Solar-Powered Garden Canopy Proposed for New York’s BQE

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.”

The Starr Whitehouse design “plan calls for improving sight lines from Water Street over to the East River waterfront, reconfiguring ground floor spaces on the street to allow more uses including retail, plus adding more lighting and concerts and other entertainment in public plazas. The plan also suggests putting a median in the street and widening sidewalks to allow an “amenity strip” for café seating, benches, bike racks, and more trees and flowers.”

The New York Times describes the redesign of Water Street, a barren concrete street. With the help of Starr Whitehouse, the Alliance for Downtown New York is hoping that redesigning public plazas will draw more workers outdoors.

“The plan was created solely from community input, using focus groups and surveys to determine what exactly they wanted out of a waterside idyll. Only then did landscape architects Starr Whitehouse and nArchitects, go to work.”

“Fourteen architecture firms competed for the park commission, which seeks to unify a section of the Jersey City waterfront just north of Liberty State Park in the Paulus Hook section of the city. Chosen from that batch: the team of nARCHITECTS…and Starr Whitehouse, which has its hands in all sorts of NYC parks projects.”