Table of Contents
Editors
1. From the Editors 1 2. Articles
Digital Justice: Planning’s Next Goal / By Sarah Serpas 2
Planning Camp Pitches at Pratt / By Kelly Donohue
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Green Infrastructure / By Elliott Maltby
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Garden Gadgets / By Evren Uzer
SAVI / By Jessie Braden 9
Thom Stead City & Regional Planning
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Working at Sustainable South Bronx / By Kethia Joseph
Flexing with the Tide / By Leonel Ponce 10
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4. Graduate Studios
Talking Preservation with Adam Lopes / By Jess Bladwin & Lakan Cole 15
5. Graduate Study Abroad
Christopher Rice City & Regional Planning
Recovery, Adaptation Mitigation and Planning / By Christopher Rice 10
3. Spotlights
Matt Garcia City & Regional Planning
Public Space in Japan / By James Llyod 21
6. Accomplishments 24
PSPD Administration David Burney Coordinator, Programs for Sustainable Planning and Development
Harriet Markis Chair, Construction / Facilities Management Nadya Nenadich Coordinator, Historic Preservation
John Shapiro Chair, City and Regional Planning
Jaime Stein Coordinator, Sustainable Environmental Systems
Adia Ware Cover Photo: The QR code leads to an interview with adjunct professor Juan Camilo Osorio on the role of technology in planning. m_CITY | Spring 2014
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Assistant to the Chair, Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment
Matt Garcia, Christopher Rice, and Thom Stead
Letter From the Editors Technology can mean many things to many people. It can mean using scrap paper to scoop up crumbs on your desk or programming a supercomputer to launch a rocket to the moon. At Pratt Programs for Sustainable Development and Planning [PSPD], we’re concerned with how technology can affect the places we live, work, and play. GIS and tools like Wikimapping can open up geographic analysis to local communities while projection software can inform agencies about what sea levels will look like in 50 years. But looking at how technology affects urban spaces can get quite complicated. Not only are there the levels of impact technology could have on individuals, families, neighborhoods, and cities, but the accessibility and human nature of technology means that new ideas and implementations could also come from individuals, groups, or even cities themselves. To explore this network of influences, innovations, and problem-solvers, this issue of MultipliCITY looks at the various ways cities, groups, and individuals are impacting urban landscapes through technology. On the city level, public officials can both implement technological solutions for the city, such as taking existing bus infrastructure and
reorganizing it to implement Bus Rapid Transit like NYC’s Select Bus Service, and facilitate technological solutions made by others, for instance when NYC started to release its GIS data to the public for free. After Superstorm Sandy devastated the area, New York City officials began to look at possible ways to implement technological safeguards, such as a storm surge barrier, to protect the city. The PSPD Recovery, Adaptation, Mitigation and Planning [RAMP] studios critically examine these city-wide efforts with a focus on sustainability in response to climate change and disaster. On page 10, Chris Rice talks about the work Pratt students did in Fall 2013 working toward RAMP’s mission of Recovery, Adaptation, Mitigation and Planning. Smaller than the city-level, groups and organizations like Pratt can also implement technology to improve p e o p l e ’s u n d e r s t a n d i n g a n d involvement with the places in which they live. In this issue, Jessie Braeden talks to us about how Pratt’s new Spatial Analysis and Visualization Initiative (SAVI), will expand students’ and local groups’ capacity to take advantage of new geographic technology. In addition, Kelly Donahue talks to us about how OpenPlans’ Planning Camp brought
together technologists, planners, and students, at the Pratt School of Architecture to have conversations about how planning can improve city life. These collections of motivated individuals can many times be more a g i l e a n d e ff e c t i v e t h a n t h e sometimes slow process of government bureaucracy. Lastly, individuals can take initiative and implement their own technological solutions to tackle local problems. We talk to Visiting Adjunct Professor Evren Uzer about do-it-yourself level interventions that people can take to creating greater sustainability in their homes and communities, as well as Professor Elliott Maltby who encourages a less technocratic engagement with our urban imagination as a means of finding new ways forward. Technology changes constantly, providing the world new forms of knowledge and capability. We hope that this issue will shed some light on how members of the Pratt PSPD community are engaging with these shifts and pushing the boundaries of their respective disciplines. Sincerely, The Editorial Board
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m_CITY | Spring 2014
Student Article
Sarah Serpas
Digital Justice: Planning’s Next Goal Ideally, all urban planners are guided with the goal of increasing social equity. Progressive plans encompass the ideals of economic justice, racial justice, and environmental justice, but how strongly should planners push for digital justice? The “digital divide” is the information and technology gap that is often closely related to the socioeconomic gap. This means that the most vulnerable populations often have the least access to technologies, and therefore the least access to information. This, understandably, makes them more vulnerable. The participatory planner then has two goals for the populations lost in the digital divide: make sure their opinions are heard and increase their access to technology.
Advances in technology have streamlined the participatory process. The 2013 round of Participatory Budgeting projects in New York used interactive maps that allowed community members to place their proposed projects exactly where they would like to see them in their neighborhood. Online surveys and social media have also played a significant role in gathering information from communities, but they come with the caveat that the information might be incomplete or biased. These technologies create easier ways for some people to have their voices heard, but these advances do not help the entire population. Technology has attempted to shrink to the digital divide by making surveys and outreach available through various media. Code for America, a group of civically minded computer
programmers, created a survey program in Philadelphia called Textizen
...the most vulnerable populations often have the least access to technologies, and therefore the least access to information. which allows residents to text their responses to survey questions that are posted throughout neighbor hoods. Although including texting in the digital outreach strategy might give an additional group the ability to be heard, it does not completely bridge the digital divide. Planners are left with the same recurring issue as always: how do we engage an entire population? Since each technology has the potential to speak to only one section of a population, planners attempt to use as many media as possible to engage as many people as possible in the planning process.
