Posted May 27, 2026, 12:05 PM
|
|
Registered User
|
|
Join Date: May 2004
Location: New York
Posts: 2,981
|
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by muppet
The NYC islands also added drama - the placing of the Statue of Liberty being the most iconic.
I feel NYC still has a wonderful opportunity to build on all of this. It's rare that a city in this day and age has still such major features to exploit, if ever the economics will allow it.
1. The islands becoming unique attractions or parks, each with their own character.
2. The granite hillsides attracting dramatic housing and building (rather than a shelf for a highway)
3. The numerous unused wharfs reborn as waterside regenerations, once again each with their own character. The 'coastline' is made much, much bigger than similar cities, and compacted into walkable distances. There are already famous wharfs where this reinvention has come to fruiion, but imagine if all of them followed suit.
In short, what can be a restriction in a city can become a highlight, and NYC is a good example. However, it can still go further (which is a good thing, it's not reached it's potential yet)
Other good examples include some of the most celebrated of cities, despite their problematic siting - Hong Kong, Venice, San Francisco, Rome, Chongqing, Wuhan, Constantine (Algeria), Istanbul, Amsterdam, Singapore, St Petersburg, Sydney, Edinburgh, Rio, Barcelona.
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by iheartthed
Not sure when you were last here but this is what was done to Governor's Island in New York Harbor about 15 years ago. Some of the other islands have contamination issues that need to be sorted before they can be opened to the public though.
There is a rail right-of-way up the west side of Manhattan and the Bronx. The highway was built there because the rail ROW already existed. The only way to move housing closer to the shore than it already is would be to tunnel the rail line. But that would be extremely expensive because of the bedrock.
However, they did do this in Brooklyn, which did not previously have a heavy rail line along the waterfront before they started building housing. The highway came after the housing and runs underneath the boardwalk here: https://maps.app.goo.gl/NZvYuswg8mP8BJSk8 |
Quote:
Originally Posted by iheartthed
There is public space along just much of the waterfront on the outside of the perimeter highways in Manhattan and Brooklyn, but very little housing on the exterior of the perimeters. There is a bike trail along the outer periphery of West Side Highway that is connected to a bike trail network that goes throughout New York State. The highways in Manhattan (West Side Hwy and FDR) are partially built on landfill so they will likely never be buried. The West Side Highway was actually elevated until the 1970s. It was torn down due to deterioration and transformed into an at-grade boulevard below 59th Street.
|
Yeah, in the past 20 years or so, New York has been undergoing a dramatic transformation of its oft-neglected islands' coastlines. Not only Governor's Island been turned into recreational oasis, but as part of the very large push for reconnecting New York with its coastline and islands, a large part of Roosevelt Island and Randall's Island have been devoted to parkland and the public realm in recent-ish years.
Governor's Island
Roosevelt Island
Randall's Island
And almost the whole coast up and down Queens and Brooklyn side of the East River is being regenerated block by block with parkland, public spaces people now flock to, and dramatic towers.
The Manhattan side is also getting its own glow up. With the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project all along the Lower East Side.
And further uptown, where buildings and the FDR highway abut the very edge of the Manhattan coast, they created the East Side Greenway which is a new long esplanade that juts out into the river for dramatic views and space the people crave.
Construction is ongoing all the way up in East Harlem too as we speak
And all the way down in Battery Park is newly renovated park space that links the city to the waterfront
Not to mention the quite pretty beaches in Rockaway, Queens and Staten Island that have existed for decades.
__________________
hmmm....
Last edited by streetscaper; May 27, 2026 at 12:21 PM.
|
Prev
'
Linear Mode
