Short News Stories No. 6

RFP's Sought in Syracuse
Request for Proposals to develop the Inner Harbor on the Syracus, N.Y., lakefront are due March 31,2010. Issued by the Syracus Lakefront Development Corp., the specifications can be found at www.syracus.ny.us/Lakefront_RFP.aspx. Or call Joseph LaGuardia at 315/448-2244. E-mail: jlaguardia@thesyracuselakefront.com

Blurbber Misses
A blurbber for the book Waterfronts in Post-Industrial Cities, edited by Richard Marshall, misses the mark by a mile. They write: "Most books on waterfronts deal with a relatively narrow collection of cities and projects; one might describe them as the 'top ten' list of waterfront revitalisation projects." As authors of two of the relative handful of comprehensive waterfront titles, we can say that the blurbber is unfamiliar with the literature or is willing to distort in order to promote a book. From one of our books, The New Waterfront: A Worldwide Urban Success Story (London, Thames and Hudson Ltd., 1996, 224 pages, illustrated) we list some of the case examples included to see if you think they are "top ten": Pacifico Yokohama, Japan; Aker Brygge, Oslo, Norway; Asia and Pacific Trade Center, Osaka, Japan; Quayside, Newcastle, UK; Victoria and Alfred Waterfront, Cape Town, South Africa -- and that's just chapter one. Case rested. Google waterfronts picked up this mischievous blurb recently even though the book being promoted is dated 2001. Included in it are Boston, Sydney and Vancouver, like nobody's heard of them?

UW 27 Opening Speaker Recognized
Alex MacLean, the opening plenary speaker at the Waterfront Center's 2009 conference in Seattle, has been recognized for his most recent book, OVER: The American Landscape at the Tipping Point. The work received the CORINE International Book Award, likened to what the Oscars are for film. The awards were subject of a major TV gala last November in Munich, Germany. The awards are made under the patronage of the Bavarian Minister-President. Said the committee in making the award to MacLean: "Never before has a photographer made us shudder with such aesthetically beautiful pictures."
MacLean can be reached at Landslides Aerial Photography, 23 Conant Road, Lincoln, Mass. 01773.

Coney Island Comeback
The City of New York has finally wrested seven acres at the heart of the bedraggled resort of Coney Island from a developer and plans a year 'round destination. Instead of the planned Las Vegas-style hotel and condominiums, there are to be a mix of rides, games and attractions to join an existing ballpark and Cyclone ride. The city will seek competing proposals from operators. It was reported to have paid $95.6 million for the property, which runs along Coney Island's famed boardwalk. While the core will be strictly for amusements, the city has zoned adjoining territory for housing, allowing up to 4,500 apartments on one site alone.
The New York Times, Nov. 12, 2009.

Olympic Impact
The Winter Olympics will not leave much of physical residue on host Vancouver, B.C. by using existing facilities -- with one notable exception. A major addition to the convention center was opened last spring, filling in a leftover piece of central waterfront with an expansion containing 338,000 square feet. The community pushed for public access to the site, resulting in throughways, a park and streetfront retail that connect with the city's perimeter walkway system. The outstanding feature is Canada's largest green roof, covering six acres. The design was by LMN Architects of Seattle with the Canadian firms of Musson Cattell Mackey Partnership and DA Architects and Planners. The latter two firms did the original convention center built for the 1986 World's Fair, with the Zeidler Roberts Partnership. It contains 133,000 square feet under a distinctive tensile roof structure.
Architectural Record, July 2009.