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Five Teams Compete for Governors Island Design
Five teams will strive to draft the winning plan for open space and parks. Also, a design-developer team wins a South Bronx affordable housing project competition.
Five Vie for New Park Design
A design competition to create a promenade and parks on Governors Island in New York Harbor is down to five teams after the Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation pared down an initial list of 29 teams.
The agency, a subsidiary of the Empire State Development Corporation, solicited entrants last October, attracting teams representing 10 countries and 65 firms overall.
The winning plan will create a 2.2-mi-long great promenade around the island perimeter, a new park on the southern side, and improved open space in the northern Historic District, including the 10-acre parade ground. It would add 25 to 40 acres of parkland.
The five teams selected for the competition, which will culminate this summer, are:
• Field Operations of New York and WilkinsonEyre Architects of London
• Hargreaves Associates of New York and Michael Maltzan Architecture of Los Angeles
• Ramus Ella Architects of New York and Michel Desvigne Paysagistes of Paris
• West 8 urban design & landscape architecture of the Netherlands, Rogers Marvel Architects of New York, and Diller Scofidio + Renfro of New York
• WRT of Philadelphia, Weiss-Manfredi of New York, and Urban Strategies of Toronto.
The redevelopment of the 172-acre isle, a former military base that the federal government transferred to state control, has been in the works for several years. Last year, the development agency issued a request for proposals for redeveloping and preserving historic features on 150 of the 172 acres. But after reviewing four master proposals to redevelop the whole island and 21 other single-project proposals, the agency last fall decided against pursuing all but one of the submissions – the New York Harbor School, a new maritime-focused school to be operated by the New York City Department of Education.
The whole-island proposals did not meet the RFP criteria, described in a statement last fall as a “coherent vision supported by market data, financial return, and funding sources” as well as deep development team experience.
“It’s such a huge decision to create that kind of partnership for an island that has so many historic features,” says Leslie Koch, the agency’s president. “We’re no longer planning to pursue a master-developer concept. Instead we’re going to proceed with a mixed-use, multiphase process.”
Koch says no date has been set for future RFPs under the new process. The 22 acres not slated for redevelopment make up the Governors Island National Monument administered by the National Park Service.
Affordable Housing Team Selected
A juried design competition has narrowed five finalists down to the single design-developer team that now has the task of building an affordable housing complex with sustainable design features in the South Bronx.
Sponsored by the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development and the New York chapter of the American Institute of Architects, the competition will lead to redevelopment of a 60,000-sq-ft vacant lot that consists of city-owned property and a legally abandoned rail right-of-way.
The winning team announced earlier this year is Phipps-Rose-Dattner-Grimshaw, a collaboration of architects and developers that will buy the site, valued at $4 million, for a nominal fee in exchange for designing and constructing a mixed-use development that includes affordable housing for New Yorkers of low, middle, and moderate incomes.
The team – which consists of New York-based Phipps Houses, a nonprofit developer; Dattner Architects of New York; Jonathan Rose Cos. of New York, a planning and development firm; and Grimshaw, a London-based architect with offices in New York – developed a proposal entitled “Green Way,” or “Via Verde.” It will consist of 202 residential units – 139 rentals and 63 owner-occupied – in addition to retail space, community amenities, and parking, all spiraling out from a central, multifunctional garden and courtyard.
The plan will incorporate sustainable material choices, efficient mechanical systems, and renewable energy strategies, with a goal of achieving gold-level Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design status. All units will have high performance windows and the south and west façades will have sun screens.
The project is part of the city’s $7.5 billion plan to build or preserve 165,000 affordable housing units over ten years. The competition, known as the New Housing New York Legacy Project, emerged from collaboration between the NHNY Steering Committee, the city housing department, the AIA, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, and Enterprise Community Partners.
A design jury winnowed 32 initial developer-architect teams to five finalists in September. The five final proposals will be on view from March 22 to June 16 in an exhibition at the Center for Architecture in Manhattan.
West Point Plans Expansion
The U.S. Military Academy at West Point recently announced plans to expand its science academic building, Bartlett Hall, into the attached Cadet Library to accommodate new research facilities.
 The expansion, scheduled to begin in 2009 and end in 2013, is estimated to cost more than $100 million, according to West Point officials. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers New York District is overseeing the project.
The project entails improvements to the 321,000-sq-ft complex to renovate space in the Cadet Library freed up by the construction of the new Thomas Jefferson Library, set to open in summer 2008. The original complex was built in phases starting in 1913 on the campus along the Hudson River in New York.
The design-bid-build effort on Bartlett Hall began with the award of a design contract to San Francisco’s URS Corp. The facility will house teaching and research laboratories for chemistry, biology, physics, and photonics, along with support spaces.
Planned improvements include asbestos abatement and seismic retrofitting, as well as new energy conservation features and upgraded life safety systems. The academy also plans to add facilities for chemical imaging, storage, and exhaust, and a chilled-water recirculation system for laser labs.
All library functions, except for the archives, will move to the six-story Jefferson facility, a $70 million project that began in June 2005. STV Inc. of New York designed the 150,000-sq-ft facility, and J. Kokolakis Contracting of Rocky Point, N.Y., is the contractor.
Major Redesign for Covenant House
A master plan for a $25 million reconstruction and upgrade of the Covenant House campus at 460 W. 41st Street in Manhattan is guiding two phases of construction, one set to finish this spring and the second to finish next year.
Terrence O’Neal Architect LLC of New York designed the plan, which is being executed by Bovis Lend Lease of New York as construction manager. AKF Engineers of New York is M-E-P and fire protection engineering consultant, along with Koutsoubis, Alonso Associates of Hicksville, N.Y., as structural engineer.
The design aims to reinforce Covenant House’s core mission of providing a safe haven for young people in crisis and in transition through elements such as a welcoming courtyard with abundant plantings, as well as the major reconstruction and realignment of interior spaces to better support counseling and support efforts. The reconfigured space will accommodate 500 beds, increasing the residential capacity by about 60%, and will include a child care center, redesigned chapel, recreation complex, administrative offices, health care suites, and a renovated cafeteria. The project also entails extensive upgrades to electrical, information technology, and mechanical-HVAC systems.
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