Neighborhoods Now: 82nd Street Partnership by Van Alen Institute

Neighborhoods Now

Dear friend,

for small businesses on how to apply for relief loans. They drafted legal templates for short-term leases to occupy vacant storefronts. They collaborated with senior staff at City agencies to help neighborhoods access programs like Open Streets and Open Restaurants.

As the pandemic took root in our city in March, its uneven impact on the lives of New Yorkers quickly became painfully clear. While our city’s well-resourced communities and businesses benefit from the ability to purchase expertise, the The work is far from over. Many of these firms are committed neighborhoods where many of our essential workers live do to continuing these partnerships in service of long-term not have the same access and resources. efforts to address systemic inequities and greater community In response, the Urban Design Forum and Van Alen Institute ambitions. The need for this work is profound, and we hope this effort inspires the design community to come together in tapped into our collective network of architects, designers, continued service of New York’s neighborhoods. Ultimately, and engineers. In a matter of weeks, more than 65 firms the long term value of this approach will be the alliances mobilized to support the recovery of four neighborhoods forged across demographic and professional boundaries. hit particularly hard by the pandemic: Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn; Jackson Heights, Queens; Kingsbridge, Bronx; and We are humbled by this outstanding display of teamwork, Washington Heights, Manhattan. To date, these firms — including architects, planners, engineers, graphic designers, creative problem solving, and immense generosity. We thank the 200+ community experts and practitioners who and attorneys — have contributed thousands of hours of pro have given their time and passion, and we look forward to bono expertise to support fellow New Yorkers. continuing the work. In partnership with community leaders, they piloted open-air With gratitude, extensions for restaurants, created neighborhood signage with COVID-19 health protocols, and developed proposals Deborah Marton for relocating community events and educational programs Executive Director, Van Alen Institute into open space. Our partner neighborhoods’ needs also went far deeper than design, so our working groups expanded their support beyond physical interventions. They organized a seminar

Daniel McPhee Executive Director, Urban Design Forum

Neighborhoods Now

The use of the information contained in this document is at the sole risk of the user, and the Van Alen Institute and the Urban Design Forum shall not be responsible for, or liable in any way for, the accuracy, completeness or any other matter with respect to the contents herein. The user hereby assumes all risks of the use of the information, and irrevocably and unconditionally waives, releases and discharges the Van Alen Institute and the Urban Design Forum and its direct and indirect members, directors, officers, employees, agents, affiliates, volunteers and representatives, from any and all liability of any kind or nature whatsoever, in connection with the matters contained herein, and the use of the information contained herein.

Neighborhoods Now - Jackson Heights Report August 12, 2020 VAL COLLECTIVE

Neighborhoods Now About the Program In New York City and across the country, the COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected communities of color. This crisis threatens to shutter small businesses and expand the racial wealth gap in neighborhoods that already lack access to resources and capital as a result of long-term structural inequity and racism. In response, the Urban Design Forum and Van Alen Institute have launched Neighborhoods Now to channel pro-bono resources from New Yorkbased design firms into community-driven recovery strategies. In May, the Urban Design Forum and Van Alen Institute offered to advise members of the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development, a coalition of community groups across New York City, on their reopening strategies this summer. As the city reopens on a broader scale, this initiative aims to support hard-hit and under-resourced neighborhoods by devising reopening strategies that serve their specific needs.

Volunteer Architects Limited SO – IL • LTL Architects • ARO • MOS • nARCHITECTS • WORKac • Frederick Tang Architecture • Kalos Eidos • Office of Tangible Space • Some People Studio • Studio Fōr Worrell/Yeung with The 82nd Street Partnership, Jackson Heights

Team

wants diversity to thrive SO – IL was born in New York in 2008. iverse in origin, our team of collaborators speaks a dozen languages and is informed by global narratives and perspective. We are both locally-rooted and nationless, coming together as a mid-size, wellrecognized company. With our ambitious private and public clients, we explore how the creation of environments and objects inspires lasting positive intellectual and societal engagement. We have completed projects in Leon, Seoul, and Lisbon, as well as our hometown, Brooklyn, New York. In a digitized world that increasingly draws one inward, our architecture is outward-looking, engendering meaningful dialogue with what is materially and psychologically outside of ourselves. We design with time in mind. Whether working with existing structures or building from the ground, we investigate carefully, not only physical properties but also history. We have been featured in the New York Times, CNN, and Frankfurter Algemeine. Our work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Art Institute of Chicago. Our team has received numerous accolades, including the Vilcek Award, the Curbed Groundbreakers Award, and the MoMAPS1 Young Architects Program Award. Our New York practice is led by Jing Liu and Florian Idenburg.

Project Team (Coordinating Firm): Jing Liu, Emma Silverblatt, Ray Rui Wu, Summer Liu

seeks innovative use of the city streets

strengthens cultural capital

revive community by design

LTL Architects (Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis) is a New York based design intensive architecture firm founded in 1997 by twin brothers Paul Lewis, David J. Lewis, and Marc Tsurumaki. LTL Architects engage a diverse range of work, from large scale academic and cultural buildings to interiors and speculative research projects. Based on a belief that architecture and interior space is the critical site for human social interaction, LTL Architects design carefully choreograph spaces and social relationships to improve and enhance exchanges between people. They realize inventive solutions by turning the very constraints of each project into the design trajectory, exploring opportunistic overlaps between space, program, form, budget and materials. Over the 23 years of practice, their work has been recognized internationally for synthesizing design excellence and tectonic innovation.

Architecture Research Office (ARO) is the New York City firm led by Stephen Cassell, Kim Yao, and Adam Yarinsky. Since 1993, ARO has earned a reputation for architecture that unites beauty and form with strategy and intelligence. The firm’s diverse project portfolio— spanning strategic planning, architecture and urban design—is united by a principled and engaged approach to design, collaborative process, and technical precision, always in an effort to achieve the greatest aesthetic impact with the fewest natural and financial resources. This philosophy has earned the firm over one hundred design awards including the 2020 AIA Architecture Firm Award, the AIA New York State Firm of the Year Award, and the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award for Architecture.

Formed in March, 2020, Design Advocates (D/A) is a collaborative network of leading independent design firms providing pro-bono services to critical community organizations and nonprofits, small businesses, institutions, and civic agencies to help them adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. Design Advocates works with organizations that serve the public good, and conducts research and advocacy to envision a more vibrant, equitable, and diverse City. D/A is developing reopening strategies for New York City public schools, daycares, libraries, galleries, performance venues, and museums; rethinking transitional homeless housing; adapting nonprofit workplace and program spaces; and working with disadvantaged small businesses to help develop reopening strategies and outdoor dining opportunities.

