Excellent Sample Map
A walking map doesn't have to be big or complex to be effective. Take the 8.5-by-11 Walking the Waterfront map of Halifax & Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada, with clear, hand-drawn maps of both city waterfronts. Sites are clearly numbered, one to 44, and range from a casino to open space to eating places and docks. A number of vessels make their home here, including deep sea fishing charter boats, a replica of a famous fishing schooner and a research ship of the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, which is based in Halifax. The map, prepared by the Waterfront Development Corporation Ltd., is simplicity itself, in two colors, folded into three easy-to-read panels whose title is "Your official cruising guide to the shops and sights, restaurants and museums on the wonderful waterfront." Contact the organization for a sample.
Waterfront Corruption
The FBI seems to have to known what it was doing in targeting city officials in Northern New Jersey with waterfront development projects. Most of the 44 arrests earlier this year were of officials taking bribes from agents posing as developers seeking project approvals. The complaints filed paint a picture of building and zoning departments where influence, connections and payoffs are used to enable developments to proceed smoothly. Otherwise the process is described as dysfunctional. Developers are said to budget for bribes. For a little light reading, try The Soprano State: New Jersey's Culture of Corruption by Bob Ingle and Sandy McClure (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2008).
The Press of Atlantic City, Aug. 8, 2009.
New Treatment Plant Technology
In the city of Blaine, Washington, they are putting a new wastewater treatment plant in a waterfront park. Using new odor control technology plus smaller and quieter equipment enables the facilities to be front and center. In fact, when Blaine's plant opens in June 2010, it will house processing underground and have two structures on top: one for administration, the other for public park uses. The reclaimed wastewater will be used to water city land and a golf course. Funding in the form of grants and loans came from local, state and Federal sources. Brown and Caldwell of Seattle did the design of the 23,000 square-foot plant.
Engineering News Record, Oct. 5, 2009.
Bikers vs. Peds: Serious Business
The Battle of Brooklyn Bridge is on. The narrow walkway (remember the bridge dates to 1883) now tries to accommodate growing numbers of walkers and bikers plus more than a few tourists stopping to take pictures. One solution suggested is to make the bikers use the adjoining Manhattan Bridge, which has a secure bike lane. Problem: it doesn't tie well to downtown. Writing in the Sunday Opinion page of The New York Times, author Robert Sullivan, a Brooklyn biker, proposes taking bikes off the walkway in favor of a protected bike lane in the roadway. Separation is the solution being used on a downtown riverwalk under construction now in Des Moines, Iowa. the Center co-directors were given a tour recently by a representative of Principal Financial Services, the major funder, where there will be a pedestrian walk above on lovely blocks and a pathway below along the river itself intended by bikes, bladers and the like. A new pedestrian/bike bridge under construction will tie the paths together and whose graceful arch will be a new icon for the city.
The New York Times, Sept. 27, 2009.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Short News Stories No. 4
Big Cleanup
Thousands of volunteers took part in Coastal Cleanup Day in the San Francisco Bay area, collecting about 220,000 pounds of stuff in an early tally. Among the items picked from the shore: shopping carts, hubcaps, metal chairs and shingles. In Hayward, the haul included about 50 tires, fire extinguishers, buoys, shoes and thousands of balls of all kinds - tennis balls, basketballs and volley balls. At Candlestick Point Recreation Area, it was "microtrash" - bits of glass, plastic, metal and paper strewn about the shoreline.
San Francsco Chronicle, Sept. 20, 2009.
Urban Meadow in Georgetown
Above the Potomac River in the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C. sits a rooftop garden on a utility substation. In plain view of a nearby condo on Water Street N.W., the meadow is a magnet for birds, including Mallard ducks, doves, sparrows and goldfinches. Its grasses change colors during the seasons. It is the project of the condo developer Anthony Lanier who wanted dwellers to have a pleasant view toward the Potomac. The green roof was designed by Washington landscape architects Oehme, van Sweden & Associates.
