Gowanus: CNU National

GOWANUS FROM RESILIENCE TO SUSTAINABILITY CNU CHARTER AWARDS ACADEMIC ENTRY 2017

A. PROJECT FACT SHEET II. Neighborhood, District and Corridor Gowanus Neighborhood, Brooklyn, New York City, New York PROJECT CHARACTERISTICS Public policy program Transit-oriented development

Infill/previously developed sites

Greenfield/previously undeveloped site Placemaking plan (public space, civic buildings and infrastructural improvements)

Includes affordable/subsidized/social housing Has your plan been adopted or your project broken ground?

Neither (academic project) As an academic project as part of a Masters of Architecture course on urban design, percentages of uses were not calculated. Applied instead were location and ratio principles for civic, residential and retail uses.

TRANSECTS [fig. 2.1-5] T6 — Urban Core

T6 Urban Core / Transit-oriented development existing empty lots near underutilized transit station neighborhood markets T5 — Urban Center Zone

T5 Main Street / Neighborhood Street primary commercial corridors, presently evident along Smith Street and 3rd Avenue secondary commercial and primary residential corridors

T5 Flex industrial corridors outside of the SD IBZ SD — Special District

SD IBZ aligning with NYC’s Industrial Business Zone that covers much of Gowanus The transect-derived form based code seeks to accomplish three things: sustain industrial jobs within the area, allow for future developments to be affordable to all financial classes, and create a mixed active and collaborative environment throughout the neighborhood.

B. PROJECT DESCRIPTION Brooklyn’s Gowanus, a neighborhood between Park Slope, Boerum Hill, Carroll Gardens, and Red Hook lies on the east and west sides of the Gowanus Canal, a two-hundred year old industrial water resource including shipping access from New York Upper Bay [fig 1.1, 1.3, 1.6]. Bridging the high ground of Brooklyn Heights and the Red Hook peninsula to the Prospect Park hill, are two massive infrastructures, US Interstate 278/478 Highway flyover and an elevated Metropolitan Transportation Authority rail line.

The principal streets, with strongest connections to greater Brooklyn and NYC, run northsouth: Smith Street and Fourth Avenue. Four streets bridge the canal: Union, Carroll, 3rd and 9th Streets. East-west connectivity is achieved by Union and 9th Streets [fig. 1.2, 1.6]. The block, where uninterrupted by the canal, measures 660 feet east-west and 200 feet, north-south.

There are four MTA transit stations: the F and G lines serve Carroll/Smith and 9th/Smith; the D, N and R lines serve Union/Fourth; and the 9th/Fourth is served by all five of these lines. The D, F, N and R lines run from Manhattan to southern Brooklyn, the G line runs from eastern Queens to southern Brooklyn [fig. 1.4, 1.6].

The canal features five easterly basins; one, at its midpoint, shapes the potential for a terminating view south from the head of the canal.

Chiefly, the existing building stock comprises two basic types [fig. 2.6]. First, there are the single-family and multi-flat row houses with raised first floors, and, on the commercial north-south streets, row houses with shops at the street level. Second, there are the industrial buildings: preWar buildings whose number of floors and of floor plates size is unobtrusive (some have raised floors for truck docks and others are at grade) and sprawling post-War, single-story open plans for storage and manufacture.

Bridging Gowanus, a neighborhood advocacy organization, anticipates the current residential development pressure will be turned to Gowanus as the canal begins to be cleaned as an Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site, whereas the neighborhood is currently perceived as the laughingstock of Brooklyn. Priorities include: “A sustainable, resilient, environmentally healthy community;” “Invest in our parks, schools, transit, and waterfront;” “Strengthen the manufacturing sector and create good jobs;” “Keep Gowanus creative and mixed-use;” “Preserve and create affordable housing for an inclusive community;” and “Secure a pathway for responsible growth.”

Significant, too, is Gowanus’ inclusion in the Industrial Business Zone intended to protect local industrial and manufacturing jobs [fig. 1.5]. The studio accepted the Bridging Gowanus Priorities and investigated their urban and architectural potential.

The urban intervention gives vision to the Priorities especially to the social justice inhering in mid-rise types providing ample housing across the range of incomes. Our ambition here, more than a formal, theoretical exploration, has been to answer the real social interests in local jobs and education, and a protected, appealing natural and built environment. We are applying the full range of urban metrics: permeability, variety, legibility, robustness, visual appropriateness, and richness (Bentley et al, 1985).

The urban intervention focuses along the canal, envisioning a canal activated and connected through a variety of public space types [fig. 3.1, 6.1-6.6]. The experience along the canal is organized through six public gathering nodes, each creating a unique sense of place [fig. 4.1-5.3].

These nodes are connected by multi modal pathways, including bike, pedestrian, car, and especially boat [fig. 10.1]. Activity at these nodal gathering spaces are anchored by public or civic feature buildings. These feature buildings help further create a sense of place and also increase activity within the public spaces they address. The goal of the proposed intervention is to discourage the Gowanus neighborhood from becoming a planned development hot spot, where developers can propose a land use rezoning to what ever best suits their needs, rather than the needs of the community.