The principals are co-authors of the best-selling book Manual of Section (Princeton Architectural Press, 2016), which has been translated into German, Korean, Japanese and Taiwanese; monographs, Intensities (Princeton Architectural Press, 2013), Opportunistic Architecture (Princeton Architectural Press, 2008) and Situation Normal....Pamphlet Architecture #21 (Princeton Architectural Press, 1998). The three Principals of LTL Architect are dedicated teachers and are committed to the advancement of the discipline of architecture in contemporary culture. Paul Lewis is Professor and Associate Dean at Princeton University and the current President of The Architectural League of New York. David J. Lewis holds academic positions as Professor at Parsons School of Design and Adjunct Professor of Architecture at the University of Limerick, Ireland. Marc Tsurumaki is an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University, and President of Storefront for Art and Architecture.

Project Team (Coordinating Firm): David J. Lewis, Marc Tsurumaki, Paul Lewis, Shane Algiere, Barrington Calvert, Jay Schairbaum

Project Team: Kim Yao, Daniel Kuehn, Kevin Ellingson

Project Team: Studio Fōr : Fauzia Khanani, Saira Mussani, Adina Bauman Frederick Tang Architecture : Frederick Tang, Melissa Braxton Kalos Eidos : Ryan Brooke Thomas Office of Tangible Space : Michael Yarinsky Some People Studio : Kiki Goti Worrell Yeung : Max Worrell, Jejon Yeung

Team Community Partners greens & screens

wonders how can Vacancy be productive

wants to eat on the street

an enormous thank you to

nARCHITECTS is a Brooklyn based architecture office led by founding partners Eric Bunge and Mimi Hoang. Our work instigates interactions between buildings, public space, and their dynamically changing context. Across social and environmental change, we empower the communities with whom we work and design architecture for a world in flux. In recent projects such as Carmel Place (New York City’s first micro unit building), the design center A/D/O, the NYS Equal Rights Heritage Center, and the renovation of Chicago Navy Pier, nARCHITECTS is tackling the most pressing issues that our cities face – how we live, work and activate public spaces in response to our nation’s changing demographics, housing shortage, evolving modes of work and the need for equality in the public realm.

MOS is an internationally renowned New York– based architecture studio, founded by principals Hilary Sample and Michael Meredith in 2007. Together with their office they have built works of architecture across North America and in Europe. MOS’s work includes educational facilities, the arts (collaborative installations and exhibition design with galleries and museums), campus planning, affordable housing, private residences, speculative urban plans, and volunteer design projects. In addition, MOS has authored numerous books and publications. Recognized with several prominent awards: 2020 United States Artists, The Smithsonian’s Cooper Hewitt Museum National Design Award in Architecture, The Architectural League of New York Emerging Voices, MoMA P.S.1 Young Architects Program, American Academy of Arts and Letters Architecture Award. They have received five A.I.A. awards including an excellence award for the Krabbesholm Arts School Studio. Their work is held in the collection of The Art Institute of Chicago, MoMA, Yale Art Gallery, Harvard Loeb Library Special Collections and the Columbia University Butler Library.

WORKac was founded in 2003 by Principals Amale Andraos and Dan Wood. Together, Andraos and Wood lead the 15-person firm, based in New York City. WORKac creates architecture, landscape and master-planning concepts. We are committed to sustainability and go beyond its technical requirements, striving to develop intelligent and shared infrastructures, and a more careful integration between architecture, landscape and ecological systems.

The 82nd Street Partnership

nARCHITECTS’ awards and honors include a 2017 National AIA Institute Honor Award in Architecture, the 2017 NYS AIA Firm of the Year, a 2016 Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Architecture, the AIANY Andrew J. Thomas Award for Pioneers in Housing, and the 2006 Architectural League of NY’s Emerging Voices. The firm has been ranked within the top 10 in the US in the design category for the past six years by Architect Magazine.

Project Team: Mimi Hoang, Eric Bunge, Jason Kim, Isabel Sarasa, Adina Bauman

Hilary Sample is an architect, educator, and author. She is a co-founder of MOS Architects and is the IDC Professor of Housing Design at Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation.

Michael Meredith is an architect, educator, and author. He is a co-founder of MOS Architects and is the Director of Graduate Studies at Princeton University School of Architecture.

MOS, Michael Meredith, Hilary Sample, Anam Ahmed, Qiazi Chen, … Table No. 2, Field Office Work Shirt No. 2 Jackson Heights, Queens, New York City Urban Design Forum and Van Alan Institute VAL July 2020

WORKac was recently rated the number one design firm in the US in Architect Magazine’s list of the top 50 architecture firms in 2017, and was the 2016 AIA NYS Firm of the Year. The firm has achieved international acclaim for projects such as the Edible Schoolyard at P.S.216 in Brooklyn - awarded ‘Best Green Design Initiative’ by the NY Municipal Art Society and a Design Citation from the AIA NY State, the New Holland Island Cultural Center Masterplan, which received an AIA NY Award for Urban Design, and the Blaffer Art Museum at the University of Houston, winner of the City of Houston Best College Campus Building and an AIA Houston Merit Award. The recently completed Kew Gardens Hills Library received a 2018 AIA NY award and a MASterworks Award for Best Civic Amenity. Current projects include a new NET ZERO public library for Boulder, CO, a new public library for DUMBO in Brooklyn, a new office building in San Francisco, and a masterplan for 62 new villas and amenities on a waterfront site in Lebanon which is currently in construction. In addition to leading WORKac, Andraos and Wood are also educators. Andraos is currently Dean of the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University and Wood has held professorships at University of Toronto, Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, Yale University, Princeton University, Ohio State, UC Berkeley. Project Team: Dan Wood, Leslie Dougrou, Andrew Davis

Business Center for New Americans The NYC Departments of Transportation, Parks & Recreation, and Health The Jackson Heights Beautification Group The Jackson Heights Meditation Center Fried Frank Millerblaker Pentagram The Urban Design Forum The Van Alen Institute VHB

and

the numerous residents, business owners, artists, local community members who took the time to speak and work with us along this journey. We look forward to continuing our conversation!