The Washington Post Magazine, Sept. 20, 2009.
Working Waterfront Preservation
A lobster family has placed a permanent easement on a pier in Tremont, Maine, the first under the state's Working Waterfront Access Program, designed to protect commercial fishing properties. The program is funded through the Land for Maine's Future, where property owners sell development rights to the state to preclude other uses such as residential development. This particular action occurred on Davis Wharf on Goose Cove, Mount Desert Island. A ceremony to mark the occasion was attended by over 150 lobstermen/women. The state program has $5 million in voter-approved bond money with which to acquir working waterfront facilities. According to the Island Institute, only 20 miles of commercial waterfront remain along Maine's coast. Center co-directors Ann Breen and Dick Rigby wrote a monograph in 1985 entitled: Caution: Working Waterfront: The Impact of Change on Marine Enterprises, which discussed commercial pressures threatening small marine businesses.
The Working Waterfront/Inter-Island News, Island Institute, September 2009.
The Battle for Southport
Plans by the North Carolina State Ports Authority to build an enormous container terminal on the Lower Cape Fear River in Southport have stirred fierce opposition. The ports authority has acquired 600 acres of waterfront land, for $30 million, and says its facility will create 16,500 jobs. To the 2,500 residents of the area forming No Port Southport, the project will permanently damage the area's ecosystem. The group, joined by the North Carolina Coastal Federation, says the river is inadequate to handle the vessels likely to be used, requiring dredgin, and the road system would have to be expanded through uninhabited areas. The area has 28 marinas and 2,500 slips that would be adversely affected, the opposition notes.
SailMagazine, September 2009.
Thousands of volunteers took part in Coastal Cleanup Day in the San Francisco Bay area, collecting about 220,000 pounds of stuff in an early tally. Among the items picked from the shore: shopping carts, hubcaps, metal chairs and shingles. In Hayward, the haul included about 50 tires, fire extinguishers, buoys, shoes and thousands of balls of all kinds - tennis balls, basketballs and volley balls. At Candlestick Point Recreation Area, it was "microtrash" - bits of glass, plastic, metal and paper strewn about the shoreline.
San Francsco Chronicle, Sept. 20, 2009.
Urban Meadow in Georgetown
Above the Potomac River in the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C. sits a rooftop garden on a utility substation. In plain view of a nearby condo on Water Street N.W., the meadow is a magnet for birds, including Mallard ducks, doves, sparrows and goldfinches. Its grasses change colors during the seasons. It is the project of the condo developer Anthony Lanier who wanted dwellers to have a pleasant view toward the Potomac. The green roof was designed by Washington landscape architects Oehme, van Sweden & Associates.
The Washington Post Magazine, Sept. 20, 2009.
Working Waterfront Preservation
A lobster family has placed a permanent easement on a pier in Tremont, Maine, the first under the state's Working Waterfront Access Program, designed to protect commercial fishing properties. The program is funded through the Land for Maine's Future, where property owners sell development rights to the state to preclude other uses such as residential development. This particular action occurred on Davis Wharf on Goose Cove, Mount Desert Island. A ceremony to mark the occasion was attended by over 150 lobstermen/women. The state program has $5 million in voter-approved bond money with which to acquir working waterfront facilities. According to the Island Institute, only 20 miles of commercial waterfront remain along Maine's coast. Center co-directors Ann Breen and Dick Rigby wrote a monograph in 1985 entitled: Caution: Working Waterfront: The Impact of Change on Marine Enterprises, which discussed commercial pressures threatening small marine businesses.
The Working Waterfront/Inter-Island News, Island Institute, September 2009.
