d an ns Iro ie Ell
Ch
r is to ph er
Ke nn ed y,
20
15
Introduction This Atlas identifies and categorizes a range
seized lands from indigenous peoples, the land was “granted” by Governor Peter Stuyvesant to the Dutch Reverend Dominie Everard Bogardus. For several decades the site was known as “Dominie’s Hook”, until it was purchased by Captain Peter Praa in 1697. At the turn of the 19th century, the site was transformed into an active homestead by Captain George Hunter who erected a large family estate overlooking the East River, built in the ancient Knickerbocker style. Following Captain Hunter’s death in 1835, the land was sold to Jeremiah Johnson who razed the central hill and used the soil and debris to fill in adjacent waterfront reefs, extending the land by several acres. Over the following decades, the site was industrialized, making way for the Hunter’s Point Ferry terminal, and manufacturing operations such as the Standard Oil and New York Sugar Refinery, the New York Architectural Terra Cotta Company, and several paint and varnish works. In 1910, a Long Island Railroad connection to Hunter’s Point rendered the Ferry terminal obsolete, signaling the gradual decline of industry in the area. By the 1970s much of the industrial activity had ceased, factories were razed, and the land left dormant for nearly two
anthropogenic, naturally occurring, and hybrid surfaces in the area known as Hunter’s Point South in Long Island City, Queens. Long before European colonization, Hunters Point South was an “almost-island” surrounded by waterfront reefs and a large salt marsh fed by the vast estuarial flows of the East and Bronx Rivers. The neighboring land was a part of the Hempstead Plains grassland, an ecosystem extending nearly 24,000 hectares into parts of Brooklyn and Western Queens. As of December 2015, it is a chaos of earth movers, pile drivers, flattened trees and unearthed debris. By late 2018, Hunter’s Point will be reshaped to contain eleven soaring residential towers and a new waterfront park replete with tidy lawns, serpentine walkways, and views of midtown Manhattan. Despite recent “re-development,” contemporary humans are not the first to reshape this land. The Lenape people had several settlements on the islands of Manhattan and Long Island, used primarily for hunting, fishing and planting seasonal crops. The junction of the East River and Newtown Creek was originally known as “Mespat Killitio,” and until the mid1600s was largely undisturbed. In 1643, as European settlers arrived and 4
decades. In the wake of this flurry of human in 2013, creates a sharp contrast to the rewilded activity, a lush rewilded landscape flourished. A landscape of Hunter’s Point South. Defined by thick forest took root along the site’s border with surfaces like serpentine paths, astroturf, sand the East River, while a prairie-like ecosystem volleyball courts, boardwalk decking and tasteful took over elsewhere, coating layers of industrial native wildflower plantings, it is the picture rubble, fill dirt, and cast off machinery with perfect image of a “successful” urban park. a functioning novel This Atlas was ecosystem1. Enjoyed created in the months by humans and before the current nonhumans alike, it was transformation of an oasis of undesigned, Hunter’s Point South spontaneous life in the began, when the midst of an increasingly overlaps, edges and developed and designed frictions between city. man-made park This rewilding infrastructure and long process continued until re-wilded landscapes September 2015, when of Hunter’s Point South Hunter’s Point South, Long Island City, Queens, New York Approx. Size: 130 acres Lat/Long: 40.739151, 73.961817 human hands once were still intact. It again began to reshape provides a comparative the landscape. The site is now on its way to study between the spontaneous, un-designed mirroring the neighboring land to the north, spaces of the former Hunter’s Point, and the where a newly designed waterfront park, opened textures and structures that will take its place as A novel ecosystem is “a system of abiotic, biotic and social components that, by virtue of human influence, differ from those that prevailed historically, having a tendency to self-organize and manifest novel qualities without intensive human management” (Hobbs, Higgs & Hall, 2013). It is also a space that is so heavily manipulated that it would be impossible (or extremely difficult) to return to its previous state. 1
Hobbs, R., Higgs, E., & Hall, C. M. (Eds). (2013). Novel ecosystems: Intervening in the new ecological world order. Oxford, U.K.: John Wiley & Sons.