Neighborhoods Now Jackson Heights Our work in Jackson Heights was triggered by the urgent need for assistance in spatial planning as the community reopened after the months-long lock-down. During our first field trip, we saw the devastation with our own eyes. 50% of the local business were either closed or on the brink of closing. Every other building on the BID block could be traced to an inhabitant lost to Covid-19. According to the NYtimes, testing at a local clinic showed 56% of community members had anti-bodies. People lost their families, jobs, and for many in this predominantly immigrant population, their legal status in this country. Fear dominated the streets. Unsure whether customers from other parts of the city or out of town would return after quarantine, business owners wondered how long they would last through the deficit after the already prolonged revenue loss. And while the community wanted to see its streets filled with bustling urban life again, they remain terrified of a spike in infection. The problems were clear and dire. We started running as soon as we hit the ground. Our immediate project was to assist restaurants and shops to take advantage of the expanded Open Restaurant program and reopen safely and swiftly. At the same time, we reached out to cultural and religious organizations in the community to help them identify ways to re-instate program offerings safely in outdoor public space and vacant properties in the area. With these efforts, we also recognized the community’s acute lack of resources and increased financial burden it must

bear to reopen. So we looked to in-kind donations, support from foundations, and repurposable discarded construction materials to provide the community not only blue-prints but also much-needed tools and material aid. To store and disburse these resources, and to become available to all inhabitants as a true part of this community, we took our mandate to think about vacant space to heart by setting up a pop-up community architecture shop in an empty storefront in the 82nd Street Bid. Concurrently, we planned a series of events that could rehearse the return of a stronger community and build confidence in its resiliency both internally and externally. This includes the Plant & Paint party and a COVID-era reinvention of the beloved annual Viva La Comida street festival through the city’s Open Street’s Program.

envisioned a flexible and friendly barricade and furniture system, the design of which is available for them to adopt.

Key Facts - Jackson Heights

In the past six weeks of this effort, we got to know many people and collected stories and insights, many of which can be traced through this report. These are invaluable resources we can draw from as we continue to work with the community of Jackson Heights and beyond. We are grateful that the community has welcomed us in so warmly and shared their rich culture and resilient spirit with us. We look forward to the work we will do with them in the months and years ahead.

We also aim to secure further funding beyond the initial engagement period to continue longer-term interventions in the neighborhood. Two publications are being prepared to further share our research and studies across the city. “The Manual of Physical Distancing” and “Neighborhoods Now in Jackson Heights,” are under development in Spanish and English. And as the temperature increased, the importance of shading and welcoming exterior spaces for the community became very apparent. We have designed several possible installations that could address this need. In a conversation with the NYC DOT, as they move fast to make streets newly available for outdoor activities, we

Viva La Comida, 2015 (Photo credit : 82nd Street Partnership)

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5th worst COVID infection rate in NYC by population 10th highest number of deaths per 100,000 167 languages are said to be spoken here More than half the population is foreign-born

Race and Ethnicity: White: 10.2% Hispanic: 67.3% Black: 6.4% Asian: 14.8% Mixed: 1.1% Other: 0.7%

Citizenship Status: Citizen - US Born : 38.53% Citizen - Naturalized : 25.5.% Not Citizen : 35.97%

Community Profiles Partners The 82nd Street Partnership Leslie Ramos Executive Director Leslie is the tireless leader of the 82nd Street Partnership and our primary partner on the project. Her care and determination to pull her small businesses through these times is the heart and soul of this project. Kevin Aleluma Business Outreach Kevin has been vital to all of our efforts but especially in helping us to communicate with businesses in the area, providing Spanish translation and lending us his credibility as outsiders to the neighborhood.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;I represent a very unique and loving neighborhood that has gone through a lot over the recent years - and especially the last few months. We are one of the smallest districts in the city of New York. We are six tax blocks. In reality, we basically are just two-and-a-half facing blocks. Jackson Heights and Elmhurst are multicultural communities. Between 63-65% of the population is foreign born. In both neighborhoods, Latinos are the predominant ethnic group followed by the Southeast Asian community and Elmhurst is more asian community, Filipinos, Koreans and Chinese. We have a quite diverse population that we serve, but thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a little bit of coming together and it comes around food and some of the services that the neighborhood provides. We just wanted to give a shoutout to our partners, the Business Center for New Americans, so we are working with them to make those connections. Despite being a tiny budget with one and a half staff, we tend to serve close to a thousand businesses. We are a very dense block, despite being just two blocks. we are the exit of the 7 train and we are just half a block from Elmhurst Hospital. We are kind of a one-stop shop for the Spanish speaking community. Our public spaces are very limited.

Business Center for New Americans Yanki Tshering Executive Director Living in Tibetan refugee communities in India and Nepal for many years, Yanki came to the U.S. in 1986. She is a staunch supporter, helping us to make our services available to her network. Vish Dasma Senior Loan Officer helps immigrant and refugee small business entrepreneurs obtain microloans to achieve their business goals. His amicable geniality is well known in the community.

We have tried to incorporate the neighborhood, this is a neighborhood that loves coming together, lhey love enjoying food, and ways that we have done that is through our festival, Viva La Comida, which is for us a platform to create economic development for the area. That festival is the day where the most businesses see an uptick of business, and that can range to 30% for those that have been in the neighborhood for longterm and maybe up to 70% or 80% for newcomers. We also discover that this festival allowed the newcomers to last at least through their first year. Businesses and restaurants that have not participated normally do not go beyond their first year in the community. One of the things that we do is that we bring seating, the idea is that people will be together, they sit together, they eat together regardless of religion, culture, or language. And this is something that we have been successful. This year is going to be the first year in eight or nine years that the festival is not going to happen. -Leslie Ramos 82nd Street Partnership at Neighborhoods Now Kickoff Event 6.26.2020

Community Profiles The 82nd Street BID and partner businesses

Community Profiles Stakeholders

Newsletter #1 : Learning from Jackson Heights June 26th, 2020 Dear everyone, We will be sharing these weekly updates with the group on Fridays going forward. Firstly, I’d like to let you know that we will be inviting you to a Design Board presentation this upcoming Wednesday 7/1 from 2:00-3:00 pm. We will be sharing our current in-progress work for your input, and have scheduled to do this every two weeks. I hope you will be able to attend, but as we are a large group, we will be recording the meeting for those who are not. Maybe the most interesting thing about the times we are living in is our capacity for collaboration. We have all fully mastered the art of the appearance of digital connection, of stuffing offspring and personal items out of sight as we reach out to others all over the world, yet somehow it is still difficult to meet for the first time this way, to speak to faces on mute, to try to understand how to work together. Our working group has finally stabilized at 18 people. We went quickly from the pleasure of meeting and discovering each other’s skills and work, to the pandemonium of attempting to self-organize, to the structure of an increasingly well-defined mission all within this week. Yesterday we went to the site together for the first time to introduce ourselves to our participant business owners... and now we are finally facing the actual challenge of what it is that brought us here. It’s a simple concept in the abstract to connect people with specific skills to people who need them - but people, communities, are far more complex in