REQUIRED QUOTES As an academic project, these quotes were collected from critics serving on various project reviews.

“The jury was very impressed with the students’ understanding of the context of the surrounding areas and the use of the river [canal] as an asset.” [fig. 1] (Stacey Meekins, AICP, CNU IL Treasurer 2016) Jennifer Griffin of J Griffin Design and John Griffin of Selser Schaefer Architects were asked for a critical review of this project. They offered: “Very successful idea of celebrating water at the head of the canal.” [fig. 4.1] They complemented the attention given to the transit station: “Excellent idea to reimagine the entrance to the station.” [fig. 5.1] “As a repeating community jury member for ... [this studio] over the past decade, I have always been impressed by the various studios’ attention to community context and restoring urban patterns through careful analysis and use of historic precedents [fig. 1]. As a result, I always look forward to the critique sessions I am invited to participate in. This studio’s efforts for Gowanus greatly exceeded my already high expectations. The analytics are detailed and clearly presented. The coordinated graphics for their individual sites brings their work to life. The Industrial District North was especially engaging, combining the canal, outdoor uses, housing and jobs in this part reclaimed urban center [5.1]. This is truly a mature student studio effort that should spark meaningful redevelopment discussions in the Gowanus community.”

(Mark D. VanKerkhoff, AIA, Director, Kane County Development & Community Services Department) Michael Watkins, architect and town planner of Michael Watkins Architect, LLC associated with Duany Plater-Zyberk, responded to individual moves within the urban proposal, offering the following: “I like the idea that the head of the canal is a place where people can get in the water!” and “the bridge in the industrial district seems like a great idea.” [fig. 7.1, 9.1] “Gowanus is ripe with potential, and surely new development will come knocking whether welcomed or not, but it is an example of a neighborhood whose physical character is not yet worthy of the budding culture that is currently being fostered. Recognizing the potential to capture, protect, and elaborate upon this sense of character, the ... studio has brought together a critical analysis, thoughtful narrative, and collaborative design that sets new rules for economic and urban success.

The clean, compelling graphics and form-based code framework of this project make a powerful case for rethinking this neighborhood with a cohesive and comprehensive plan that promotes variety that is rooted in sound patterns, leaving just enough room for the nuanced designs that sustain and strengthen such character of place.”

(Jennifer Settle, LEED AP, CNU IL Vice Chair of External Affairs 2016)

C. RESPONSE TO CHARTER PRINCIPLES

The building stock is retained for present uses or for adaptive re-uses (Charter Principles 4, 5, 27; Sustainability Canon 2.1). New buildings are shaped with shallow floor plates for passive heating, cooling, and ventilating; and modeled to accommodate a variety of uses over time: groceries, doctors offices, retail (CP 12, 26; SC 2.6). The blocks are small with a fine-grain to maximize the choices for pedestrians (CP 12) [fig. 2].

Second, the proposed intervention reverses the urban morphology with the canal as the backside to the canal as the neighborhood’s public space as a Canal Walk (CP 19, 23; SC 3.2, 4.8, 5.7) [fig. 3.1]. Related is the intention to overcome the border vacuum of Fourth Avenue separating Gowanus from Park Slope and the barriers of the MTA and highway separating Gowanus from Greenwood and Red Hook to the south and southeast. These pragmatic transit and social connections depend on the strategic development of Union and 9th Streets [fig. 5.3]. Northsouth connections are improved in the new street bridge at Bond Street and its connections south via Second Avenue (CP 5). However, the local character of the block and street morphology and building and place types is recognized and cultivated (CP 6).

Third, the increase of housing, with a particular intention of inclusionary housing, is characterized by three strategies: in north Gowanus, infill, stacked-flats and loft conversions that build on the attractive late nineteenth-century industrial character; second, stacked-flats and larger types inserted strategically in Industrial District North; and third, dense, multi-story apartment building types within the pedestrian shed of the underused 9th and Smith Street MTA station (CP 7, 13; SC 3.2, 4.2, 5.4, 5.5) [fig. 5]. The density exceeds the 60DUA recommended in Dittmar New Transit Town, 2004 (CP 15). A greater number of work force housing opportunities are achieved in numerous dense housing types whose scale does not require structured parking (CP 13; SC 4.9).

District and Neighborhoods Institutions strung apace along the canal create interest and legibility [fig. 2.1]. At the head of the canal and comprising the northern third of the Market Neighborhood is a recreation center between the canal as a water-play amenity and a municipal park in the adjacent eastward block (SC 3.1) [fig. 4.1]. An active plaza, with the public market fronting two important east-west crossing streets, is the center for the Market Neighborhood (CP 19, 23, 25) [fig. 4.2]. Close to the middle, in the southern third of the Market Neighborhood, is the adaptive reuse of the subway power generation hall as an arts venue (CP 16, 19, 23; SC 2.4) [fig. 4.3].

The mid-point canal divide, with the Nevins Street pedestrian bridge, marks both the eastern component of the Canal Neighborhood and the bound of Industrial District North. The particular street activity of small-scale, light manufacturing, including artisanal industry with retail and exhibit opportunities would characterize the Industrial District North [fig. 5.1].