The Battle for Southport
Plans by the North Carolina State Ports Authority to build an enormous container terminal on the Lower Cape Fear River in Southport have stirred fierce opposition. The ports authority has acquired 600 acres of waterfront land, for $30 million, and says its facility will create 16,500 jobs. To the 2,500 residents of the area forming No Port Southport, the project will permanently damage the area's ecosystem. The group, joined by the North Carolina Coastal Federation, says the river is inadequate to handle the vessels likely to be used, requiring dredgin, and the road system would have to be expanded through uninhabited areas. The area has 28 marinas and 2,500 slips that would be adversely affected, the opposition notes.
SailMagazine, September 2009.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Directors in Quad City Celebration
The Quad Cities are Bettendorf and Davenport, Iowa, and Moline and Rock Island, Illinois. Waterfront Center co-directors Ann Breen and Dick Rigby were special guests at the 25th anniversary celebration on Sept. 24th for River Action, Inc., a citizen's organization that has accomplished amazing feats ~ including a bridge lighting, flood wall blockage, retain the rain program and a Ride The River event on Father's Day. Ann gave the final toast to River Action's founder, Kathy Wine, and Dick introduced featured speaker Mayor Joseph Riley of Charleston, S.C. The organization has available a booklet about steps people can take to retain rain. While geared to saving the Mississippi River, it has universal applicability. Contact: email@riveraction.org. Kathy Ewing is a menber of the Center's Advisory Board.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Short News Stories No. 3
Advocacy Group Proposes Public Space vs. Viaduct
The battle in Seattle is no longer over whether to remove the Alaskan Way Viaduct that severs downtown from the central waterfront. An earthquake in 2001 settled that. The issue is whether a new tunneled roadway should replace it, as the governor plans at $4.2 billion, or a mix of alternatives including public transit and a surface road. The People's Waterfront Coalition, led by urban planner Cary Moon, wants the change the debate from how to replace the highway with how to make a great waterfront and how can Seattle become less car dependent. The group supports public transit and a surface waterfront street, not highway. Voters in 2007 were against the tunnel option and also opposed a replacement overhead roadway.
Next American City, Issue 22.
We're Fat!
Obesity -- that's clinical talk for big fat butts -- has doubled among adults in the U.S. in the last 20 years, reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The annual cost is put at $117 billion (how do people figures these things out?) and fatness may account for as many as 300,000 deaths per year. Exercise is engaged in by only 25 percent of the population. The Trust for Public Land is leading the way in promoting urban parks, its "Parks for People" initiative that pushes for building public spaces where people live. TPL estimates that 33 percent of the public in large cities have no access to a park, playground or public space, along waterfront for instance. Newark, N.J., Baltimore and Los Angeles are among its target cities.
Land & People, Trust for Public Land, Spring 2004.
Old Factory Destroyed
It's a familiar but chilling story -- old factory on the river shuts, jobs lost, owners go bankrupt and the decision is made to tear down and not reuse. The case here is from Augusta, Maine, where the American Tissue mill, built in 1903, was the last operating paper factory until it shut in 2001. Its latest owner is serving time for fraud. And what was once a humming, living thing employing as many as 500 people is now demolished, its brick walls strewn about the site on the Kennebec River. There's now talk of a mixed-use development on the nearly one-mile site.
The New York Times, Aug. 10, 2009
The battle in Seattle is no longer over whether to remove the Alaskan Way Viaduct that severs downtown from the central waterfront. An earthquake in 2001 settled that. The issue is whether a new tunneled roadway should replace it, as the governor plans at $4.2 billion, or a mix of alternatives including public transit and a surface road. The People's Waterfront Coalition, led by urban planner Cary Moon, wants the change the debate from how to replace the highway with how to make a great waterfront and how can Seattle become less car dependent. The group supports public transit and a surface waterfront street, not highway. Voters in 2007 were against the tunnel option and also opposed a replacement overhead roadway.
Next American City, Issue 22.
We're Fat!
