News
We are thrilled that the New York Chapter of the ASLA has selected two Starr Whitehouse projects for 2024 Honor Awards, and two for 2024 Merit Awards.
Honor Awards:
- Battery Playscape, New York, NY – General Design
- East Shore Shoreline Parks Plan, Staten Island, New York – Analysis, Planning, Research and Communications
Merit Awards:
AIA’s Oculus dives into the concept of the “Urban Forest,” and features Starr Whitehouse’s Daylighting of Tibbetts Brook project.
Read the full article here.
AIA’s Oculus takes readers on a journey through the new Arverne East urban nature preserve.
Read the full article here.
We are thrilled to welcome Jeffrey Poor and Jacob Lange as Partners of Starr Whitehouse. Alongside founders Laura Starr and Stephen Whitehouse, Jeffrey and Jacob bring unique vision and leadership during a time of growth for our firm.
Read the full statement here.
Five years after completing the first phase of Southwest Resiliency Park, Starr Whitehouse will be partnering with Rutgers University to study how the park has been absorbing stormwater. As part of LAF’s 2024 Case Study Investigation program, our team will be working with CSI Research Fellow Wolfram Hoefer, Dr.-Ing, ASLA, AKNW, and Student Research Assistant James Hill to measure stormwater retention and other performance metrics. Southwest Park was one of ten high-performing landscape projects selected by LAF for this unique research collaboration between faculty, students, and practitioners.
Read the press release here.
Time Out New York named the Marsha P Johnson State Park gateway the Best Public Artwork of 2023. The gateway, which was unveiled in August, 2023, showcases large sculptural flowers in pink, blue, red and yellow, with gem-like petal designs along the sides. “Pay It No Mind,” Johnson’s life motto features in bold white lettering across the archway. Jack Morton led the community visioning process for the gateway design, and Serett Metalworks, a Brooklyn-based custom metal fabricator, built the gates.
Read the full article here.
Hailing from London, 2023 marks the first year that The Gingerbread City is open in New York. The exhibition is curated by Museum of Architecture, a U.K.-based charity dedicated to connecting the public with architecture and design. Contributions to The Gingerbread City, on view at 25 Fulton Street include designs by Cooper Robertson, Marvel, Robert A.M. Stern (RAMSA), CannonDesign, the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), Rockwell Group, Arquitectonica, Morris Adjmi Architects, Starr Whitehouse Landscape Architects, and others.
The Arverne East Nature Preserve and Welcome Center were selected as recipients of the Queens Borough President’s award and recognized at the Queens & Bronx Building Association’s Annual Holiday & Building Awards Gala.
We are thrilled to celebrate our 26+ year collaboration with Warrie Price, Piet Oudolf, WXY, BKSK, Quennell Rothschild and everyone else who helped transform the Battery into one of New York’s most visible and cherished open spaces. Most recently, our collaboration with BKSK on the Playscape won a 2023 award for Best Urban Landscape from the Municipal Art Society.
Read Gardenista’s in-depth interview with Warrie Price, President and Founder of the Battery Conservancy here.
L+M Development Partners, the Bluestone Organization and Triangle Equities have closed on $30.3 million in financing for the first phase of Arverne East, an ambitious, socially and economically transformative project that will revitalize a vacant 116-acre oceanfront site in the Arverne and Edgemere neighborhoods in Queens’ Rockaway Peninsula and set a new standard for resilient and energy efficient development in coastal areas. The project’s first phase, a 35-acre nature preserve between Beach 44th Street and Beach 56th Place, is designed to restore and promote native ecology.
Read a detailed description of our project here.
The City of Roswell kicked off the implementation of its much-lauded River Parks Master Plan with a groundbreaking for the first phase of Ace Sand. Mayor Kurt Wilson, members of the City Council, City staff, and community members gathered to celebrate the start of this transformational project. The Ace Sand site is the first of four riverfront parks that Starr Whitehouse is designing for the City of Roswell to implement the River Parks Master Plan. Built entirely in the floodplain, the Ace Sand site combines floodable landscapes with elevated assets and experiential green infrastructure to reconnect the Atlanta region with the cultural and ecological history of the Chattahoochee River.
The Battery Playscape received a 2023 MASterworks Award for Best Urban Landscape, recognized as “a new or revitalized open space that contributes to livability and resilience.” Credit goes to all of our collaborators on this project: BKSK Architects, The Battery Conservancy, and NYC Parks.
The park is open for play! Part of a new residential development by the Durst Organization, Queens Plaza Park is a tightly-programmed pocket park built directly over subway lines and adjacent to the LIRR transit hub. Each area of the park is defined by a use and character, fitting together like puzzle pieces to make maximal use of a tight urban footprint.
Construction is complete on Vital Brookdale, a 160-unit affordable and supportive housing development in Brownsville. The complex is the first of ten affordable developments to debut as part of Vital Brooklyn—a $1.4 billion program that supports investment in new public open spaces, quality affordable housing, economic empowerment, and community-based violence prevention. Designed to Passive House standards, the complex features outdoor amenities including a second-floor terrace, and landscaped front and rear courtyards with dog runs, play areas for children, and outdoor seating. Building design by Dattner Architects.