NYCHA’s mobile computer lab provides access to the internet for its residents m_CITY | Spring 2014
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Is the role of the planner then to make sure everyone
has the same access to technology? New York City is making some sound attempts at narrowing the digital divide through planning and government measures. “Digital Vans” park outside various NYCHA developments offering laptops and Internet access, but these are only available a few days per week. Community-led plans for a comprehensive Wi-Fi network throughout Red Hook are underway with Red Hook Initiative. However creating larger municipal Wi-Fi networks is often costly and impractical. Planners face a new issue in creating spaces that are not only socially just, but are digitally just as well. Once this information is collected from the community, planners face another challenge: How do they make sure that information is accessible by the residents? Although serious efforts might have been made to collect the data from as many people as possible at the community level, there is no guarantee that all members will be able to access or understand the data. Although many municipalities have begun to make data publicly available, just how “public” can it be when not everyone has the ability to access the data, or make sense of it? Sarah Serpas is a second year student in the Master’s of City and Regional Planning Program.
Displays like this in Philadelphia highlight the increasing necessity of digital access
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m_CITY | Spring 2014
Student Spotlight
Kat Joseph
Working at Sustainable South Bronx The South Bronx is a very complex community with an extensive history of being overburdened by land uses that have resulted in health and quality of life issues for community residents. One of these issues being the excessive concentration of waste transfer stations which in turn has lead to other severe issues pertaining to health. South Bronx residents are faced with high asthma rates, safety issues due to the 1400 daily truck trips, and air pollution due to the open-air facilities that spew out dust and debris. In addition to the health crisis and environmental degradation there is also an economic development concern. The South Bronx is part of the Hunts Point community, which is home to the largest food distributor in the world, Hunts Point Cooperative Market Inc. While this major food distribution is planted right in Hunts Point, locals barely account for a fraction of its employment and the Bronx is one of the last to receive food during distribution.
nities throughout New York City. As a fellow of the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance serving Sustainable South Bronx, I work closely with the Director of Sustainable Policy and Research, Angela Tovar. In recent times, the organization’s focus has been on policy to improve the quality of life in the South Bronx. Such policies include the implementation of the City’s 2006 Solid Waste Management Plan, which will construct a new framework to reduce the number of truck trips to waste transfer stations; the Capacity Reduction Bill, which will cap the amount of waste a community can store while ensuring equitable waste distribution; and the “Transform
By attending hearings in full support of progressive legislation, making our presence known, and giving voice to those who were once silenced, we aim to bring hope and restoration to communities like the South Bronx. Kat Joseph is a second year student in the City and Regional Planning Program.
City & Regional Planning student Kat Joseph
From this bone of contention stemmed the foundation of Sustainable South Bronx (SSBx). Sustainable South Bronx seeks to address these issues through green job training, community greening, and social enterprise. Together with the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance (and other member organizations) we seek to fight for environmental justice in vulnerable commum_CITY | Spring 2014
Don’t Trash”, A campaign that seeks to increase good jobs, recycling, and justice in the commercial waste industry by addressing inefficient commercial waste collection, working conditions and wages of private sector waste workers, as well as costly and environmentally unsound landfilling and incineration practices.
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Event Article
Kelly Donohue
Planning Camp Pitches at Pratt On Saturday September 21st, PSPD and the School of Architecture hosted OpenPlans’ first PlanningCamp in Higgins Hall. PlanningCamp is an “unconference” designed to bring together people working at the intersection of technology and the hard effort of making better cities -- on the technology side, or the planning side, or right in the middle. So what exactly is an “unconference”? PlanningCamp is different from regular conferences because the sessions are proposed on the day and led by participants. It’s an opportunity for bright thinkers to present ideas, lead brainstorms, and facilitate discussions on topics they’re passionate about. Unlike regular conferences, everyone is a participant and responsible for shaping the day’s activities. At Pratt, we saw 100 planners, technologists, students and activists spend the day in 30 attendee-led sessions ranging from Lost in Translation—>tools to increase participation among immigrant communities, to Foursquare data for urban planning, and many more. The day started out with words of welcome from NYC Council Member Gale Brewer. We were honored to have her stop by, because she has been a strong champion for technology as a council member. To give you a flavor of the day, here are questions explored in three of the sessions:
Planning Camp participants discuss the day’s session topics. Photo credit: OpenPlans •
Planning is Not Just Urban What are the planning challenges of small communities? How can technology be used to deal with low-density, data availability, and institutional capacity?
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Online Engagement’s Missing Middle How can online tools help problem identifiers self-organize? How can government use problem identification tools to develop proposals?
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Community Owned & Planning Infrastructure How can we organize together to identify underused and for sale land, and how can communities start the process of turning it into more active use? 5
Backed with support from The Knight Foundation, PlanningCamp is on the road now, with stops in Philadelphia, Boston and Atlanta this spring, and everything we learned at Pratt will help us organize future events. And it will help our work with Plan In A Box, an open-source tool OpenPlans is developing to make it easy to put an effective, engaging public face on planning projects. See you next year! Kelly Donahue is an Operations Associate at OpenPlans.