reality. That was the insight that led us to initially form our “atomized” collective, and now we must break our assumptions down one step further to tackle the idiosyncratic nature of real business owners. Our restaurant/retail and civic/ cultural group has contacted and visited many businesses so far, including Ramón and Paula at Barco de Papel, Berta at Delicias Colombianas, Carlos at Sabor Ecuatoriano, Ashraya at Thakali Kitchen, Mohan at Delhi Heights, Luis at Flamingo Bar, and Glen at Devisions Jewelry. Some clearly need our help. Some may be just doing alright on their own. All have suffered hardship and loss from this crisis...not to mention, before this crisis. On the infrastructural scale, our team of open spaces/vacant spaces/site plan groups have been meeting with Leslie of the 82nd Street Partnership to document the local perspective of the site while also expanding our partnerships to civil engineers, graphic designers, and Luisa Borell, a Jackson Heights resident and epidemiologist who spoke at the Neighborhoods Now event this morning (recording available here with the password: Ne1ghborhoods!). Our challenge at the site level is to address specific problems, like street congestion and increased inhabitation of the public space, through design created WITH this community and not FOR them. We have begun mapping our typologies and connecting them with a holistic examination of the transit networks to support a BID-wide Open Streets application, along with looking at opportunities for programming and artist installations within open and

development, and causing great tension with the brick and mortar stores, a result of unemployment following the pandemic. Through listening to the communities and working on the ground, we are learning more about how we can, as architects, engage and aid in the urgent and monumental imperative of change in our society today. The worst resultant effects of this pandemic: unemployment, foreclosure, homelessness, eviction, all of them have a material dimension. Researching, documenting, and drawing will also have material implications. We are learning with Leslie, our business owners, consulted experts and many others together how the things we do right now can help resurrect Jackson Heights from the decimation of the pandemic and pivot it towards a lively future. We are all very excited to keep going.

Newsletter #2 : Bottom-up Urbanism July 3rd, 2020 Hello all, Well, it has certainly been a fast-paced week for us on the project. This week was one of growth. As you can see from our ever-increasing collaborator list, we have been speaking to a lot of people, adding new contacts, donors, and organizations at dizzying speeds. We have made new connections with traffic engineers at VHB, graphic designers at Pentagram and Two Twelve, local artists Adrian Bermeo and Anabelle Popa, The Jackson Heights Beautification Group, miller blaker for wood fabrication, GilBane for contractor-related services, Alan Tansey for photography, and we have added three legal advisors to aid our working group from Fried Frank. And that, I’m sure, is not even close to the end of the list. It’s really inspiring to see so many people who would like to be involved in this effort, and take stock of the diverse wealth of skills we have been able to amass in such a short time. But accompanying this outward reach, this week we have also been able to solidify some of our visions and goals for the project and take a big leap towards production. Thanks to everyone who was able to attend, the mid-week design board critique of our site research revealed great potential for some specific BID-focused projects in addition to ongoing design services for individual businesses in the area. We are now undertaking a few new exciting initiatives: First, we are working on establishing a physical Field Office to better allow the neighborhood to reach us and access simple architectural services

democratically. It is amazing how fast word-of-mouth about us is already spreading in the community - we will work to make sure we can be easily found, recognized (merch opportunity here!) and available for everyone with these needs.

virus, while introducing much more public space than is currently available, like a permanent street fair along the road.

And lastly, we are working on neighborhood-specific signage with our new graphics team, looping in our local With our base in the area established, our illustrator connection with the vision of restaurant/retail/cultural group will continue creating an accessible, multilingual, to provide services to the community, colorful set of adaptable templates to including interior space plans to address not only protect the community, but to issues of circulation, shielding, table celebrate the diverse and beautiful culture layouts, and consideration of mechanical of Jackson Heights. layouts (possibly in conjunction with Tanya de Hoog’s team at Thornton Tomasetti) These are just some of the projects we’re and exterior services including preliminary thinking about...let’s call it a first round space planning for sidewalk and street of initiatives for July. Whatever’s next, seating and permitting measurements. We working with this community has already will also be documenting and interviewing been an incredible learning experience, our clients in depth to learn more about and we are very excited to see how far we their individual lives and stories, and will be able to take this... working with our photographer to create profiles to showcase them and their More to come! businesses. Second, we are planning a community event to ‘green and screen’ parking space dining by constructing planter-barricades. We are leveraging our contacts to look for free or inexpensive items to be used in these efforts, and will seek out ways to elevate them through well-considered design language and artist collaborations. Third, we are planning to go door-to-door with the 82nd Street BID to gain owner support for the permitting and installation of the barricades continuously along 82nd street, with the goal of creating a length of connected open street parking spaces. We hope this can start to re-introduce the festive atmosphere of life here before the

SPACE PLANNING - SIDEWALK & ROADWAY SEATING DELHI HEIGHTS | 37-66 74th Street

We may be working within some of the most tangled email threads the world has ever seen (sorry, working group today was rough), but as a collective, our diversified, hydra-headed approach is now proving more agile and effective than the top-down organization of the other site teams. As a result, we are mobilizing way faster and challenging others to keep our pace in this program. Hopefully this all translates into more effective change for these neighborhoods! Here’s what we’ve been up to in our teams: The Site team is coordinating with the BID to pursue an Open Streets: Restaurants Community Application through a collective permitting process, while collaborating across the groups to design wooden barriers for protecting Open Restaurants from vehicular traffic. The first versions of three barricade designs should be available on site next week for discussion, community feedback and prototyping, courtesy of Lee Miller of millerblaker!

In other developments, our team also picked up support from a design research group called Openbox who have volunteered to conduct listening sessions in the community for the project, had our first contact with DOT (they’re really not so bad), met with Pentagram and Two Twelve once again about signage, and engaged our local illustrator about creating a color scheme- or many - for the diverse population of Jackson Heights.