Construction has begun on a $4M transformation of Anderson Plaza and Anderson Street in downtown New Rochelle that is expected to be a bellwether for the city’s continued evolution as an inclusive, forward-thinking walkable city.
Fast Company profiles The Battery PlayScape’s combination of resilience, ecology, and play.
The Battery Playscape was officially unveiled with a ribbon cutting on December 16th, 2021. Guided by the premise that an early appreciation for ecological diversity fosters environmental consciousness in adulthood, the Playscape creates an immersive play experience for children and their caretakers to play and learn together.
Read more about the Playscape:
- Time Out: A new sustainable playground has officially opened at the Battery
- Tribeca Citizen: The New Battery Playscape is Open
- Sustainable Brands: NYC’s New Battery Playscape Combines Education with Climate-Resilient Design
- 6sqft: New $18.3M sustainable playground opens at the Battery
- And featuring some thoughts from our own Laura Starr and Jeffrey Poor: Tribeca Trib: The Battery Playscape Opens, ‘Born of the Floodwaters of Hurricane Sandy’
L+M Development Partners, the Bluestone Organization and Triangle Equities have closed on $30.3 million in financing for the first phase of Arverne East, an ambitious, socially and economically transformative project that will revitalize a vacant 116-acre oceanfront site in the Arverne and Edgemere neighborhoods in Queens’ Rockaway Peninsula and set a new standard for resilient and energy efficient development in coastal areas.
Read a detailed description of our project here.
Real Estate Weekly, 6sqft and Archinect report on Arverne East, an upcoming project that will revitalize a vacant 116-acre oceanfront site in the Arverne and Edgemere neighborhoods in Queens’ Rockaway Peninsula. Upon completion, Arverne East will be one of the most sustainable developments in the country and NYC’s first net-zero community. Starr Whitehouse is leading landscape design of the project’s first phase, a 35-acre nature preserve between Beach 44th Street and Beach 56th Place designed to restore and promote native ecology.
Patch highlights the Manhattan Greenway Harlem River’s future pedestrian ramp to the RFK Bridge, which will enable New Yorkers to travel directly between the East Harlem waterfront and the many recreational opportunities of Randalls and Wards islands.
“A truly inclusive public process is premised on bringing together multiple constituencies who don’t necessarily agree on everything, and working to unite them around a common, tangible goal and shared vision.” Architizer’s Hannah Feniak uses Marsha P Johnson State Park as a case study to argue that inclusive, stakeholder-driven design makes for a smoother, more efficient design process that generates public support and saves the client team costly resources.
Madame Architect’s Julia Gamolina interviews the female-led team behind Ray and the National Black Theatre’s new residential and cultural complex on 5th Avenue and 125th Street.
TimeOut New York features renderings of the redesigned Marsha P Johnson State Park.
The Brooklyn Paper shares renderings and community feedback for the redesigned Marsha P Johnson State Park!
Starr Whitehouse Atlanta has moved into a new home at the Elevator Factory. Our new Atlanta address is:
Starr Whitehouse Atlanta
437 Memorial Drive SE
Suite A2
Atlanta, Georgia, 30312
212.220.9962
Starr Whitehouse’s 2021 Spring Newsletter introduces our new office in Hudson, NY! As work-from-home and telecommuting decentralize the workplace, the Hudson studio is helping communities prepare for an economy that is simultaneously more local and connected—expanding infrastructure, restoring historic centers, improving access and public safety, and curating the public realm.
Construction has begun on upgrades to the City of Hudson’s historic Promenade Hill Park! Led by Principal and Director of Starr Whitehouse’s Hudson office Gail Wittwer-Laird, this DRI-funded project will make Hudson’s iconic promenade universally accessible, while carving out a new plaza and programming in the lower section of the park.
Global Design News, a new publication of the Chicago Atheneum, profiles Jones Beach Energy and Nature Center, Starr Whitehouse and nARCHITECTS’s “laboratory for understanding the power of nature.”
We are excited to share that the Jones Beach Energy & Nature Center, a collaboration with nARCHITECTS for NYS Parks, has received a 2021 AIANY Honor Award in the Architecture category. Starr Whitehouse served as Landscape Architect for this project, reclaiming a large concrete parking area for native plantings, pathways, and outdoor educational programming.
“Active recreation is integral to all public space.” The Architect’s Newspaper interviews the Starr Whitehouse team on their recent reconstruction of historic Jones Beach West Games.
We are thrilled to learn that the Eastern Parkway Branch Library Addition, a collaboration with Allied Works Architecture, is among the winning projects of the Public Design Commission’s 38th Annual Awards for Excellence in Design: Toward a Sustainable NYC. Read the Mayor’s press release here.
A deep dive into the new Jones Beach Energy and Nature Center, an innovative museum, exhibition hub, and sustainability center highlighting the unique coastal ecologies and energy systems of western Long Island. Starr Whitehouse’s landscape design converts 10 acres of paved parking lot to restored native dune ecology, creating new pollinator habitat and supporting educational programming for students and visitors.
New York YIMBY reports on renderings and design documents for 2500 Jerome Avenue, a new affordable and supportive housing development in the Bronx on the grounds of The Episcopal St. James Church Fordham. Starr Whitehouse’s courtyard and green roof design will help promote healthy community living at the complex.