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Green infrastructure can completely change the feeling of a space while providing environmental benefits. m_CITY | Spring 2014
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Faculty Article
Elliott Maltby
Green Infrastructure I want to talk to you about the imagination, a free, widely available, radical, and transformative tool that can and will impact the future sustainability and resiliency of our cities. It is a tool we must wield with care and precision, one that links the absurd and the possible.
from the combined sewer system, means that we have persuasive evidence of green infrastructure’s success thus far. Tangible numbers show the comparative impact of different types of solutions and enable both on the ground improvement and broader implementation.
I began writing this article about data collection strategies and methods for green roofs. I anticipated discussing New York City examples
But in the back of my mind there was a slight snag, some ill-formed ambivalence, the sensation that there was something inherently at
to expand the smaller scaled, more nimble and precisely targeted solutions for creating cities that are not only capable of ‘bouncing back’ but work actively to make our urban environment better ecologically and more socially just. Increasing commitment to green infrastructure can be seen as a promising pivot away from our reliance on technology to solve the problems of the city. One of the many compelling aspects of green infrastructure is that it is, or
A proposed green infrastructure redesign for a parking lot in Red Hook, Brooklyn. like the compelling energy savings analysis being done at Linda Tool and what might be the most appropriate weather station system for the Pratt Institute’s new North Hall green roof. The importance of quantifiable metrics cannot be overstated. Knowing how much cooler a green roof is than a typical black roof, how much water is diverted
odds in the task at hand. Then it occurred to me: wasn’t the earnest belief in technology as a panacea what lead to the [now outmoded] gray infrastructure approach? Large, technologically complex urban interventions may still be tempting given the impact of recent events such as Sandy, but we need 7
can be, amazingly low tech. In an curious way, it is a solution that predates the problem. But it would be a gross simplification to describe green infrastructure as a reinstatement of pre-existing water systems. And here is where the imagination enters. Imagination makes the leap from understanding an ecological m_CITY | Spring 2014
process, for instance the ability of plants to absorb and clean water, to the implementation of that process [or an approximation of that process] in a specific place, with unique social and ecological requirements. Imagination introduces cultural programming, seeing job training and recreation benefits bundled with ecological improvements. It recalibrates a best practice and hybridizes it with another use, as with the Camp-in Lot from the PSPD’s summer 2013 Green Infrastructure studio. The team proposed implementing familiar sustainable strategies for transforming parking lots - and then pushed the idea further by overlaying educational camp-
One of the scarcest resources for the urban dweller’s imagination is time.
humans, in favor of one that posits ecosystems are unpredictable, open places, where disturbance is a likely component, rather than an anomaly. This is unstable ground on which to work - but extremely exciting nonetheless. Now, this is a short article, and I have used the term technology without nuance, I’ve done nothing to distinguish between the many types and applications of technology. I am simply making a case that technology is one tool - not the tool to reflexively reach for. As humans we come equipped with other powerful tools that allow us to re-imagine our relationship with our environment, and ourselves.
One of the scarcest resources for the urban dweller’s imagination is time. Yes, “chance favors the prepared mind”, but in addition to the preparation, the mind must be open to chance. Chance [and the imagination to find meaning in chance] requires time that is fallow; time that is neither “productive” nor distracted. So I’ll end with an invitation: take an afternoon off and explore a part of the city you have never been to before, go without expectation or agenda - and without your phone. Elliott Maltby is an adjunct Professor in the PSPD and GAUD programs at Pratt Institute.
Green roofs and green installations such as this can create dynamic ecosystems
ing with the parking, and resolving these seeming contradictory uses through design. From the success of a single green roof, imagination looks out over the cityscape, and envisions a robust patchwork of linked ecosystems, a broad range species habitat at the upper level of the city. These are “solutions that beget solutions”, to use my favorite turn of phrase from Wendell Berry. And they also share evidence of the relatively new ecosystem paradigm that sees humans, and our cities, within the fold. This non-equilibrium paradigm jettisons the old understanding of ecosystems as stable, self-regulating systems, without m_CITY | Spring 2014
A Final Thought
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Faculty Article
Jessie Braden
SAVI:
Working Toward a Multidisciplinary GIS initiative at Pratt By now, many of you have heard of the Spatial Analysis and Visualization Initiative (SAVI) at Pratt Institute. SAVI is a multidisciplinary Geographic Information Systems (GIS)-centered initiative that provides students, faculty, and community organizers access to data, guidance on analytical methods, software and tool training, and technical assistance. All in combination with professional, visually compelling outputs. Over the past two years, SAVI has been under development as a side project by co-founders John Shapiro, Juan Camilo Osorio, and Jessie Braden of the Pratt Center for Community Development. The three cofounders worked tirelessly to garner support for the initiative and Braden was recently hired by Pratt Institute as SAVI’s full time director. This has enabled SAVI to operate in earnest, and with the assistance of several multi-disciplinary graduate assistants, SAVI has: •
Created the first permanent spatial data library at Pratt Institute (available as a desktop folder on all Brooklyn campus computers).
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Provided access to census data during the Federal government shut down.
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Worked with RAMP studios on the GIS aspects of their courses.
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Begun providing general GIS support to undergrad and graduate architecture courses.