Open Spaces team is working towards the date of 7/25 for the Planter Party (mark your calendars!), sourcing plants, materials, meeting with the Parks Can’t wait to see what next week has in department to get permitting and the store for us. Jackson Heights Beautification Group for community support. Open spaces have also been sketching through a shade structure design for the park. They’ll be presenting it at our design board meeting next Wednesday at 4 - hope you can make it. Civic/Culture team has submitted concept plans for review by our legal associates at Fried Frank as a first step toward approaching the city to permit outdoor space use for non-restaurant businesses. This is not currently possible under city rules. Also, this week a new and inspiring, cultural client, the United Sherpa Association was onboarded and their temple space and community

SIDEWALK SEATING

OPTIONAL BARRIER/ PLANTER IF YOU WANT TO PROVIDE A BUFFER

PHONE BOOTH

REQUIRED RAMP

OPTIONAL BARRIER/ PLANTER IF YOU WANT

7' ALLOWED SEATING AREA

DEHLI HEIGHTS PLAN

8' REQUIRED CLEAR PATHWAY

The Restaurants/Retail team is gearing up for follow-up meetings with all current clients on Monday (delayed from today due to storm). Individualized space plans, barrier options, and other elements will be presented and reviewed. We will also be walking clients through the Open Restaurants sidewalk applications during these meetings and onboarding any new clients on Monday as well.

center measured for space planning. The Association has been providing community groceries in the area throughout this crisis and also has a meditation center, which may be included in future studies. The team is also working to create test-fits for outdoor programs in Dunningham Triangle to coordinate community activities with open space planning.

8' REQUIRED CLEAR PATHWAY

Have you ever heard of the stages of team formation? Psychologist Bruce Tuckman came up with this rhyming theory back in the 60’s - that every group will undergo these four stages as it develops: there’s Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing. I’ll spare you the details, but nothing really gets done effectively until the Performing part (if a group even makes it that far). I have to say this week it does feel that we’re hitting our stride and starting to norm.

Vacant Space/VAL HQ team is in final talks (awaiting funding for rent!) to establish our field office at Barco de Papel to facilitate on ground presence, establish trust with the community and engage with them better so we can aid the community as much as possible and needed.

15' SIDEWALK WIDTH

Hi everyone,

8' ALLOWED SEATING AREA

Newsletter #3 : Norming July 10th, 2020

SIDEWALK CURB AT STREET EDGE

OPTIONAL UMBRELLAS WITH WEIGHTED BASE (DASHED LINE) 19'-6" ALLOWED SEATING AREA

ROADWAY SEATING

LAYOUT OPTION 1

NEIGHBORHOODS NOW | JACKSON HEIGHTS | RESTAURANTS + RETAIL

REQUIRED BARRIERS AROUND EDGE OF ROADWAY SEATING

Newsletter #4 : Jumping in July 17th, 2020 This week has marked a dramatic turn from thought to reality, from our conversations to action. Thanks to all who were able to attend our design board this week - we have several projects underway and will be implementing our first client sidewalk seating arrangements tomorrow. It’s becoming clear that this is less of a sprint and more of a marathon... open restaurant permits have just been extended through October. This means two things: there is little confidence that life will be returning to interiors any time soon restaurants who were attempting to wait this out, can certainly wait no longer. By way of example, the restaurant team spoke to an owner this past week who was ready to close down completely because takeout revenue is simply not enough and they did not know how to take advantage of exterior seating possibilities. Just by giving him a seating plan and aiding him to permit, the team was able to convince him to consider keeping his doors open. After explaining this project to many potential funders and donors this week, all I can say is our purpose is crystal clear. The city did not provide the means for people to continue their livelihoods and stay safe, but we can. And people are so grateful for that. Architectural services often never touch these populations - it feels very important. As mentioned, the other big drive for the week was fundraising and acquiring donations. We are tapping into our networks from all sides looking to find goods to construct from, plants to green the streets, printers or fabricators willing to assist...we are keeping a spreadsheet of

supporters here to keep track of what we need and what we receive, but we think this is only the beginning.

scenario planning for the local parks, and has onboarded one new client this week, United Sherpa Association. The team has also been contacted by the Business Here’s what’s going on in each group: Center for New Americans, who will join us for the installation tomorrow and wish to Site team is targeting a date early next support our work with funding as they are week to submit our Open Streets permit able. application for the BID. We had a preview Restaurant Team met with existing clients meeting with the DOT on Thursday to last Monday to finalize outdoor seating confirm our approach and fast-track the plans as well as meet with 2 new clients, process. Four restaurants along the south Las Americas Bakery and Cantina Paisa. 82nd street corridor have now signed on This week we have been prepping to install to the proposal including 82nd st Deli and sidewalk seating and planters/dividers for Grill, Casa Rivera, Las Americas Bakery, two clients, Thakali Kitchen and Bhanchha and Sabor Ecuatoriano, and we expect Ghar, on Saturday. We will also meet with more to join as we continue to gain trust, our newly onboarded clients tomorrow. We visibility and support through the upcoming will have some signage typicals from the Planter Party. By then we will have barrier graphic design firms for safety protocols prototypes on site for the community to that we can distribute to existing clients see. in the coming two weeks. And finally we Open Space will reach out to contractors are hoping to be able to install roadway to get a sense of cost for different barriers at Thakali Kitchen and take part in shade structure options that have been the Planting Party next weekend! developed. Two biggest questions The graphic design teams of Pentagram, regarding shade structures is timing Partner and Partner and Two Twelve have and funding. Also pushing forward with completed their first round of ‘fast’ designs finalizing logistics for Planter Party on 7/25 to produce signage to be made available – especially regarding location and planter across the neighborhoods now program. procurement. Plantings and soil has been These should be ready for printing in sourced. the coming week. They are looking for a Vacant Space is working towards the printer who may be able to do printing for Planter Party as our first show of volunteer free- so if you do have a contact, please let identity within the community, leading the us know. charge by coordinating volunteer painting of bus stop benches on top of the planting Looking forward to tomorrow’s installation! activities and also securing a vacant More to come! storefront space across from the 82nd street bid to build out as our experimental E headquarters. Culture team has been collaborating with open spaces to work on test fits and

Newsletter #5 : Debut July 26th, 2020 Hey everyone, Apologies for the delay on this, but I wanted to be able to give you a full recap of yesterday’s Plant & Paint event ! It certainly was a day to remember! Thanks to everyone who came to help ! We had an impressive turnout: beyond our 15 collective members, the 82nd Street Partnership, Urban Design Forum, Van Alen Institute, Jackson Heights Beautification Group, the Elmhurst History and Cemeteries Preservation Society and The Meditation Center were all out in force to christen the opening of our field office with community service ! And we got a LOT done for one 90 degree day: We assembled and planted 30 milk crates, using some to build sidewalk barricades for the newly permitted Las Americas bakery on 82nd, and some to populate the barrier prototypes at Thakali Kitchen (furnished on Friday courtesy of the inimitable Lee Miller), We hung 18 colorful planter bags on our easel prototypes at Thakali Kitchen (netting from SO-IL’s material library, felt donated by Spinneybeck) We painted and installed two custommade planters to our friends at Delicias Colombianas, who needed a bit of cheer after a tough week with a covid-regulation inspector. We planted over 15 planters and tree guards along 82nd street led by Leslie, The Meditation Center and the Jackson Heights Beautification Crew. We sanded, primed and painted one BID bench bright yellow as a test case for completing the remaining 8 benches.

