Hell’s Kitchen Pyramid Scheme Gets a Name and a Movie

“Late yesterday developer Durst Fetner Residential issued the official press release on what is being called West 57th, saying it will have 600 rental apartments, each one with a bay window and/or a balcony… Starr Whitehouse Landscape Architects has come aboard to handle all that greenery”

“In collaboration with SLCE Architects, Starr Whitehouse Landscape Architects, Thornton Tomasetti, Dagher Engineering, Langan Engineering, Hunter Roberts Construction Group, and Glessner Group, BIG develops a scheme that’s meant to reflect a hybrid of European perimeter block — courtyard enclosed by mid-rise apartment building — with the archetypical tower plaguing the NYC groundscape and skyline, an output from an architectural vernacular Bjarke has labeled “pragmatic utopianism.”

Starr Whitehouse’s design for the BQE trench wins Curbed’s 2010 “Outlandish Urban Plan of the Future” award. The design calls for a “steel canopy covered in energy-producing photovoltaic panels.”

“Starr Whitehouse developed the designs in consultation with the community through workshops and were seen as ‘…an achievable vision for enhancing the pedestrian and cyclist environment above the BQE, adding green components and improving the physical connection and sociability among adjacent neighborhoods’.”

Inhabitant describes Starr Whitehouse’s BQE proposals as plans that will “help green the neighborhood, provide improved pedestrian and bicycle access and reconnect the divided neighborhoods.

“In short, the BQE is going green, or at least as green as a pollution-spewing six-lane highway can be.  Luckily the NYC EDC, NYC DOT, and Starr Whitehouse Landscape Architects have come up with three compelling design solutions to improve the area.”

The South Brooklyn Post quotes Stephen Whitehouse on the BQE enhancement project; “The communities involved really do show up and express their opinions and get involved, and in the end they were pleased with what was presented. The job now is to figure out which proposal we are going to do and where are we going to get the money.”

Star Whitehouse’s “three concepts are part of an Economic Development Corporation-led plan to reconnect neighborhoods balkanized by the Robert Moses-built highway, including Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill and the Columbia Street Waterfront District — a portion of the area whose very existence was spawned by the roadway’s creation.”

“With the communities’ concerns and suggestions in mind, the Starr Whitehouse design team developed several schemes that attempt to mitigate noise and pollution, improve pedestrian safety, and address aesthetic issues.”

“Water Street: A New Approach calls for extensive tree planting and landscaped medians running up Water Street, one of the widest in Lower Manhattan. Created by landscape architects Starr Whitehouse working with FxFowle, the plan is conceived as a way of boosting the value of the street’s midcentury office buildings and retaining its commercial tenants by making what is currently a fairly barren nine-to-five streetscape into a more active and attractive place.”