One of three winners selected for Newburgh as part of the Design for Six Feet Initiative, The Imagination Pavilion proposes a kit of parts that provides creative and socially-distanced places for play outside of the Newburgh Free Library. The pavilion will be built collaboratively with residents and local students over the coming months. Read profiles of the Pavilion and Design for Six Feet in The Times-Herald Record, the APA Urban Design Blog, and the Chronogram.
Today, Governor Cuomo’s office announced the opening of the Jones Beach Energy and Nature Center. Working with nARCHITECTS, Starr Whitehouse designed the landscape for the innovative new museum, which restores 10 acres of parking lot to native beachside ecology and supports the center’s educational mission by incorporating exhibits such as pollinator garden and the giant blade of a wind turbine. Read the Governor’s press release here.
At a Downtown Revitalization Initiative open house, Gail Wittwer-Laird discusses the importance of community involvement in the design process, as well as how DRI funds will be used to make accessibility and other improvements to Hudson’s Promenade Hill Park while respecting the character of the country’s oldest public park.
Buffalo Rising gives a nice overview of the recently completed Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Gateway in Buffalo, NY, one of seven gateways Starr Whitehouse is designing for the Governor’s Empire State Trail initiative.
We are excited to announce that The Imagination Pavilion, Starr Whitehouse’s entry to the Newburgh: Design for Play ideas competition, was selected as one of three winners. Seventy proposals were submitted, each showcasing a unique concept for transforming the streets of Newburgh, NY to provide creative and safe spaces for children to play while maintaining social distance. A partnership with the Newburgh Free Library, The Imagination Pavilion will provide a storytelling space by day and shadow puppet theater by night, and will launch as part of Newburgh Open Studios September 26th.
Join us Monday, August 17th for Park Pride’s annual Parks and Greenspace Conference. Principal Jacob Lange and Senior Associate Michael Haggerty will be speaking on a panel with collaborators Dr. Na’Taki Osborne Jelks of Spelman College and the West Atlanta Watershed Alliance and Brandon Taylor of East Harlem’s DREAM Charter School. Titled From East Harlem to West Atlanta, the panel will explore strategies for leveraging green infrastructure to expand environmental education, open space stewardship, and community resilience in underserved communities. Register here, and tune in at 11:45 AM to hear Michael and Jacob speak. The full conference runs 8:30 AM – 2:00 PM with lots of great programming. We hope you’ll join us!
The Brownstoner reports on plans for the Clarkson Estates, a new affordable and supportive housing complex planned for Brooklyn’s Prospect Lefferts Gardens neighborhood. With landscape design to be led by Starr Whitehouse, the development will bring new housing options and a hub of social and community services to an underserved section of the borough.
Starr Whitehouse is excited to be working with CetraRuddy and the New York State Governor’s Office on the Clarkson Estates, an innovative affordable and supportive housing complex in the Prospect Lefferts Gardens community of Brooklyn. As part of the Vital Brooklyn Initiative, the complex will feature a hub of extensive community services housed in childcare, health, sport, and educational facilities that aim to expand civic investment in Central Brooklyn. Starr Whitehouse leads landscape design for the project. Read the Governor’s press release here.
Good reviews in the local press are a sign that a project is off to a good start! The Gossips of Rivertown blog — a Hudson, NY staple — gives an overview of Starr Whitehouse’s presentation to the local DRI committee, as well as the first socially-distanced community meeting to discuss the reconstruction of Hudson’s historic Promenade Hill Park, the oldest public park in the United States. Led by Principal Gail Wittwer-Laird out of our new Hudson branch office and guided by the park’s original design vision, Starr Whitehouse will be revitalizing plantings, designing plaza improvements to allow a broader range of programming, and making the park’s iconic promenade accessible to all.
With art museums shuttered across the world, art historian Alex Kitnick reflects on how the Irish Hunger Memorial and other public art in Lower Manhattan mirrors the challenges and complexities of our time in the July/August 2020 issue of Artforum.
Starr Whitehouse is proud to announce the promotion of Gail Wittwer-Laird and Jacob Lange to firm Principals. Jacob will continue his directorship of Starr Whitehouse’s Atlanta office, while Gail will spearhead the creation of our new office in Hudson, New York. Congratulations, Gail and Jacob! We look forward to providing public realm design and open space strategy to new clients and communities under your leadership!
Landscape Architecture Magazine quotes Laura Starr and principals across the country on how COVID-19 is impacting project pipelines and office workflow.
The Broadsheet covers the groundbreaking of the The Battery PlayScape.
6sqft covers the groundbreaking and posts some of Starr Whitehouse and BKSK‘s renderings of the upcoming Battery PlayScape.
Starting Monday, March 16th, Starr Whitehouse will operate primarily as a remote workplace as we continue to monitor developments surrounding the outbreak of COVID-19. A copy of our remote work protocols is available here.
We are proud to announce the groundbreaking of the Battery Playscape! Moving off the premise that an early appreciation for ecological diversity fosters environmental consciousness in adulthood, the upcoming Battery PlayScape (a collaboration with BKSK) is a state-of-the-art play area with five zones designed around five typologies local to the Hudson River Valley. The design was recently awarded a Merit Award by the New York chapter of ASLA. We look forward to seeing the PlayScape come to life and add richness and ecological awareness to the play experience in Lower Manhattan’s most visible open space.