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Built relationships with several Pratt Institute departments. For example, SAVI is partnering with Arts and Education Design on grant projects this fall.
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Completed small mapping projects for several communitybased clients including Lott CDC and Jamaica Center BID.
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Drafted a series of GIS-based tutorials that will soon be available via the spatial data library.
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Finally, SAVI is also developing a for credit GIS certificate
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program through Pratt’s Center for Continuing and Professional Studies that is expect to launch in the Fall of 2014. SAVI is a joint endeavor of the Programs for Sustainable Planning & Development (PSPD), the Pratt Center for Community Development (Pratt Center), and the graduate Communications + Package Design Department (ComD) and is overseen by the Office of the Provost. The initiative is operating virtually for now but will have a permanent space in the ISC building in the spring of 2014. For more information contact SAVI@ pratt.edu or visit http://prattpspd.com/ pratt-institute-spatial-analysis-visualization-initiative/
m_CITY | Spring 2014
RAMP Update
Christopher Rice
Recovery, Adaptation, Mitigation and In the Fall of 2013, the RAMP initiative focused on communities in Coney Island through the lens of community planning, architecture, communication design, and sustainable environmental systems. There was a particular focus on both the residents and physical structures of The New York City Housing Authority in Coney Island. Undergraduate architecture students focused on adapting Coney Island and Gravesend Houses, while the community-planning studio worked with NYCHA tenant leaders to create a comprehensive community based resilience plan for a more connected and resilient Coney Island. Sustainable Environmental Systems students worked to develop a series of implementable strategies to transform Coney Island NYCHA sites into sustainable public housing with zero energy buildings.
mechanisms for financing the social, economic and infrastructure needs of New York and other cities to increase their resiliency. The conference, which was sponsored by several community based organizations and focused on top down policy based finance alternatives, and the financing of on-the-ground measures facilitated by non-profit organizations, with a particular focus on investments that meet the needs of low-income communities and communities of color. Ron Shiffman [Pratt Institute] Bettina
www.rampfinancing.com Christopher Rice is a second year student in the City Regional and Planning Program.
Ron Shiffman speaking about Financing an Equitable and Resilient Future
Knowledge sharing across disciplines was facilitated through a series of intrastudio salons, which gave students the opportunity to share site analyses, expertise, and challenges in the planning and design process. Students also participated in a sketch problem, which allowed students to develop and share their perspective while envisioning a more resilient Coney Island. RAMP also held a conference – Financing an Equitable and Resilient Future – which explored innovative m_CITY | Spring 2014
Damiani [Good Jobs New York], Maya Wiley [The Center for Social Inclusion], and Duzan Doepel [Professor of Sustainable Architecture and Urban Planning at Knowledge Sustainable Solutions] set the framework of the event, calling for social inclusion, transparency, and models for a circular economy.
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PSPD students discuss NYCHA housing during a RAMP salon. 11
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Judges discuss the “Flexing with the Tide” entry at the 3C Competition in October 2013 m_CITY | Spring 2014
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Alumni Spotlight
Leonel Ponce
Flexing with the Tide
Large-Scale Urban Planning and Development Building sustainable, long-term housing and planning strategies for the New York City area requires flexible solutions for a diverse coastline threatened by climate change. When faced with this task in Long Island’s South Shore, New York Institute of Technology students decided to take a creative approach. In February of 2013, they launched the Comprehensive Coastal Communities competition, a design challenge open to the public where each team proposed housing and neighborhood solutions for specific cities affected by Hurricane Sandy. Movers & Shakers, a team comprised of Pratt PSPD
students and alumni, submitted an entry entitled “Flexing With the Tide.” The resulting proposal won second place from over 60 entries in a ceremony at NYIT’s Auditorium in Manhattan on Thursday, October 10th, 2013. Team members Leonel Lima Ponce, Ross Diamond, Roxanne Earley, Osi Kaminer, Tyler Klifman, Elaine Mahoney, Lenny Resiner and Shane McCabe developed a complementary solution of modular housing and wetland conservation easements for Canarsie, Brooklyn. Specific attention was paid to
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adaptive strategies that mimic the flexibility and redundancy of natural systems, taking into account the context of the ecological and urban communities nearby. Conservation easements, modular housing, “buyback” programs, residential housing support and economic incentives are all essential elements of this resilient neighborhood design. The success of the proposal hinges on a phased adaptation strategy that blurs the lines between human and estuarine habitat. Much of Canarsie’s footprint is landfilled tidal wetlands with single-family detached and semi-detached
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homes. Wetland restoration in the form of backyard easements recognizes the community value in wetlands as coastal protection elements. As flooding events from extreme weather become more common over time, the risk of living along the waterfront in Canarsie will greatly increase. Homes along the waterfront will be phased out through land-swap and buy-back programs, for which homes in high risk inland areas will also be eligible. These programs, however, will be elective, and for those who wish to stay, assistance will be provided to raise their home’s elevation through the phased incorporation of modular housing components. Elevated modular housing is phased in, beginning at the water’s edge and replacing existing housing in phases. An off-grid mechanical room module is added in the side yard, and compact living modules are installed to replace basement rental apartments. Acm_CITY | Spring 2014
cess is provided by a stair module through the constructed wetlands, treating greywater and wastewater for non-potable reuse while providing nutrient provisions to the backyard wetland spines. As sea level and storm surge elevations continue to rise, the existing house with wet-proofed basement is demolished, and tenants are moved to nearby temporary housing as homeowners move into the compact prefab unit. The house is demolished, and more expansive elevated modules are installed in its place. Tenants move back into the original prefab units, and adopt a decentralized, off-grid lifestyle. Flexible, phased modular housing allows residents to maintain vital home functions, above flooding elevations, and change their properties in ways that best suit them. Backyard wetland spines will nurture engagement between residents and Jamaica Bay ecology. This symbiotic relationship emerges through long-term co14
habitation, and provides the benefits of green infrastructure and new communal open space in the middle and long-term. Programs such as wetland stewards, on-site education, and citizen science environmental monitoring bring residents closer to the Jamaica Bay and its ecology, providing avenues for career development and workforce development. Through a renewed sense of unity with nature, the built environment becomes a component of a combined network, integrating human habitats into the larger ecological landscape. “Flexing With The Tide” takes into consideration all inhabitants of Canarsie and Jamaica Bay; human residents participate in the planning, construction and stewardship stages, while flora and fauna are reincorporated into the urban landscape of a prosperous community. Leonel is a graduate of Pratt’s Urban Environmental System Management Program and a Junior Architect with Darius Toraby Architects.