Obesity -- that's clinical talk for big fat butts -- has doubled among adults in the U.S. in the last 20 years, reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The annual cost is put at $117 billion (how do people figures these things out?) and fatness may account for as many as 300,000 deaths per year. Exercise is engaged in by only 25 percent of the population. The Trust for Public Land is leading the way in promoting urban parks, its "Parks for People" initiative that pushes for building public spaces where people live. TPL estimates that 33 percent of the public in large cities have no access to a park, playground or public space, along waterfront for instance. Newark, N.J., Baltimore and Los Angeles are among its target cities.
Land & People, Trust for Public Land, Spring 2004.
Old Factory Destroyed
It's a familiar but chilling story -- old factory on the river shuts, jobs lost, owners go bankrupt and the decision is made to tear down and not reuse. The case here is from Augusta, Maine, where the American Tissue mill, built in 1903, was the last operating paper factory until it shut in 2001. Its latest owner is serving time for fraud. And what was once a humming, living thing employing as many as 500 people is now demolished, its brick walls strewn about the site on the Kennebec River. There's now talk of a mixed-use development on the nearly one-mile site.
The New York Times, Aug. 10, 2009
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Seattle Conference Supportors
Urban Waterfronts 27
The Waterfront Center wishes to thank the following firms and organizations for their support.
Benefactors
Abel Bainnson Burz, LLP - New York, New York
EDAW/AECOM - San Francisco, California
JJR, LLC - Madison, Wisconsin
J.C. Macelroy - Piscataway, New Jersey
Moffatt & Nichol - Long Beach, California
RRM Design - Sausalito, California
Reid Middleton - Everett, Washington
Sasaki Associates - Watertown, Massachusetts
SF Marina Systems USA - Gloucester, Virginia
Tetratech - Irvine, California
Waterfront Center - Washington, DC
Supportors
AIA/Seattle - Seattle, Washington
J.A. Brennan Associates, LLC - Seattle, Washington
City of Seattle - Seattle, Washington
Bruce Dees & Associates - Tacoma, Washington
EDSA - Fort Lauderdale, Florida
GGLO - Seattle, Washington
Makers - Seattle, Washington
Miller/Hull Partnership - Seattle, Washington
Mithun - Seattle, Washington
Parks and Recreation, City of Seattle - Seattle, Washington
Read Wagoner, LLC - Seattle, Washington
SRG Partnership - Seattle, Washington
Urban Land Institute Seattle - Seattle, Washington
Wallace Roberts & Todd - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Walker Macy - Portland, Oregon
Advertisers
Argosy Cruises - Seattle, Washington
Beyer Blinder Belle - New York, New York
The Forks North Portage Partnership - Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Halcrow - New York, New York
Marriott Seattle Waterfront Hotel - Seattle, Washington
Port of Seattle - Seattle, Washington
Seattle Art Museum - Seattle, Washington
Bing Thom Architects, Inc. - Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Information about this year's conference in Seattle, Washington can be found on our website: www.waterfrontcenter.org.
The Waterfront Center wishes to thank the following firms and organizations for their support.