Starr Whitehouse is excited to have the ASLA-NY honor four of our projects with awards this year: an honor award for Southwest Park, and merit awards for The Battery PlayScape, East 92nd Street Bonus Plaza, and A Vision for a Resilient East Harlem. A warm thank you to the awards committee, and to all our wonderful clients, collaborators, and staff who worked tirelessly to make these projects happen! Read the ASLA’s press release here.
Congratulations to Associate Kristen Reardon and Landscape Architect Kirk Hiatt on receiving their landscape architecture licensure! We are proud of you!
Starr Whitehouse is proud to contribute the conceptual design for the Amy Erwin Memorial Garden, located in Candler Park in Atlanta, GA. Designed by Jacob Lange, Director of Starr Whitehouse’s Atlanta office, the garden features a drift of native perennials along a woodland edge with a 10 month bloom cycle. A series of granite slabs bisect the drift of plantings and form a seating area and viewing platform where visitors can engage with the perennials and adjacent woodland ravine. Visit the Candler Park Conservancy website for more information, or to make a contribution.
Italian landscape architecture publication paysage.it features StuyTown Fitness Park in the 38th issue of their print magazine, Topscape.
Starr Whitehouse is excited to be working with The Durst Organization, Handel Architects, Langan Engineering, and the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation (DRWC) on one of the most significant waterfront development efforts on the East Coast, Philadelphia’s upcoming Vine Street Development. Starr Whitehouse leads landscape design on the project, which includes a new public park to improve connections to the water, preserve the site’s 17th century archaeological heritage, and extend DRWC’s recent efforts to create new waterfront public spaces such as Race Street Pier and Cherry Street Pier. The project will also expand on Starr Whitehouse’s previous work developing innovative stormwater and resilience strategies integrated into a rejuvenated public realm for our dense coastal communities.
Urban Land Magazine reports on the process and findings of the ULI Open Space Advisory Panel chaired by Stephen Whitehouse the week of October 14th in Fort Lauderdale, FL.
Stephen Whitehouse chaired a week-long Urban Land Institute Advisory Panel for Downtown Parks and Open Spaces in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, which culminated in a presentation of recommendations to downtown stakeholders on Friday, October 18th. Hosted by the Fort Lauderdale Downtown Development Authority (FTL/DDA), the panel’s recommendations included expanding the network of open spaces, making climate-adaptive spaces, augmenting management of new park funding, identifying additional resources for acquisitions, and creating a public/private partnership to manage and activate downtown’s public spaces. FTL/DDA has posted the process and draft recommendations.
Stephen Whitehouse is quoted by Bisnow as he prepares to head the Urban Land Institute’s advisory panel in Fort Lauderdale. Leading the group of land use and planning experts from AECOM, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, CORE Architecture, and others, Stephen and the panel are tasked with developing a new vision for Huizenga Plaza, a small downtown park on Fort Lauderdale’s New River.
Congratulations to Starr Whitehouse intern Huong Dinh on being awarded the ASLA Illinois Chapter’s Student Merit Award for her project, Kickapoo Rail Trail – Convergence. IL-ASLA announced the award today at their annual Celebration+ event.
Part of the Design Resource Team at this year’s Affordable Housing Design Leadership Institute in Cleveland, Starr Whitehouse’s Michael Haggerty collaborated with designers, planners, and policy specialists to advise five affordable housing developers from across the United States on the role of design in making the built environment healthy, inclusive, and resilient.
Starr Whitehouse is excited to be honored at this year’s Battery Gala! As both leaders of teams and as subconsultants, Starr Whitehouse has collaborated with the Battery Conservancy on over a dozen projects. For twenty years, we have watched the park evolve and foster a new community of open space advocates in downtown Manhattan.
Starr Whitehouse’s Michael Haggerty and DREAM Charter School’s Emily Parkey describe the development of the Climate Resilience Leadership Lab, and how it is enlisting neighborhood youth in helping lead the “intergenerational proposition” of resiliency. Developed as part of Starr Whitehouse’s East Harlem Resiliency Study and now in its second year, the Lab provides a replicable model for resilience education, producing a full-semester curriculum and emergency preparedness guide grounded in the conditions and assets of East Harlem.
In light of the recent NYC Mandatory Green Roof Legislation, greenroofs.com is featuring Hunters Point South, a 925-unit, 100% affordable housing development designed by SHoP and Starr Whitehouse for Related Companies. Check out greenroofs.com’s video of the development’s four rooftop terraces, whose goal is to bring healthy living, urban agriculture and luxury amenities to hundreds of affordable housing residents in Queens.
The Urban Land Institute features The Battery on their top-ten list of urban open spaces.
Starr Whitehouse has been engaged by NYCEDC to redesign the Brooklyn Bridge Esplanade. Leading a team that includes SHoP Architects and Arup, Starr Whitehouse will be looking at the stretch of waterfront from Peck Slip in the south to Catherine Slip in the north. The new design will employ resilient materials to create connections between the neighborhood and waterfront, establish clear and safe circulation for pedestrians and cyclists, and seamlessly integrate this stretch of shoreline with the greater Esplanade.