Graduate Studio
Jess Baldwin and Lakan Cole
Talking Presevation with Adam Lopes PSPD Historic Preservation graduate student, Adam Lopes, is no stranger to technology. Having earned his undergraduate degree in architecture from Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston, he is well versed in contemporary programs utilized in the field of architecture like Rhino and AutoCad. However, while working under the direction of Pratt’s Historic Preservation professor, Theodore Prudon, PhD, FAIA, partner of Prudon & Partners, and President of DoCoMoMo US, this past summer, Adam learned that some maneuvering of the built environment still requires a personal touch. We caught Adam waiting on the G-train one night after class and asked him to share with us his experience with preservation technology: How was your summer? It was good, not long enough but I guess they never are. I spent the summer working with Theo, in his office Prudon & Partners. What were you working on in the office? I mostly surveyed and documented the existing conditions of a restoration project that Prudon & Partners is undertaking.
Historic Preservation student Adam Lopes What’s the name of the project and are there any other details you can share? It’s a restoration of the bell tower on Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, located on the corner of Madison Avenue and 70th Street. It was built in 1899 by Ware & Sons and the limestone bell tower is starting to show its age as well as complications from years of pollution and poor 15
maintenance. Some elements of the tower, including the corner pinnacles, have begun to lean out of plane making them dangerous to pedestrians below and also making the tower more susceptible to water damage. Much of the stone suffers from delamination, spalling and fracturing. These issues are happening because of water infiltration, and a lack of maintenance management over time. The stone also has a lot of discoloring m_CITY | Spring 2014
due to pollutants it has faced over its 114 year life on Madison Ave. What does a survey of existing conditions entail, particularly with the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church? We had to get up close and personal. This meant climbing up the scaffolding surrounding the bell tower and photographing every inch of the tower. Myself and another colleague had to measure virtually every dimension, this included everything from the overall dimensions to the smallest detail on each pinnacle. We also documented and categorized each stone; marking its placement, orientation and coloring. We then took our documented dimensions, stone classifications and field notes back to the office where we transferred much of the information into technical drawings that will then be used in the restoration process.
camera and steady hand. We also used a plum rope, which is essentially a rope with a weight at the bottom that allows us to measure and document where certain elements had fallen out of plane, and approximately how far out of plane they had fallen over the years. This is not a new technology, nor is it overly complex, but it is certainly efficient and effective. This “old-school” technology allowed for us to gain a more one on one experience with the building and to really help us understand the history and value of the building since we were feeling its very weight under us. How is preservation technology different from that of the general architecture field? In many ways, both fields are inter-related. Much of the tech-
Jess Baldwin and Lakan Cole are second year Historic Preservation Students at Pratt Institute.
Restoration of the bell tower of Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church.
What type of technology did you use for this project? Today, preservation technology has expanded to include an abundance of state-of-the-art equipment and techniques such as laser scanning, thermal scanning, sonar pulse readings, material analysis, and more; but for this particular project, much of the work entailed an up-close and hands-on approach, which may be considered “old-school.” Many measurements were taken by hand, with a tape measure, angle, or in rare cases a basic laser. Much of the documentation relied simply on the human eye and awareness as well as a trusty m_CITY | Spring 2014
nologies used by architectural preservationists are technologies normally seen in a general architectural practice. At least I would like to think so. I think the differences seen are in the disconnections or disassociations between the two disciplines.. Preservationists who concern themselves with the built environment need to take it upon themselves to develop an understanding of the theory, methods, and the materiality of architecture, and vice versa. This would at least lead to more conscious decision making and connect the two disciplines together helping preservationists and architects become more technologically savvy.
