30 June 2016
Hoboken breaks ground on Southwest Park, the culmination of Mayor Dawn Zimmer’s and the community’s efforts since 2007. Starting in 2013, Starr Whitehouse held community workshops, built consensus on the park program, developed conceptual plans, prepared grant applications, and led an interdisciplinary team to realize the full design. The park provides welcoming social spaces with permeable pavements, rain gardens and subsurface detention that contain a 10-year storm. The director of the New Jersey Environmental Infrastructure Trust, the main funder of the park, called the park “really cutting edge…a model in an urban area of how to do things correctly.”
Starr Whitehouse is thrilled to announce that Bushwick Inlet Park, our collaboration with Kiss + Cathcart Architects, has been selected for ArchDaily’s Top 100 U.S. Projects. To celebrate its 10th year, ArchDaily highlights the 100 most “important and inspiring works of American Architecture” to serve as case study references for professionals and students. Bushwick Inlet Park integrates landscape and architectural design to maximize public space, enhance the neighborhood’s sense of place, and deliver extraordinary environmental performance.
Laura Starr has been elevated to the American Society of Landscape Architects’ prestigious Council of Fellows. Among the highest honors the ASLA bestows on its members, the Fellowship is granted in recognition of Laura’s lasting contribution to the field of Landscape Architecture and to society at large through the quality, innovation, and incredible range of her works. Laura’s lifetime of achievement and the achievements of 36 of her peers will be honored in a ceremony at the ASLA’s Annual Meeting and Expo this year, held in Chicago from November 6th to November 9th.
Starr Whitehouse is thrilled to be the landscape architects on the BIG team’s winning proposal for HUD’s Rebuild By Design competition. The team’s winning entry, dubbed “The Big U,” was awarded $335 million for the implementation of a series of berms to protect the Lower East Side while enhancing the physical, social, and economic resiliency of East River Park and the surrounding neighborhood in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. Starr Whitehouse was instrumental in developing an integrated landscape design for Lower Manhattan, weaving together ecological considerations, community needs, urban design, and resiliency measures. As leaders of the team’s outreach efforts, Starr Whitehouse assembled many of the key stakeholders in the Big U and planned a series of four community workshops that put design and ideation techniques normally reserved for the studio into the hands of over 150 community members which were critical for building support for the project and creating a responsive design proposal.
Starr Whitehouse congratulates Bushwick Inlet Park collaborators Kiss + Cathcart Architects for winning a 2014 AIA COTE Top Ten Award for the Brooklyn park project. COTE (Committee on the Environment) Awards recognize designs that use a thoroughly integrated approach to architecture, natural systems, and technology to provide architectural solutions which protect and enhance the environment.
The “BIG U,” a storm resiliency plan for Manhattan, is publicly revealed by HUD’s Rebuild by Design competition. As landscape architects on the BIG Architects’ team, Starr Whitehouse helped develop protective and social infrastructure from West 54th Street south to the Battery and north to East 40th Street, forming the BIG U. Starr Whitehouse organized a series of community meetings that shaped the recommendations. The interdisciplinary team melded the efforts of architects, landscape architects, engineers, public strategists and ecologists to create a viable incremental plan that marries storm protection to greater public enjoyment of the vibrant New York waterfront.
Team Members: BIG One Buro Happold Level James Lima Green Shield Ecology AEA Project Projects Arcadis
Starr Whitehouse wins a two 2014 ASLA-NY Merit Awards for its work on Hallets Cove and the Harlem River Promenade. Images from the project will be on display, along with those of other winners, from April 3 through April 30 at the Center for Architecture.
Laura Starr speaks at Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. Her lecture, titled “Making Density Livable” discusses New York’s urban landscape and its role in city growth and protection from major storms.
Starr Whitehouse advances to Stage Three of Rebuild by Design. As part of a BIG Architects’ team, Starr Whitehouse is exploring ways to protect the lower half of Manhattan, from West 54th Street south to The Battery and north to East 40th Street, from future super storms and climate disasters. The team’s plan, affectionately dubbed the “Big U,” investigates a series of vertical barriers for flood protection that integrate social infrastructure and speak to the shifting cultural milieu of upland neighborhoods.
Starr Whitehouse advances to Stage Two of Rebuild by Design, a multi-stage regional design competition that will develop innovative projects to protect and enhance communities affected by Hurricane Sandy. The firm is part of the by Bjarke Ingels Group team, along with One Architecture, James Lima Planning & Development, Green Shield Ecology, Buro Happold, AEA Consulting, and Project Projects. The team will work to analyze the current infrastructure of the Eastern Seaboard from a regional perspective, focusing on five to six sites where it will explore a range of large-scale interventions including levees, protective marshland, and opportunities for urban growth and transportation.