Starr Whitehouse’s Michael Haggerty presented the panel “Resiliency Planning through Parks” at the APA National Planning Conference in San Francisco with Alda Chan from NYC Parks and Lindsay Woodson from the Harvard University Ash Center. Michael, Alda, and Lindsay discussed the East Harlem Resiliency Study, a year-long process co-led by Starr Whitehouse and One Architecture + Urbanism that developed solutions for physical and social resiliency in upper Manhattan. More information can be found on the NPC19 website.
The Carroll Gardens blog Pardon Me For Asking shares notes from the first community visioning session to redesign historic Carroll Park. Led by Starr Whitehouse for NYC Parks, the ongoing community visioning process will collect residents’ ideas, suggestions, and knowledge of the park for integration into a new conceptual design.
Starr Whitehouse is pleased to announce the opening of Starr Whitehouse Atlanta. Led by Senior Associate Jacob Lange, the Atlanta office will further Starr Whitehouse’s mission to make urban space more livable, vibrant, and green by extending our practice to the Southeast. The Atlanta office will continue to work in close cooperation with our New York City office on projects in the New York Metropolitan Area and beyond. Starr Whitehouse Atlanta can be reached via our main office phone number, or by mail at 675 Ponce De Leon Ave NE #8500, Atlanta, GA 30308.
In honor the CitiesAlive 2018 conference, of which Laura Starr will be the keynote speaker, Greenroofs.com is featuring the courtyard at VIA 57—Starr Whitehouse’s recent collaboration with BIG Architects on a new courtscraper on the Hudson.
Southwest Park, Starr Whitehouse’s resilient park in Hoboken, NJ, protected the city from flooding during its most intense rainfall in two years. Thanks to the park’s array of stormwater management infrastructure, including absorptive rain gardens, permeable pavers, and subsurface detention basins, the floodwaters in Hoboken receded immediately after the storm. Hoboken City officials reported that Southwest Park’s rainwater storage basins, which can retain up to 200,000 gallons of water, were filled to capacity and were successfully drained into the Hudson River. In their words: “Without the…rainwater storage at Southwest Park, Hoboken could have experienced significantly worse flooding conditions, which could have lasted much longer.” Read the press release here.
In an interview with Madame Architect’s Julia Gamolina, Laura talks about her work and what she loves most about it, advising young architects to talk to everyone they can and to go for what they want.
In their exhibition “Ride A Bike! Reclaim the City,” the Deutsches Architekturmuseum in Frankfurt, Germany showcases outstanding examples of urban space that expertly integrate urban planning, landscape architecture, and transportation planning. Featuring projects in cities around the world that incorporate bicycle lanes into the urban fabric, the exhibit advocates a gentle “reconquest” of the city. Three of Starr Whitehouse’s projects– the Battery Bikeway, the BIG U, and the Randall’s Island Hell Gate Pathway and Connector– were featured as exemplary illustrations of landscape architecture and planning in New York City. Read an overview of the exhibition here.
Congratulations to designers Chris Anderson and Janet Broughton on winning Transportation Alternatives’ Super Commuter prize for the boroughs of the Bronx and Manhattan in this year’s Bike Month! Nice wheelin’, Chris and Janet!
Starr Whitehouse would like to congratulate two of our team members, Landscape Designers Janet Broughton and Heather Faivre, on successfully completing their landscape architect licensure exams. Congratulations, Janet and Heather!
Stephen Whitehouse discusses the benefits, challenges, and opportunities of employing landscape design interns in June 2018’s issue of Landscape Architecture Magazine.
Rice + Lipka and Starr Whitehouse’s design for the renovation of Hamilton Fish Library has been awarded the Public Design Commission’s Award for Excellence in Design. The landscape creates a soft edge between the library’s new facade and the busy thoroughfare of Houston Street.
Starr Whitehouse designer and planner Nicolas Grefenstette co-led a tour of Long Island City, Roosevelt Island, and the site of Design the Edge: Halletts Cove on behalf of the APA Metro Waterfront Committee. The tour was part of NYC’s City Planning’s “NYC 520 ” celebration that highlights the ongoing revival of the City’s 520 miles of waterfront.
Thirty years after being stolen, a monument to Irish-American Engineer John Wolfe Ambrose has been restored to the Battery’s new monument walk, part of Starr Whitehouse’s design for the Battery Perimeter. Rededicated on the anniversary of Ambrose’s death in 1899, the monument commemorates the great engineer’s efforts in making the Port of New York and New Jersey the hub of international trade it is today.
The US Green Building Council’s New Jersey Chapter has recognized Hoboken’s new Southwest Park as the 2018 winner of the Innovation and Sustainability Best Practices Award in the public projects category. The award will be conferred to the City of Hoboken, Starr Whitehouse Landscape Architects and Planners, and Langan Engineering at the USGBCNJ’s 2018 Gala on May 16th.
The Architect’s Newspaper discusses Starr Whitehouse’s work on the Harlem Greenway Link, a feasibility study to bridge the final gap in the Manhattan Greenway, bringing amenities and flood protection to the nearby East Harlem neighborhood. The project has also received coverage in Curbed.