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“Before you become too entranced with gorgeous gadgets and mesmerizing video displays, let me remind you that information is not knowledge, knowledge is not wisdom, and wisdom is not foresight. Each grows out of the other, and we need them all.� -Arthur C. Clarke
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m_CITY | Spring 2014
Graduate Studio Faculty Article
Evren Uzer
Garden Gadgets
Nurturing Maker Culture within PSPD Every September, a curious crowd of makers and professional amateurs fill the area around New York’s Hall of Science in Queens. The event, Maker Faire marks an exciting meeting spot for makers of electronics, robotics, metal and woodwork as well as all sorts of arts and crafts. It is an extension of Do-It-Yourself (DIY) culture and the common denominator for all high tech and lo fi projects. Maker Faire attendees look for new and unique applications of techniques and technologies. These faires and maker culture supports and
encourages invention, prototyping and tinkering. Hands on practical skills are valued as much if not more than others. There are also Hackerspaces, Fablabs or biohacking community’s. Wet labs like Genspace in NYC (Wohlsen, 2012 ) offer experimenting spaces for all the DIY enthusiasts who normally work on projects in their kitchens or garages. A project born out of a group of such enthusiast working at a local hackerspace, Safecast , is based in Japan and creates
Students attend PSPD’s Green Infrastructure Workshops m_CITY | Spring 2014
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crowd-sourced maps using open source electronics for DIY radiation monitoring. They began with a group of 100 volunteers after the Fukushima Nuclear plant spill in Japan in 2011. They created public awareness on the extent of contamination (both geographically and the way it spread on land) and created data that was not publicly available via government’s monitoring agencies due to secrecy policies with the purpose of not creating panic. Safecast now works on radia-
tion contamination globally and shares the collected data as well as their tools. Environmental issues are becoming a wider public concern. Ecology is a common theme in a substantial amount of maker projects. Projects like Farmhack or Open Source Ecology (OSE) Project gather people working on these issues to build up databases and experiment on tools, techniques and hacking secrets, which would then be available to the public. There is an impressive amount of work building up around air quality monitoring devices and crowdsourced environmental databases as well, such as NYC based AirCasting which lent air monitoring devices at NYC Maker Faire 2013 to monitor the air during the Faire period which was then mapped online . Almost all ma-
jor Maker Faire events also host educators and encourage them to share knowledge and experience on using technology in education, with environmental education as one of the main themes. Pratt Institute’s program in Urban Environmental Systems Management (UESM) participated the Maker Faire NYC in 2012 and 2013 with presentations on Green Infrastructure (GI) Design and Technology Workshops. In 2012, Pratt Institute was awarded a Green Infrastructures Grant from the New York City Department of Environmental Protection. In addition to meeting the grant goal of diverting storm water from the City’s sewer system, the Pratt GI project team (UESM Program in particular) went further. Pratt’s proposal focused on the enhancement of biodiversity, cre-
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ation of demonstration projects for local job training programs, and the development of a series of public outreach activities. The GI Design and Technology workshops are a part of these activities and each one is carried out in partnership with an expert or a group with the aim of nurturing DIY technology and design knowledge focusing on environmental issues while making the invisible aspects of GI projects visible. We have initiated 5 workshops so far. The first two focused on monitoring, the second on composting & recycling and last two on toxicity and representation of pollution. Our first workshop Garden Gadgets, focused on the proposed 5,400 sq ft green roof to be built on The Institute’s North Hall. We collaborated with open source
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Icons for the series of Green Infrastructure workshops hosted at Pratt. electronics group Arduino’s cofounder David Cuartielles. We focused on building a prototype for a distant irrigation gadget, which would monitor the moisture level of the soil and alert a mobile phone based membership when irrigation was needed. The first respondent could through sms messaging, trigger the irrigation system for the garden. This prototype became a project now, which we are working on integrating into the North Hall green roof’s planned system.
Vermicomposting, we engaged the local community of students and neighbors to consider composting on their own personal scale. In collaboration with Kate Zidar, from Newtown Creek Alliance and the Lower East Side Ecology Center, we helped workshop participants start their own vermicomposting systems. The workshop was extended by a 3 month monitoring experiment in which we asked participants to document their personal waste diversion.
In our second workshop, Aerial Mapping, we worked with citizen science group Public Laboratory who predominantly works with environmental issues. Together, with Liz Barry of Public Lab, we worked through their techniques of mapping with helium filled balloons on the second proposed GI campus project, a retrofit of the parking lot on Classon and Dekalb Avenues. The workshop allowed us to capture a “pre-green” aerial image of the parking lot. On our third workshop, Vagabond
On the fourth workshop, Composting @ work we, together with Pratt’s Facilities team looked at institutional level composting. We were joined by large scale composting groups within NYC such as the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, the Gowanus Canal Conservancy and the Lower East Side Ecology Center. In our fifth and final workshop, we looked at contaminants in soil and phytoremediation as a technique to remediate the soil. This workshop’s monitoring portion, a soil analysis both pre and
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post planting is ongoing. We hope to realize a sixth workshop in Spring 2014 on visualizing environmental data. We plan to continue expanding the Design and Technology workshop model by establishing working groups in relation to the GI projects at Pratt. In doing so, the UESM program aims to increase the interaction between the Pratt community and the urban environment by introducing a dialogue on environmental issues into our everyday agenda with a focus on enabling the participation of attendees from diverse backgrounds to build up both a material and knowledge database at Pratt for future projects and collaborations. Evren Uzer is a visiting assitant professor in the Programs for Sustainable Planning and Development.
