An Atlas of Endangered Surfaces

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d an ns Iro ie Ell

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r is to ph er

Ke nn ed y,

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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No. 5951


Development Ecotone Transitional edge with human imposed barrier, chain link fence impediment, lush plant growth, recent sand deposit

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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

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No. 6572


Lounge Plaza Pressure treated wood, decking for waterfront promenade

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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

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No. 6528


Fieldturf Astroturf (fieldturf), short blade with organic intruders, reflective, low saturation green

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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

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No. 6499



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