The weekly pattern of studio life is becoming more familiar. Several times a week the MRP students’ routine is to engage with outside professionals who come to speak in the studio. A huge benefit of the AAP studio on 17th Street is its central location. The location makes for an ideal spot for students to access but equally important is ease of access for practicing professionals to come to us.
Over the past week and a half, our cohort of City and Regional Planning students met with GIS specialist Paul Salama from WXY Studios, Chris Collin the executive director of Solar One, and with MRP alum and land use law expert Mitch Korbey.
GIS:
Most of the MRP students are GIS (geographic information systems) software users thanks to a dedicated course in Ithaca. But as ArcGIS is an ever evolving (and frustrating) computer program that we were grateful to receive a quick refresher in. Paul Salama generously spent last Wednesday evening with fourteen of us as we crowded with our laptops around a large television/computer monitor. The focus of Paul’s refresher exercise was ways to visualize a Brownfield Opportunity Area (BOA) in the Bronx. This entailed locating base data files depicting roads, rail lines, coastal boundaries, tax lots, and buildings. Using these layers as guides, we created a new layer containing the BOA.
In addition to a skills refresher, Paul introduced the group to a few essential open data resources. Already, these websites have provided invaluable data for our urban design studio class. Below are a few in case you find yourself depicting NYC using GIS:
Steven Romalewski’s MTA Subway Data Blog
Furman Center For Real Estate and Urban Policy
Solar One:
The NYC MRP students first learned of the nonprofit organization Solar One during our first week at AAP NYC. Our urban design studio took a bicycling field trip to the Manhattan waterfront, and in the midst of our tour of parks and bike trails we visited the home of Solar One in Stuyvesant Cove.
Located between 18th and 23rd Streets, adjacent to the elevated FDR parkway, the small headquarters of this not-for-profit overlooks the East River waters at Stuyvesant Cove. The Solar One building is a small structure slightly larger than a mobile home with a large triangular south-facing roof covered by photovoltaics (PVs). The building served as an important community gathering point in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy when neighborhood electricity went dark. Solar One became a literal beacon of light thanks to its solar panels and its ability to exist apart from the downed Con Ed power grid. In the wake of Sandy, Chris Collin (the executive director of Solar One) and his staff shared the building’s power generation with the community. They put out electric outlets and encouraged community members to charge mobile phones, laptop computers, and medical equipment.
This past Monday evening, Chris gave the MRP students a full rundown of the organization and its history. The central mission of Solar One is “to provide education and resources that create more sustainable and resilient urban environments.” This takes the form of going into New York City schools to educate students about green energy, hosting community education events in the park, and providing green job workforce training.
But beyond Solar One’s education mission and service to its surrounding community during Sandy, the organization performs an enduring service to the local physical environment by being responsible for the management and maintenance of the park it sits within. In 2002, as part of a request for proposals by the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC), Solar One was selected to be the nonprofit caretaker of Stuyvesant Cove Park. At the time, NYCEDC’s request for proposals was responding to community pressure to turn derelict and marginal waterfront space into park land.
The challenge was finding a way to ensure long term maintenance for the park while not costing the City additional operation and management costs. At the time, the City’s Parks Department did not have the capacity to take on additional maintenance and consequently refused to accept Stuyvesant Cove into the official parks portfolio of responsibilities. Acting together, NYCEDC and Solar One established an ingenious symbiotic relationship that has been a win-win for the city. In exchange for roughly $175,000 in annual maintenance services, Solar One receives free rent in the park.
An added wrinkle in the creation of a home for Solar One in the park was that after years of fighting for green space, some members of the community did not want to see a building in their new park. Fortunately for all, a compromise was reached in which Solar One’s building was initially agreed to be a temporary structure. But, since the nonprofit’s establishment in 2004 and since Hurricane Sandy, the neighborhood sentiment about having a permanent home for Solar One has changed. In the coming years, Solar One will build a $7 million permanent structure in the park. The building will be elevated 15 ft. above the ground and have room for teaching classrooms, an exhibition space, a cafe, and for Solar One’s offices.
Check out them out further here. http://www.solar1.org
Land Use Law:
Finishing off the week’s speakers was Mitch Korbey. Currently, Mitch is a partner at Herrick, LLC, where he provides land use planning and real estate law consultation services. Receiving his law degree in 2003, Mitch spent most of his prior professional career working in the public sector.
Immediately after graduating in 1985 from Cornell’s MRP program, Mitch moved back to his home state of Massachusetts where he worked for the city of Beverly’s planning department. From there he took a job working for the NYC Department of City Planning on Staten Island. After a few short years this led to a position in Brooklyn’s City Planning office, ultimately leading to his appointment on a six year commission for the New York City Board of Standards and Appeals.
The below recording recounts Mitch’s professional trajectory, and it is definitely worth a listen as Mitch was up front and humorous in recounting his professional travails. Beyond speaking about his career path, a large portion of the recording is dedicated to the topics of transferable development rights (TDRs). This is an absolutely fascinating genre of zoning and city planning! At its most basic TDRs are about buying and selling air rights for future development. Another final portion of the recording is dedicated to the topic of historic districts and the landmarking of buildings. According to Mitch, 26% of New York City now falls within an historic district. Broadly speaking, Mitch is skeptical whether the extent of this landmarking is good for the city.
I hope you enjoy his talk as much as I did!