Graduate Studio Abroad
James Lloyd
Public Space in Japan In May of 2013 a group of 19 professors and students, including myself, from Pratt’s School of Architecture embarked on a 17-day trip through Japan. The group had spent the previous several weeks studying Japanese history, culture, and urbanism, and would continue to work during the remainder of the summer. Professor Jonathan Martin, planner and architect, led the group, ably assisted by co-instructor Alexa Fabrega, a graduate of Sustainable Environmental Systems program who grew up in Japan and is
both fluent in Japa nese and culturally competent. Professor Martin, who created the course, was particularly well suited to lead it given his significant familiarity with Japanese culture (due in no small part to his marriage to a Japanese planner) and a deep professional interest in Japanese architecture and urbanism. And Professor Martin secured the support of the Japan Foundation, whose backing allowed the whole endeavor to occur. Studying planning in New York City can lead to a very New Yorkcentric education, and, when looking beyond New York, horizons tend to end at the US border. While such education can prepare students to quite
Students studied pedestrian-oriented street design as part of their time in Japan. 21
competently practice planning in an American context, a US-only education impairs the ability to practice internationally and also prevents students from learning about solutions and problems that present themselves abroad. International training was therefore a fundamental rationale for the course. Professor Martin encouraged the class to see what they could learn from Japan, rather than imposing their own norms. Of the students selected to go on the trip, slightly more than half were city planning, with the remainder a mix of historic
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preservation, environmental systems management, and undergraduate architecture students. And this interesting mix of students leads to a second rationale for the course – the examination of architecture, planning, and preservation in concert, rather than as isolated individual disciplines. The particular group of students was well suited to this approach, particularly given that several among us were architects that were now pursuing planning or environmental degrees. While Professor Martin and Alexa managed (or corralled) us on a day-to-day basis, there was a whole team of additional instructors that made the trip a rich experience. Namiko Martin, Prof. Martin’s wife, was a co-instructor who worked behind
the scenes to make the course possible. Additionally, there was a host of local professionals and academics that would join us for one or more days of instruction: Professor Sasaki Yoh of the Tokyo Institute of Technology, community planner; Professor Nakai Norihiro of Waseda University, disaster planner; Professor Julian Worrall of Waseda University, architecture scholar; Ms. Morokuma Benika, graduate of Columbia University preservation program; Mr. Nakamura Akira, Gensler architect and Pratt Institute graduate; and, of course, Rasmus and Jeanette Frisk of arki_lab, architects and urban designers who have worked with famed Danish urban designer Jan Gehl, champion of walkability and human scale architecture.
The Nagakin Capsule Tower is an example of Metabolist architecture, a 20th century architecture movement in Japan. m_CITY | Spring 2014
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While in Tokyo we stayed at the National Olympic Memorial Youth Center (NOMYC), a combination hostel/conference center in the middle of Tokyo, next to Yoyogi Park and only two train stops from Shinjuku. A given day would typically begin with a lecture at NOMYC of a local university from one of the guest instructors, such as Julian Worrall lecturing on railway urbanism, followed by a walking tour of the associated section of Tokyo. During this walking tour we might stop and draw in our ever-present red leather notebooks – given the goal of integrating design and planning, students drew urban scenes in plan, section, and perspective. However, every day was also an opportunity for data collection. To focus our efforts, and also to support Prof. Martin’s research goals, the class was divided into three research teams, each focusing on a different aspect of Japanese public space – social, formal, and historic/regulatory. These research projects formed the primary products of our summer’s work. As an example, Jessica Baldwin, a preservation student and architect in the historic/regulatory group, conducted a case study of preservation efforts directed towards the Nagakin Capsule Tower, one of the seminal works of the Metabolist movement within Modern architecture. We were able to visit the Nagakin Capsule Tower, as well as many, many significant architectural pieces ranging from traditional, pre-Meiji temples and shrines (the Meiji restoration occurred in 1868), Meiji-era buildings, early 20th century works including a notable Frank Lloyd Wright struc-
A group photo of the students and faculty who traveled to Japan for Professor Martin’s class.
ture, Modernist works, and contemporary architecture as well.
complete with tatami mats, futons, and traditional bathrobes.
But our walking tours also included districts notable for urban design or preservation, such as the Kagurazaka district, famous for its roji, or ultra-narrow walking streets currently under threat from contemporary building codes that require setbacks. This emphasis on architecture and preservation took us to Kyoto, the historic imperial capital, which was never bombed during the war and consequently contains a wealth of historic architecture and temples – while there we stayed in a traditional Japanese guesthouse
And finally, our work included tours of neighborhoods led by students and local residents and associated planning workshops. As an example, Prof. Nakai Norihiro of Waseda University took us to Mukojima, an area of Tokyo particular vulnerable to fire and earthquake due to its wooden buildings and narrow streets, where local residents walked us through the area and showed us how the local government, in collaboration with a community planning group or machizukuri, was widening streets, building subsidized hous23
ing, and installing sidewalks, all in order to help prevent the area from being destroyed by fire in the event of an earthquake. The trip has been documented in a blog, which can be found at: http://prattintokyo.wordpress.com as well as in the final reports currently held by Prof. Martin. James Lloyd is a second year student in the City and Regional Planning Program.
