice gives power back to the community.
The cleansing aspects of eRiver Park are
intended to serve as a flagship for future waterfront
devel¬opments while providing a clean water park
for the community to enjoy. The treatment consists of
an enclosed mangrove community center, a saltwater marsh
and subsurface sand filters. Although the amount of
polluted water running through the system is negligible
at the river scale, the educational impact is profound.
Clean river water is revealed at the north end of the
park in a display of interactive water fountains and
splash pools. In winter, users can ice skate on the
water pocket park and enjoy the rivers edge view of
Manhattan and the Queensborough Bridge.
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