The Canal Neighborhood, here, includes a concert esplanade with a conservancy institution to the east and a music school to the west (CP 19, 23, 25). The Luquer Street pedestrian bridge connects to the western half of Canal Neighborhood with its community hall and library, and an adjacent school (SC 4.1) [fig. 5.2]. Alongside the canal at the southern termination of a shared, mixed-mode street is the 9th and Smith Streets Station also serving the Canal Neighborhood urban cillegiate campus to the south (CP 19, 23, 25) [fig. 5.3]. Likewise, well-connected via the 9th Street and pedestrian bridges is Industrial District South (CP 10).

Corridor The shared space street is a feature in pedestrian and biking corridor that could connect at the north to Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza and to waterfront redevelopment making its way round the Red Hook peninsula with future potential for connection (CP 8, 10, 11; SC 5.3).

D. LESSONS LEARNED The scale of post-War manufacturing and storage was accommodated in sprawling onestory buildings often sacrificing the efficient street grid and its flexibly sized blocks and lots. The restoration of the street grid and enhancing its permeability required the reversal of much of the development in the last 50 years.

The streets, blocks, and building types were backed to the canal in order to maximize private ownership of canal access as an industrial and shipping resource. This urban intervention had to reverse this by maximizing public access to the canal via streets, block sizes, and building types and positioning. Further exploration would consider the canal as a form-generator for building types, particularly responding to the threat of flooding.

The use of building types and public space types along the canal to form a continuous canal-edge pedestrian path, including consideration of how the canal edge could be more strongly naturalized, affording easier pedestrian access to the cleaner canal. The canal docking at the plaza and market situate the canal as an amenity with a great potential to engender multiple wateroriented activities (suggested by Craig Farnsworth, Landscape Architect, ASLA, PLA) [fig. 7.1, 8.1, 9.1].

A first iteration provided more retail than could be supported by the population density. A second iteration, guided by the recent Cushman and Wakefield study concluding a ratio of 9SF retail per person, placed retail strategically in those places, like the Smith and 9th Street Station and the Market and pedestrian routes, like Union Street and the Canal Walk, that would be planned for the longest daily activity and the mutual security of late night “eyes on the street.�

The application of a form-based code to replace the existing use-based zoning, striving to align with urban policy where appropriate and change urban policy where necessary, has the ability to prevent pervasive, widespread gentrification in the neighborhood and serve as a model for future urban revitalizations [fig. 2].

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1.2 Connecting Streets

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1.3 Surrounding Neighborhoods

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1.4 Subway Lines to Site

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1.5 Industrial Business Zone

1.6 Composite Map

Current Zoning manufacturing zoning

1.1 Global Connections

REGIONAL ANALYSIS

residential zoning downtown zoning

4TH AVE.

3RD AVE.

BOND ST.

HOYT ST.

SMITH ST.

REGULATING PLAN

NEVINS ST. 2ND AVE.

2.1

OPEN FLOOR PLAN

2.2 T6 Urban Center or T.O.D.

UNION ST.

FLEX

CARROLL ST.

MIXED USE

2.3

ROW HOME

T5 Main St. and Neighborhood St.

3RD ST.

TENAMENT/ LIVE WORK

MID RISE

2.4 Flex

9TH

Civic/Institutional Feature Buildings

2.5 Special District: Industrial Zone

Special District: College Campus

HIGH RISE 2.6

TRANSECT TYPES

BUILDING TYPES

Head of Canal

Market Center

Arts District

Industrial District North

Transit Oriented Development

Commercial Transit District

3.1

MAKING PLACE: Shaping The Public Space

4.1

Head of canal

Features: • Historic Pump House • Community Center and Redeveloped Public Park • Ceremonial Plaza and Interactive Water Features

4.2

Market Center

Features: • Neighborhood Market • Dense Mixed Use Development • Residential Along the Canal

4.3

Arts District Features:

• The historic “Batcave” • Artist Lofts and Education Facilities • Recently Opened Canal Basin

Industrial District North

5.1

Features: • Multi Purpose Park with Pavilion • Revitalized Industrial District • New Home for the Gowanus concervancy

5.2

Transit Oriented Development

Features: • Inclusionary Housing of Various Densities • Education Center with Library, Music, and Elementary School • Curbless Street

Commercial Transit District 5.3

* Transit Station * Commercial Transit Center * High Density Mixed Use * Satilite Tech Campus

6.2 Waterfront Park Or Green Space

6.5 Waterfront Plaza Or Square

6.3 Covered Promenade

6.6 Esplanade

6.1

CANAL CONNECTIONS: Public Space Types

6.4 Curbless Street

7.1

MARKET AND HEAD OF CANAL

existing

8.1

ESPLANADE, BATCAVE, AND CONSERVANCY

existing

9.1

PARK PAVILLION AND COVERED PROMENADE

existing

10.1

CURBLESS STREET, T.O.D. AND TRANSIT STATION

existing