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PSPD Accomplishments The Pratt Center’s Joan Byron, Director of Policy, wrote an article for Transportation Alternatives’ Reclaim magazine titled
“Building a Transit System within a City.” It discussed providing transportation to ALL of New York City’s residents through new programs like Select Bus Service. ---
http://transalt.org/news/magazine/2013/Fall/2
Pratt PSPD alum Samuel Hornick was featured in a New York Times article looking back over his career at the New York City Department of City Planning. Mr. Hornick was involved in PlaNYC, New York’s Waterfront plan, as well as the New York City Affordable Housing Program. ---
duce alternative forms of energy. “There’s so much opportunity here that will benefit the whole area. It’s fun. It’s exciting,” Jackie says.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/29/ nyregion/retirement-ends-4-decadecareer-of-drafting-big-plans-for-newyork-city.html
Tracing the City: Interventions of Art in Public Space, a conference held Oc-
Seth Taylor, Pratt City and Regional Planning alumnus and Executive Director of 82nd Street
tober 10-12, 2013 at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and Dalhousie University in Halifax featured a talk by Naomi Seixas, PSPD alumna. The talk centered around Naomi’s paper “Does Art Matter? Assessing the Social Value of Public Art in New York City’s Transit System” which was based on her Master’s thesis.
a video highlighting the work Over the next two years CRP grad, that the 82nd Street Part- Jackie Bejma’s Land, nership is doing with local Inc’s will oversee “Green merchants in Jackson Heights, El- T”, a project to transform DePartnership, produced
mhurst, and Corona, Queens ---
http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=RJugIlIUYr0 m_CITY | Spring 2014
troit’s Mack Avenue corridor into a multi-modal thoroughfare which will also repurpose adjacent vacant lots into green spaces to pro24
PSPD’s Pratt Disaster Resiliency Network (PDRN) and RAMP - Recovery Adapta-
tion Mitigation and Planning were featured in Pratt’s Gateway newsletter, highlighting their work after Superstorm Sandy to shine light on disadvantaged communities in the aftermath of the disaster. Ron Shiffman talked to Gateway about RAMP in a video as well: --http://gateway.pratt.edu/expert-faculty-sept13/
of the land-bank process in New York State and other places in the United States: ---
http://www.planning.org/divisions/ planningandlaw/newsletter/2013/pdf/ sum.pdf
“An Unassuming Liberal Makes a Rapid Ascent to Power Broker,” an
article in the New York Times,
profiled Brad Lander, Pratt alum and former Executive Director of the Pratt Center for Community Development. The article discussed Brad’s experience in New York City’s planning environment including this community organizing techniques and experience working as the City Councilmember for Brooklyn’s 39th District in Park Slope.
--http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/24/ nyregion/unassuming-liberal-suddenly-becomes-council-kingmaker. html
Ron Shiffman won APA’s NY MetroChapter’s Journalism award for print, broadcast, Pratt
PSPD
Professor
or web-based work for the book Beyond Zuccotti Park : Freedom of Assembly and the Occupation of Public Space which he coedited with Rick Bell. ---
http://www.nyplanning.org/comm_ awards.html
Lee Wellington, pursuing a joint degree in Law and City Planning at Pratt and Brooklyn Law School, was featured in the APA’s Planning and Law Division’s Summer 2013 newsletter. Lee’s article,
“Land Banking In Focus: New York Joins the Ranks of States Authorizing Local Land-Banking Entities,” discussed the ins and outs
Quilian Riano was recently awarded a 2014 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise. The Vilcek PSPD professor
Professor Eddie Bautista
City Atlas recently interviewed Pratt City and Regional Planning
Executive Director of the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance, Eddie Bautista. In the Professor and
interview, Eddie discusses how he first got involved in Environmental Justice work and the campaigns and communities that NYC - EJA is working with. --http://newyork.thecityatlas.org/people/eddie-bautista/
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Prizes are awarded to immigrants who have had a significant impact on American art. The awarding committee cited his creativity in utitilizing design to address urban planning and social justice needs. ---
http://www.vilcek.org/prizes/prize-recipients/2014.html https://inside.pratt.edu/?p=13282
“Resiliency Solutions: By Red Hook/For Red Hook,” an open forum on post-Sandy resiliency in Red Hook was held on February 6th, 2014 in the Red Hook, Brooklyn by the Pratt Center for Community Development. Local architects discussed and presented community-specific building resiliency strategies. m_CITY | Spring 2014
Pratt Center co-convened the forum in partnership with Fifth Avenue Committee, Red Hook Volunteers, Architecture for Humanity, and Enterprise Community Partners. ---
http://prattcenter.net/news-events/ events/resiliency-solutions-red-hook/ red-hook
New York City’s WNYC Radio’s Matthew Sherman talked to
na Bulman
Ela-
of the Pratt Center for Community Development about Floodproofing homes and streets in Sheepshead Bay to prevent damage from storms like Hurricane Sandy. Designs from Gans Architecture were also featured as possible design solutions for the area. Deborah Gans, of Gans Architecture is a professor in the Pratt Architecture program. --http://www.wnyc.org/story/it-reallydoes-take-a-village-to-rebuild/
Ron Shiffman’s new book, “Building Together Case Studies in Participatory Planning and Community Building” is now available through the New Village Press: --h t t p : / / w w w. n e w v i l l a g e p r e s s . n e t / book/?GCOI=97660100841460
The cover of this issue is a QR code that will take you directly to a Youtube video of Pratt City and Regional Planning Professor Juan Camilo Osorio discussing the role of technology in the planning process. QR scanners are a downloadable application for smartphones that use the camera in your phone to identify square codes that contain information- often in the form of a website, image, or video. QR codes are a new way to quickly link people with information and are being used all over the world. If you do not have a smartphone, Juan Camilo’s video can still be accessed using the following link: http://youtu.be/W31MVWguors Thanks for reading!
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