We signed up three new restaurant clients, with the promise of more to come. We collectively demolished a large amount of Colombian food from local eatery Pollos Mario on MOS’s freshly made, socialdistancing-approved COVID tables. Most of all we talked, laughed, finally saw our group together in person for the first time, and very literally met the community where they are - and where we intend to be...

community, the reception was warm and the work was well received. We made many friends among our new neighbors and strengthened connections with our Jackson Heights acquaintances. I am certain these relationships will only continue to grow.

...as we are now open for business. The landlord of our vacant space has become so enthusiastic about our work and the value of our services that he has granted us permission to use his storefront until September !

On Friday morning, the first day in the space, as I swept out the months or maybe even years of detritus lining the worn wallto-wall carpet, I couldn’t help but imagine what it’s like to be a small business owner setting up in Jackson Heights for the first time. The experience of being absorbed into the community became even realer when the owner of the bodega next door came over to scold me for creating a pile of filth on our shared doorstep. Even that was somehow encouraging. To me, to truly be part of a community is about being present, being available to hear honest perspectives. And that we are. Today we outfitted the field office door with intake forms to take, fill out, and return to the BID to access our free assistance program. We expect to hear much more very soon. Today, as our official debut in the

Very excited to see what happens next and thanks for all of your hard work to make today a success - Muchas gracias!

Newsletter #6 : The Beginning July 31st, 2020 team’s groundbreaking proposal to grant Barco de Papel a permit for an Thanks for all of your amazing work these outdoor reading space. Our Open Streets past six weeks. I am in awe of the amount application for the BID is in process, of production that has occurred through and our considerate contacts at DOT this program. The 115-page document are giving us every opportunity to fight attached is testament enough to our the uphill battle for its approval: we have learning experience in Jackson Heights. been able to bring VHB traffic engineers When we first started this project it was into calls to assuage concerns and have not entirely clear to me how we could help. been speaking to the 110th precinct at The need was so severe and multi-faceted, NYPD- in short, doing everything we can the effects of the pandemic so difficult to to aid Leslie and the incredible group of fathom, the change in our environment immigrant businesses we have come to was still so fresh. However, receiving know. Our open spaces team has planted Leslie’s thank you letter this week following literal gardens at the Plant & Paint and our Plant & Paint party convinced me that figural seeds for the future, designing right now we are making positive change in multiple shading installations for the this community. We are helping to restore community that could come to pass in the hope, a chance at economic stability, next few months. And some of us are, and vibrancy to a place that has lost so of course, going up to Jackson Heights much. Everything these past months might tomorrow, to measure for a few new have taught us: how to isolate ourselves, clients, to care for our Field Office plants, how to fear strangers and withdraw from to paint a bench, and to spend some time engagement, it hasn’t stuck - that is not the with our friends. I don’t know about anyone narrative we have chosen to take from the else, but I’m really looking forward to my pandemic and I am honored and proud to weekly momos… be a part of this effort. I hope you are too. I was listening to the Neighborhoods This week it felt like everything fell into Now kickoff meeting again last night as I place. All of our swift action began to pay put together some quotes for our report, off. We are digging further into ways to and was struck by the simple beauty in aid specific businesses and finding the Leslie’s descriptions of Jackson Heights. root of problems that our leverage as a This tiny BID that we work for, just six tax well-connected conglomeration is able blocks, is animated by difference, divided to address. The attention our restaurant by language, infrastructure, citizenship, group brought to Delhi Heights has up against all possible odds, but heartily enabled them and all of the restaurants united through the universal commonality at Diversity Plaza to uncover a route to of food. It is so appropriate that we entered Open Restaurant Seating. Our efforts this community as we did, starting with our are pushing the limits of what is currently immediate aid to restaurants- not because considered acceptable use for public it was the clearest objective for an architect space in the city including the culture at this time, but because it happened to Dear everyone,

be, by chance, also the most direct route to the heart of Jackson Heights. I cannot wait for the day we get our Open Streets Permit and can help Leslie set up for the reimagining of Viva La Comida. She didn’t even think the BID would be able to do any planting this year... So yes, this impressive report we have completed today marks a beginning. For Jackson Heights, and for us as a collaborative. It was so encouraging to find that you all want to continue on with this project. Jackson Heights has been through a lot. But as fellow New Yorkers, so have we. And we are still going through it. I think we all feel strongly the unstable atmosphere of the city at this time, but it is grounding to realize that we are in this together and we are fortunate to be in a position to help others. So let’s keep going, making change where we can. Together, we can continue to inspire hope and remain hopeful for a city-wide recovery. With immense gratitude, Emma

Event #1 : Plant & Paint July 25th, 2020

This year, due to the pandemic, Jackson Heights was unable to complete it’s usual street planting beautification event. To celebrate the opening of our field office, VAL decided to fix this. The 82nd Street Partnership helped us to bring members of the community and volunteers together to plant the tree guards, paint benches, and install colorful planters around the neighborhood.

“Lately, I had been feeling a bit down about the economic uncertainty small businesses are facing, and how neglected the district was looking after canceling our spring planting. The challenge felt insurmountable-- the COVID economic downfall is the third challenge the Jackson Heights and Elmhurst businesses have faced during the last 3.5 years. The decline of sales due to anti-immigrants Federal policies and NYC’s Clear Curb initiative are the other two. Your work has changed that feeling for me, business owners, and community members.” - Leslie Ramos

Event #1 : Plant & Paint July 25th, 2020 NORTHER

N B LV D

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FIELD OFFICE

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THAKALI KITCHEN 7

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SAT. 25 JULY, 2020 10AMâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;3PM

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LAS AMERICAS BAKERY

Signs in multiple languages

Recommendations : Protoypes Universal Signage Kit

Street Streetinhabitation inhabitation: :Pentagram PentagramSignage Signage

Pentagram It is not easy to standardize anything in Jackson Heights. Though working with a very small community, one never forgets that this is the most diverse neighborhood in the world - and keeping that in mind while designing lead us to try to offer many options - especially when it comes to printed signage.