Starr Whitehouse is pleased to announce that Hoboken Southwest Park has been recognized as an inaugural winner in the first annual One Water Award. Designed by Starr Whitehouse with a multidisciplinary team of engineers, cost estimators, and allied professionals, the 1.25-acre Southwest Park features a resilient core of stormwater detention systems tucked into a high-performance urban space that is rapidly becoming known as New Jersey’s first resiliency park.
Landscape Architecture Magazine quotes Stephen Whitehouse in a detailed narrative of Randall’s Island past and present. Read the full article in the August 2017 print edition of LAM.
StuyTown held a ribbon cutting for the new Fitness Playground designed by Starr Whitehouse Tuesday, August 1. As reported in Town & Village, the redesign of Playground 7 is part of an ambitious program by StuyTown to overhaul all of its playgrounds within the next five years. The fitness playground is the first such space to be renovated, combining a running track and obstacle course with state of the art outdoor fitness equipment to create a workout venue catering to all levels of resident abilities. Representatives of StuyTown’s management team inaugurated the 40-yard dash to celebrate the opening.
Starr Whitehouse is thrilled to announce that VIA 57 West has been recognized as a Best In Class winner in Paving & Landscaping for the 2017 Brick in Architecture Awards. Sponsored by the Brick Industry Association, an authority in the brick industry, the Brick in Architecture Awards is the nation’s premiere architectural award to celebrate projects focusing on genuine clay brick. VIA 57 West Garden features a winding brick path through a shady birch forest to a grassy meadow in what advances a radical reinterpretation of the urban courtyard block, animating the residential community with a rich landscape encouraging perambulation and contemplation.
Starr Whitehouse is thrilled to be leading the City’s design teams on two of NYC Parks’ five anchor parks projects—part of Mayor DeBlasio’s effort to create world-class parks within walking distance of over 750,000 New Yorkers in all five boroughs. Starting summer 2017, Starr Whitehouse will work with NYC Parks to rejuvenate historic St. Mary’s Park in the Bronx and to realize the City’s innovative vision for an environmentally-friendly, high-performing and immersive experience of nature at Freshkills Park on Staten Island.
Starr Whitehouse is honored to be leading NYC Parks’ consultant team on the Harlem Greenway Link project, an upcoming study to complete the Manhattan Greenway between 125th and 132nd Street. Scheduled to start this summer, the study will focus planning efforts on a new 11-acre waterfront park to connect Harlem River Park to the East River Esplanade.
Fixr names Stephen Whitehouse to the top 100 influencers of Landscape Architecture in 2017.
Laura Starr is quoted on developmental and environmental challenges in Lower Manhattan by Dan F. Stapleton in the Australian Financial Review.
The NYPD 40th Precinct Station House has won the Public Design Commission’s Excellence in Design Award. Designed by BIG Architects with landscapes by Starr Whitehouse, the Station House promotes the Mayor’s “commitment to providing quality, equitable, and resilient public spaces to all New Yorkers.” With a palette inspired by local Bronx ecology, the landscape and roof garden integrate the building into the city fabric while providing storm water detention, ensuring security, and restoring habitat.
VIA 57 West has been featured in a gorgeous photo collection by Danica O. Kus. Catching the tower from a variety of indoor and outdoor views, Danica provides an intimate glimpse of BIG’s building and Starr Whitehouse’s courtyard.
Starr Whitehouse is proud to announce the completion of a six-year collaboration with BIG Architects and the Durst Organization on the courtyard at VIA 57 West. Bringing three local ecologies deep into the heart of this new “courtscraper,” the courtyard is now open to residents and will host four tours during this year’s Open House New York weekend.
To accompany BIG and Starr Whitehouse’s tour of VIA 57 West for Open House New York, StreetEasy created their own aerial tour of the structure. This stunning footage allows viewers to catch a bird’s eye glimpse of Starr Whitehouse’s VIA courtyard—normally hidden away in the core of the tower. Follow Mariela Quintana’s blog post for more insight into the design and construction process, and enjoy the view!
The Broadsheet gives an exciting glimpse of the new Battery Playscape, anticipated by Warrie Price—President of the Battery Conservancy—to be a “first-class playground, three times larger than what was there before.” This new playground continues Starr Whitehouse’s history of work in the Battery, extending the narrative of ecology the team brought to the Battery Bosque, Promenade, and Bikeway to a new site and context.
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.”
DNAinfo’s Irene Plagianos reports on the development of Battery Playscape—“a special addition for the growing number of families Downtown” not only for the present but also “for the long-term future,” according to Warrie Price, President of the Battery Conservancy. By incorporating innovative weather resilient and universal design into various play elements, the new 1.4-acre playground will create a unique play experience for children of all ages and abilities educates youths about ecological stewardship.
Downtown Express announces unanimous support at the Community Board Meeting on June 13 for Battery Playscape—an inventive playground designed by BKSK Architects and Starr Whitehouse. While seeking to preserve the “open sense of freedom” of the existing park, the design will offer the benefit of an expansive, state-of-the-art play space for which “parents of the Financial District have been waiting patiently,” said Catherine McVay Hughes, Chairwoman of CB1.
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.