Benefactors
Abel Bainnson Burz, LLP - New York, New York
EDAW/AECOM - San Francisco, California
JJR, LLC - Madison, Wisconsin
J.C. Macelroy - Piscataway, New Jersey
Moffatt & Nichol - Long Beach, California
RRM Design - Sausalito, California
Reid Middleton - Everett, Washington
Sasaki Associates - Watertown, Massachusetts
SF Marina Systems USA - Gloucester, Virginia
Tetratech - Irvine, California
Waterfront Center - Washington, DC
Supportors
AIA/Seattle - Seattle, Washington
J.A. Brennan Associates, LLC - Seattle, Washington
City of Seattle - Seattle, Washington
Bruce Dees & Associates - Tacoma, Washington
EDSA - Fort Lauderdale, Florida
GGLO - Seattle, Washington
Makers - Seattle, Washington
Miller/Hull Partnership - Seattle, Washington
Mithun - Seattle, Washington
Parks and Recreation, City of Seattle - Seattle, Washington
Read Wagoner, LLC - Seattle, Washington
SRG Partnership - Seattle, Washington
Urban Land Institute Seattle - Seattle, Washington
Wallace Roberts & Todd - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Walker Macy - Portland, Oregon
Advertisers
Argosy Cruises - Seattle, Washington
Beyer Blinder Belle - New York, New York
The Forks North Portage Partnership - Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Halcrow - New York, New York
Marriott Seattle Waterfront Hotel - Seattle, Washington
Port of Seattle - Seattle, Washington
Seattle Art Museum - Seattle, Washington
Bing Thom Architects, Inc. - Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Information about this year's conference in Seattle, Washington can be found on our website: www.waterfrontcenter.org.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Recommended Book
Book on Governor's Island Issued
A lavishly illustrated hardback tracing the rich history of Governor's Island in New York Harbor has just been released by Syracuse University Press. Written by Ann L. Buttenwieser, founding member of the Waterfront Center and board member emeritius, the volume covers a history that dates to the 1700's when it was a British Fort to its more recent uses as a U.S. Army and Coast Guard base and now as an increasingly popular park. Its evolution is treated as a reflection of historic events in New York City and the larger world.
Specfications: 288 pages, 271 color illustrations, bibliography and index, 9 x 11 1/2, $60.00, ISBN 978-0-81560936-0. Web site: www.SyracuseUniversityPress.syr.edu. Order by phone 315/443-2597 or 1 800/365-8929.
A lavishly illustrated hardback tracing the rich history of Governor's Island in New York Harbor has just been released by Syracuse University Press. Written by Ann L. Buttenwieser, founding member of the Waterfront Center and board member emeritius, the volume covers a history that dates to the 1700's when it was a British Fort to its more recent uses as a U.S. Army and Coast Guard base and now as an increasingly popular park. Its evolution is treated as a reflection of historic events in New York City and the larger world.
Specfications: 288 pages, 271 color illustrations, bibliography and index, 9 x 11 1/2, $60.00, ISBN 978-0-81560936-0. Web site: www.SyracuseUniversityPress.syr.edu. Order by phone 315/443-2597 or 1 800/365-8929.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Award Jury Meets
The Waterfront Center’s awards jury completed its deliberations in Cape May, N.J., on Saturday, July 29, picking 12 projects and plans from 74 entries. The range and caliber of the portfolios entered this year impressed the jury. Also recognized were four citizen volunteer efforts, to receive Clearwater Awards, and two students. The Clearwater Award is named for the citizen’s group working to clean up the Hudson River, spearheaded by Peteq Seeger. The winners will be announced during the Center’s annual conference, to be held in Seattle on October 22 to 24, 2009. The announcement, always a highlight of the annual meeting, is followed by a champagne reception honoring the winners (sponsored this year by EDAW/AECOM) and a gala dinner (optional) to be held at the Seattle Art Museum’s Sculpture Garden Pavilion. Serving on this year’s jury were:
• Mike Burke jury chair, attorney, King Hershey PC and counsel, Port Authority of Kansas City, Kansas City, Mo.
* Fran Hegler, senior director/development manager, EDAW/AECOM, San Francisco, Calif.
• Jeff Shelden, senior coastal engineer, Moffitt and Nichol, Raleigh, N.C.
• Harris Steinberg, executive director, Penn Praxis, the clinical arm of the School of Design, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Penn.
• Michel Trocme, partner, Urban Strategies Inc., Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
• Mike Burke jury chair, attorney, King Hershey PC and counsel, Port Authority of Kansas City, Kansas City, Mo.
* Fran Hegler, senior director/development manager, EDAW/AECOM, San Francisco, Calif.
• Jeff Shelden, senior coastal engineer, Moffitt and Nichol, Raleigh, N.C.
• Harris Steinberg, executive director, Penn Praxis, the clinical arm of the School of Design, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Penn.
• Michel Trocme, partner, Urban Strategies Inc., Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
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