PORTER UN MASQUE

If it’s true, as they say locally, that 167 languages are spoken in the area, we knew it would be nearly impossible to print vital, important safety signage that could be understood by all residents. But a failure on the part of the signage is particularly unacceptable in the case of coronavirus. Our challenges were manifold:

• After identifying the seven most prevalent languages, we realized we did not have readily accessible translators for all the languages we needed. • We needed to operate as swiftly as possible • Our small print budget would not go very far if we were going to split it between languages.

French

The idea of write-in signage emerged as a way to allow individual restaurants to make their own translations (with an English guide for the sign’s intent). This helps to resolve the complexity of working with so many individuals, respecting and acknowledging their diversity, while fostering equitable distribution of our signage.

WEAR 霼䨥㥪 A MASK 〡縟

6FT APART Chinese English

6FT. ‫ﻣﺎﺳﮏ‬ USAR UNA ‫ﻟﻮ‬ ‫ﭘﮩﻦ‬ MÁSCARA

UP 霼䨥㥪〡縟

PORTER ‫תלבש‬ UN ‫מסכה‬ MASQUE 6FT APART

GoNYC.Gov/COVIDTest to NYC.Gov/COVIDTest or text “COVIDTEST” to 855-48 Go to or text “COVIDTEST” to 855-48 to find a convenient testing today. to find a convenient testing sitesite today.

to NYC.Gov/COVIDTest or text “COVIDTEST” to 855-48 Go toGoNYC.Gov/COVIDTest or text “COVIDTEST” to 855-48 to find a convenient testing today. to find a convenient testing site site today.

Spanish Urdu

Signs in many languages, but still not enough

6FT APART

MASK MASK

Hebrew French

Chinese

Write-in Signage

6FT APART

Street tapes

Go to

Recommendations : Protoypes Sidewalk Barriers Fabricated by Millerblaker From our initial assessment of the situation, the clearest, most obvious financial challenge that keeps small restaurant businesses from taking advantage of street permits is acquiring the barriers. All of the restaurants we spoke to are perfectly able to supply their own furniture, but very few have the upfront means to invest in the construction of these barriers to DOT regulation - a regulation which, unfortunately for businesses who had already paid to construct them - was revised midway through the summer. We took it upon ourselves to tackle the barrier problem as one of our first initiatives, creating three options for restuarants. Future iterations will be created using donated waste plywood from Gilbane

Recommendations : Protoypes Street Barrier Type 1 : Flexible Use SO – IL

Option 02: Folded Easel Scale: 1/2” = 1’-0”

Exterior Rated Butt Hinge (4x) 2' Spacing

2'-6 21"

To understand the specific challenge of designing a barrier it is helpful to understand the several temporal durations of outdoor barricades depending on use: 1- Open Restaurants (restaurant curb & parking spots): These barricades are set up permanently in parking spaces for the season (until Oct. 31), and are being inspected by DOT regulation to the inch.

3- Open Streets : Restaurants (end of the street and restaurant curb & parking spots): This event expands restaurant seating on a closed street and uses both types of barricades. Duration is weekends only, exact timeframe determined by the community partners managing it. The most useful barrier is the one that can do it all. We designed and are fabricating this easel to provide to businesses for free with the help of Millerblaker because it is: • •

foldable, storable, portable can be locked together by chain for

Rotary Cut Douglas Fir Plywood (3/4")

1'-0"

Braided Nylon Rope or Exterior Rated Stainless Steel Chain

8'-0" Kiln Dried White Fir Studs (2x4 & 2x2) 2'-0"

2- Open Streets (end of the street) : The purpose of these barricades is to block off the end of the street from traffic daily from 8 am to 8pm, and be moveable in case of an emergency vehicle approaching.

2x 8'-0"

4x 7'-9" 4x

2'-7 21"

V O LUNTEER ARCHITE C TS LIMITED

Open Restaurants Open Streets

Recommendations : Protoypes Street Barrier Type 2 : DIY Office of Tangible Space

Option 01: Stick Construction

1'-6"

Scale: 1/2” = 1’-0”

The scale and detailing of the barricade becomes broken down by the repetition of members and the openness of the sides - it is remniscent of furniture and can be outfitted to create a welcoming, living room feel for the restaurant guests. VAL produced the protoype of this design as a display to sit in our Field Office and is making the plans available in a DIY restaurant manual that will allow others to easily and with full disclosure of the financial cost, replicate the results.

1'-6"

Exterior Rated Fasteners

Kiln Dried White Fir Studs (2x4) 6x 8'-0" 2x 4'-6" 4x

6x 3'-0"

1'-6"

Rotary Cut Douglas Fir Plywood (3/4") 1'-6"

The participatory aspect of the design is underscored by the open stick framework, which allows the owner to insert any number of potted plants, standardly available crates for storing flatware or menus, and openings for inserting signage. The framework also decreases the weight for this model and the potential waste when the season ends if the barrier must be removed and disposed.

3'-0"

The intention of this design is to lowe the ‘barriers’ to participation in the Open Restaurants program and create a barricade design that any handy restauranteur would be able to put together from simple dimensional lumber and small cuts of plywood.

3x 2'-0"

VOLUNTEER ARCHITECTS LIMITED

Open Restaurants Note: Openings in barriers greater than 4" must be covered by fabric, signage or other solid material.

Open Streets

Recommendations : Protoypes Street Barrier Type 3 : Custom To client request

Option 03: Box Construction

0'-4"

Scale: 1/2” = 1’-0”

If a client selects this option, we can help by assisting them in drawing and documenting their vision, and connecting them to a local carpenter who can make it happen. For our part, we can provide aid financially and materially towards this production, which also serves the purpose of putting talented local carpenters back to work.

1'-4 21"

2'-0"

8'-0"

2x 8'-0"

0'-6"

Kiln Dried White Fir Studs (2x4) 8'-0" 3x

2'-6"

Internal Blocking Aligned to Base of Face Plywood

2x 1'-9"

Though we do not necessarily recommend a more solid plywood approach for longevity and durability’s sake, we do understand why a restaurant would be interested in pursuing this option, and we would like to help them achieve it.

Exterior Rated Fasteners

Rotary Cut Douglas Fir Plywood (3/4")

1'-1"

Many restauranteurs want to participate in Open Restaurants, but are also aware that there are great risks. Several car accidents have occured around the city since the start of this program. Those tragedies are what prompted the first revision of the barricade rules and guidelines at the beginning of July. That guideline change stipulated barriers must be 30” high and 18” wide at minimum, geared towards protecting guests.