New York Magazine’s Justin Davidson paints a vivid portrait of VIA 57 West – a residential project designed by BIG Architects that is nearing completion. The article highlights the block-long courtyard designed by Starr Whitehouse that is snugly nested in the middle of the pyramid structure.
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.
The Villager reports on developments in the East Side Coastal Resiliency Project, quoting Starr Whitehouse’s Elise Baudon on results from the first round of community engagement meetings last March.
ASLA’s The Dirt gives readers the scoop on Tel Aviv’s Park Ariel Sharon, a former landfill re-envisioned by Starr Whitehouse’s Laura Starr as a “beacon for environmental restoration.”
A New York City playwright lists Bushwick Inlet Park as one of his favorite places to sit on a bench, enjoy the view, and get some work done!
Archidose’s John Hill takes you on an interactive digital tour of Bushwick Inlet Park, designed by Starr Whitehouse and Kiss + Cathcart Architects. Read John’s narrative and activate visual hotspots to explore the park with linked images, photos, and graphics, plus a bonus bird’s-eye video of soccer games in progress.
LexisNexis’s legal news room takes a comprehensive look at the Big U, past and present, and quotes Laura Starr on her vision for the transformation of East River Park.
The Durst W. 57th Street development, designed by BIG Architects with landscape design by Starr Whitehouse, tops out in late October, promising to transform the face of the West Side and lure young professionals with its abundant amenities and avant-garde design.
BIG Architects and Starr Whitehouse take Silver in the 2014 Holcim Awards for North America for The Big U, a collaborative design that won HUD’s Rebuild By Design Competition in 2013. Based in Zurich, Switzerland, The Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction awards honors and monetary prizes to firms around the world for designs that address five aspects of sustainability: progress, people, planet, prosperity, and place.
Dozens of community stakeholders gathered on September 16th to discuss the possibility of forming a conservancy for the East River waterfront. Present at the meeting, Laura Starr is quoted speaking on the need for an “economic engine” to work with and for the Lower East Side community.
The BIG U goes global as Cityscape, an Emirati publication, delves in to the design, research, and community involvement that led to the creation of a winning entry. The BIG U, a series or protective barriers that integrate social infrastructure with stormwater protection around Lower Manhattan, was BIG Architects and Starr Whitehouse’s entry for HUD’s Rebuild by Design Competition. Starr Whitehouse led the community outreach and landscape design portions of the proposal.
Starr Whitehouse and the BIG team’s proposal was selected a winner of 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 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.
Partner Stephen Whitehouse was part of an international panel of urban planners hosted by the Urban Land Institute in Charlotte, NC. The panel examined Charlotte’s under-developed North End and how the area can capitalize on region’s unprecedented and sustained economic growth.
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.
Starr Whitehouse and the BIG team unveil their proposal, The BIG U, to the Rebuild By Design Jury. The BIG U explores ways of protecting 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, investigates a series of vertical barriers for flood protection that integrate social infrastructure and speak to the shifting cultural milieux of upland neighborhoods.
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
The Bronx River House will be the new headquarters for the Bronx River Alliance, a completely environmentally friendly building. Starr Whitehouse designed a lush landscape to complement the sustainability of the buildings designed by Kiss + Cathcart Architects. This building and headquarters will “afford more recreational and educational use of the once neglected natural resource, the city’s only freshwater river.” Completed in late 2016, the Bronx River House will become a great amenity for the community.
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.
Starr Whitehouse presented four design options for a new park in southwest Hoboken. Following the presentation, the designs were posted online along with a survey to solicit community feedback. Starr Whitehouse will analyze the public’s response and fold their considerations into the final design.
The Hudson Reporter details the second public meeting for a new park in southwest Hoboken. At the meeting, Starr Whitehouse unveiled four potential concepts and renderings for the park: a market square, an urban woodland, a neighborhood park, and an active play space. Attendees had the opportunity to provide feedback on each proposal which Starr Whitehouse will use to develop a final concept design for the park.
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 has been conducting extensive economic research in Gowanus, as a part of a Brownfield Opportunity Area Study. Stephen Whitehouse says “what we found is that there’s a lot more economic activity in the Gowanus area than is generally reported – there’s a very diverse set of economies there… There’s a lot happening. It just doesn’t generate activity on the street.”
This Department of Parks and Recreation press release highlights the design features of Bushwick Inlet Park, designed by Starr Whitehouse and Kiss + Cathcart.
Starr Whitehouse is taking a lead role in developing Community Rebuilding and Resiliency Plans after Hurricane Sandy. Partner Laura Starr is quoted saying, “When we were developing ideas for the waterfront, we ultimately wanted to create landscape for all aspects of the community. It is completely feasible for a waterfront landscape to perform in many different ways, such as for habitat, for recreational space, as an economic generator, and of course, for protection.”
The Architects Newspaper profiles Starr Whitehouse’s work on a new signature residential building designed by Bjarke Ingels Group. The landscape design calls for a central courtyard reminiscent of Central Park where people can sunbathe, barbeque and play.
Starr Whitehouse is selected to participate in the HUD’s Rebuild by Design Competition, a design competition aimed at developing innovative and implementable solutions to protect and enhance Sandy-affected communities. Starr Whitehouse team members include Bjarke Ingels Group, One Architecture, James Lima Planning & Development, Green Shield Ecology, Buro Happold, AEA consulting, and Project Projects.