5
redevelopment and gentrification continue. A collection of surfaces from each place was archived through a four month investigation exploring trails, paths and desire lines built by consensus and those defined by park design (taking the form of photographs, videos, rubbings and physical samples). A novel classification system was created to accommodate hybridized and newly identified surfaces -- evidence of historical and ecological transformations that a soil sample, archeological dig, or plant identification alone could not provide. For instance, taxonomic distinctions like “Impervious Landfill Rubble” (see p. 11) identify a specific kind of transitional construction debri that defined the perimeter of the site. The collection of brick, cement chunks, sidewalk wreckage, and other composite materials point to the site’s history, ecological reclamation, and a literal/metaphoric process of weatherization and decay. This category in particular is one that will be locally extinct when the redevelopment of Hunter’s Point South is complete.
As unassuming as these surfaces may appear, they nonetheless offer a glimpse into the ongoing transformation reshaping New York City, and places like it. The surfaces act as vital touchstone, an exterior skin, a bio-cultural indicator of urban decay, supposed renewal, and waves of gentrification yet to come. We invite you to join us in archiving these endangered2 surfaces by exploring your neighborhood’s natural and unnatural areas -the vacant lots, tree pits, sidewalks, streetscapes, parks and things in between. All you have to do is peer down, look carefully, and see for yourself.
The term endangered refers to surfaces and surrounding environments in the process of becoming or currently are extinct; in many cases because of ongoing gentrification, development or disturbance. 2
6
6483
6572
6509, 6499
6522 6528 6542
Ri ve r
5394 5409
st Ea
5397
5437
6584
5450
5503
5945
5474
Desire Path Surface Sample Location
5951
ek Cre n tow New
How To Use
Fieldturf Astroturf (fieldturf), short blade with organic intruders, reflective, low saturation green
TYPOLOGY
DESCRIPTOR
No. 5394
SURFACE INDEX NUMBER 8
SURFACE VARIABILITY
Surface Variability Triangle HUMAN UTILITY
condos astroturf boardwalk designed parks
waterfront
decomposed granite
picnic tables
dog park suburban lawn
farmers market
sidewalk tree pit alleyway
compost
superfund site
urban forest vacant lots
garbage dump
VITALITY
SPONTANEITY regeneration
9
City Grit Structureless rocky sediment, gritty, compacted dust or dirt, (with sparse plastic particles)
10
No. 5394
Impervious Landfill Rubble Transitional construction debri, patchy vegetation
11
No. 5397
Interspecies Grassland Low profile interspecies grassland with organic biomaterial and debris, spontaneous plant mix, decomposition, soil builder. 12
No. 5409
Transitional Grassland Clump forming rosette with construction debri and blasted grit, plantain, mugwort and clover mix
13
No. 5437
Low Impact Desire Path Bipedal desire path, compacted soil with plant dwarfing
14
No. 5450
High Impact Desire Path Half trail, indeterminate composite origins with many possibilities, trace fiber deposits for possible soil erosion prevention 15
No. 5474
Plastic Silt Deposit on Decaying Asphalt Decomposing asphalt with multicolored industrial escaped polymer beads and fragments, sunbeaten plastic silt deposit, emerging sparse moss, slightly variable impermeable asphalt (with artifacts, tin foil and driftwood) 16
No. 5945
Urban Fluvial Loamy recently desiccated soil with embedded plastic sheeting, scattered rocks from waterfront gabion
17
No. 5951
Development Ecotone Transitional edge with human imposed barrier, chain link fence impediment, lush plant growth, recent sand deposit
18
No. 6584
Teen Treading Ground Compacted soil, landfill rubble, sediment, beer bottle caps, trash, debris, smells like teen spirit
No. 5503
Prefab Grit Decomposed granite, granular silt and soil
20
No. 6572
Lounge Plaza Pressure treated wood, decking for waterfront promenade
21
No. 6542
Unpigmented Concrete Impervious unpigmented uniform concrete pavement, fine grained, bisected, light staining, high surface uniformity
22
No. 6483
Suburban-Style Lawn Bermuda grass, cut, compacted, eroded, worn, frayed and battered, lawn turf, furniture grass with repressed flowering
23
No. 6528
Fieldturf Astroturf (fieldturf), short blade with organic intruders, reflective, low saturation green
24
No. 6522
Atmospheric Granite Block Granite block matrix, sand set and bark filled, visually delineates separate street uses, conveys connections to natural environment 25
No. 6509
City Mulch Medley-Potpourri City mulch and sand, compacted with renegade weed populating, transitional silt zone (with gradient), grass corpse, detritus/litter, occasional stray sediment and plastic 26
No. 6508
Modular “Park-like� Unit Paver Hexagonal variety asphalt paver, aggregates with slight stains, conveys parklife character, may contribute to heat island effect
27
No. 6499