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.
Starr Whitehouse unveiled renderings of the proposed Echo Bay waterfront development in New Rochelle, NY. LoHud quotes Partner Stephen Whitehouse as saying “New Rochelle has a beautiful waterfront, and the new park… will bring this experience into easy walking distance of downtown and the East End neighborhood…The park will restore an industrial site for nature and people, enhancing and celebrating the rich native ecology of the tidal flats.”
Starr Whitehouse reveals its concept design for a new park at New Rochelle’s Echo Bay.
Starr Whitehouse applauds Mayor Bloomberg’s release of A Stronger, More Resilient New York , as well as the talented minds from both the public and private sectors that generated this forward-looking response to coastal risk management and climate change. The report highlights climate analysis, addresses infrastructure and built environment issues, and defines action plans for coastal defense, community rebuilding, and economic recovery. Starr Whitehouse is honored to have contributed to the Staten Island and Southern Manhattan sections of the report.
ASLA-NY President Laura Starr and her partners Stephen Whitehouse and Jeffrey Poor host the ASLA-NY Emerging Professionals’ Open Studio.
President Laura Starr, President-elect Nette Compton, Trustee Adrian Smith, and Executive Director Kathy Shea of the ASLA-NY travel to Washington, D.C. to meet with the New York congressional delegation. They urged their Capitol Hill representatives to (1) pass new legislation that promotes the use of green infrastructure for stormwater management, (2) pass a national Safe and Complete Street policy, and (3) pass legislation to rehabilitate existing and develop new community parks and recreational facilities. Following their visit, members of the NYSCLA will meet with the New York State legislature as part of Lobby Day.
Laura Starr addresses the Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences Department of Landscape Architecture. Her lecture, titled “Wild for the City: Creating & Sustaining Urban Nature” discusses New York’s urban landscape and its role in city growth and protection from major storms. Read about the event in the Rutgers student newspaper.
Dwell showcases Bushwick Inlet Park, for which Starr Whitehouse won a 2013 ASLA-NY Design Honor Award. The award winning park, featuring a turf field that doubles as a storm water retention basin and park house with a sloping green roof, is the first phase of a larger park planned for North Williamsburg.
Starr Whitehouse displays designs from Bushwick Inlet Park and the Brooklyn Queens Expressway Enhancement Study at The Horticultural Society as part of “Currents in Green Infrastructure: Designs for a Sustainable New York City.” The exhibit is sponsored by the ASLA-NY in honor of Landscape Architecture Month.
Starr Whitehouse wins a 2013 ASLA-NY Design Honor Award for its work on Bushwick Inlet Park. Designs from the project will be on view, along with those of other winners, from April 1 through April 20 at the Center for Architecture. Read about the award-winning projects in Dwell.
Laura Starr discusses the future challenges of landscape architecture in the post-Bloomberg era and the need for a more comprehensive and integrated green infrastructure for New York City.
The Architect’s Newspaper recaps the ASLA-NY Chapter President’s Dinner: “During the ceremony, ASLA President Laura Starr, principal of Starr Whitehouse Landscape Architects, kept a focus on the discipline’s civic role, a role she sees expanding in post-Hurricane Sandy New York.”
Curbed visits Brooklyn Academy of Music’s 1400-square foot rooftop terrace atop the Fisher Building, planned and designed by Starr Whitehouse Landscape Architects.
The Brownstoner visits and overviews the new Brooklyn Academy of Music Building, complete with a courtyard terrace, designed by Starr Whitehouse Landscape Architects.
The Dirt describes Starr Whitehouse’s Water Street Report as a project that will “redistributing the public space, creating a new boulevard, strengthening the connection to the water, and redesigning the public ground floor spaces to enhance street life will help turn Water Street into a sustainable, regenerative urban space.”
Laura Starr is featured in this article about urban nature parks. This article describes the importance of nature parks in order to provide opportunities to connect people to nature and also provide environmental services.
Laura Starr is the featured guest on the Urban Design Podcast 178. She speaks about Starr Whitehouse Landscape Architects and Planners, the importance of urban parks, and the maintenance of these parks.
“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.
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.”
“The Jersey City Waterfront Parks Conservancy released a conceptual master plan for public review earlier this month. Landscape architecture firm Starr Whitehouse and nArchitects created a master plan designed for the “protection of waterfront parkland and dramatic Manhattan views via passive lawns, kid’s play elements, interaction with water and nature, combined with natural erosion protection and promotion of aquatic life.”
“Downtown Alliance, has tapped Starr Whitehouse Landscape Architects FxFowle Architects “establishing a new paradigm for commercial, retail and visitor engagement.”
Residential Architect overviews the efforts of Starr Whitehouse and Rogers Marvel Architects to clean up Gowanus Canal.
The city has announced that a team led by the Hudson Companies has been chosen to build its “Gowanus Green” development on Public Place between Smith Street and the Gowanus Canal. The design comes from Rogers Marvel Architects and landscape designers West 8 and Starr Whitehouse.
Introduces detailed renderings of Gowanus Green, the work of Roger Marvel Architects and landscape designers West 8 and Starr Whitehouse.