2'-6"

This blocky planter type barrier is the “easiest” to make and the type most frequently seen around restaurants at this time.

1'-1 21"

4x 0'-6"

V O LUNTEER ARCHITE C TS LIMITED

Open Restaurants Open Streets

Recommendations : Protoypes Hanging Planter Bags SO – IL + Studio Fо̄r Felt courtesy of Spinneybeck A huge goal of Leslie for the community is to recapture the joyful atmosphere of life before the pandemic. Restaurants and shopping may have been pushed into the street, but so far there’s been little money to invest in making the street more hospitable - a role it has not had to play to this extent before in this area. With the heavy car presence and the looming elevated 7 train rumbling by, it is clear that this was not a primary concern before. To brighten and soften the space, we created these hanging planter bags. We designed the quick, cheap, fun and punchy planters primarily out of materials we already had in our material library. The first goal of the planters was as an inexpensive way to add color and life to the restaurant barriers. These plants are easily removable by the restaurants in the evenings if they wish to take them in and fully adjustable, replaceable, flexible and storable to fit whatever is to come with the unpredictable re-opening schedule. We wanted these planters to be colorful and bright, helping the street to regain vibrancy and the sense of place that makes Jackson Heights so special. We are giving away these planters to restaurants for free.

Recommendations : Protoypes Milk Crate Planters nARCHITECTS Inspired by Ore Design + Technology’s milk crate planters, these planters are team players - they can stand on their own configured in a myriad of ways, move to where they are needed or add some greenery to the top of a barrier. They can also double as seats. We donated and assembled thirty planters for the businesses that were unable or too daunted to apply for street seating. Lightweight and modular, they help activate storefronts and sidewalks (while maintaining 8’ clearance of course!). We simply wanted to bring immediate joy to the streets. Nuala O’Doherty and the Jackson Heights Beautification Group improved upon the planters, adding cardboard to the inside of the root barrer fabric liners, to retain water for longer. Future Green Studios generously donated plants while We Plant NYC donated the soil. And by happy coincidence, Leslie’s favorite color is also ours - yellow!

Project #1 : Manual of Physical Distancing Multi-lingual Publication for Public Safety LTL Architects

• Translation Reliability, Editing • Continued establishment of trust with Community Members

Glass screen

Aerosol transmission

B2 Feb 5

Exhaust fan

Family B

B3 Feb 5

C1 Jan 24

A1 Jan 24

A3 Jan 29

Family A Aerosol transmission

A5 Feb 2

Family C

A2 Jan 27 C2 Jan 24

D E

27'-2"

Figure: Source 1, Redrawn by author.

DRAFT

JUNE 22, 2020

DRAFT

23’

20’

6’

-6

CDC recommeneded μm*: micrometer (10 ) m distance Thesocial average human hair diameter is about 70 μm

Throat swab samples from contacts and 6 smear samples from the air conditioner (3 from the air outlet and 3 from the air MANUAL OF PHYSICAL DISTANCING inlet) were negative for SARS-CoV2

DRAFT

27’

23’-27’ MIT

2020

Access to bathroom

Stair

JUNE 22, 2020

Air outlet and return air inlet for the central air conditioner

CDC

6’ 5’ 4’ 3’ 2’ 1’

4,000 5.00

Total $

5,000 14,000

A4 Jan 29

Air conditioner

B1 Feb 1

B A C 3’ Knoell, Simon Lesina-Debiasi, Tiffany Lim, Yasamin WHO Mayyas, Luis Munoz, Juan Pablo Ponce de Leon, Clara Roth, Jay Schairbaum 6’

73 Min

Translation Services 1,000

$/unit

Distance from

Oluwatobiloba Ajayi, Shane Algiere, Maeliosa Figure: Intermediate view of emission within 110 cm (43 in) from a healthy Barrington Calvert, Victor Guan, Larissa Barstow, person during a violent exhalation Guimaraes, David Himelman, Nick Kim, Anna (sneeze). Family Family Family

Figure: Multiphase turbulent gas cloud from a human sneeze

Qty

Viability of virus in aerosols, SARS-CoV2 remains viable up to 3 hours index patient>3’-0”

( Conditions at 69.8 -73.4°F (21 to 23°C) and 40% relative humidity over 7 days) Space, Time, and Cities in the Era of Covid-19

Family A and family C overlapping period Release Date June 24, since seating of 73Version: minutes

Layout

Sub $ 5,000

Publishing (soft cover)

19'-10 "

13'-6 "

OF PHYSICAL DISTANCING On January 24, a total of 91 individuals (83 customers 8 staff members) were in the Droplet restaurant transmission

This report the dispersal of droplets from DOI: examines 10.3201/eid2607.200764 exhalation, coughs and sneezes, and reveals that they This early release article from CDC about a restaurant are composedSource: of two types of droplets: looseHolbrook, droplets 1. VanChina Doremalen , Bushmaker, Morris, Gamble, Williamson, Tamin, in Guangzhou, looked to determine the unique Among 83 customers , 10 Harcourt, Thornburg, Gerber, Lloyd-Smith. (April a16turbulent 2020). Aerosol and Surface which evaporate quickly, and what they call became ill with COVID 19 pattern of theofoutbreak space. unrelated Stability SARS-CoV-2inasthat Compared withThree SARS-CoV-1. New England Journal gas cloud which carries the droplets further and helps of Medicine families, sitting at three tables became infected, 3rd floor dining area 1561 them persist Link: longer. Peak exhalation speeds can reach https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2004973 whereas none of the staff or the other patrons at otherFigure: Close up view of emission withsqft (145 sqm)in 5 floor in 50 cm (20 in) from a healthy person up to 33 to 100 feet per second (10-30 m/s), creating building studyinfected. examined twopaper strains of virusesthat (SARS-CoV-2 tablesThe became The determined during a violent exhalation (sneeze). Droplet a cloud that can span approximately 23 to 27 feet (7-8 and SARS-CoV-1) on various surfaces. or the infection was consistent with the spread SARS-Cov-2 pattern transmission Principal Investigators: m). The report includes video simulations. remained viable in aerosols throughout the duration of of exhaled virus-laden aerosols associated to poor No windows, air conditioned Paul Lewis, Princeton University space the experiment (3 hours). Theoflaboratory ventilation over an extended period sitting. test experiment Guy Nordenson, Princeton University also focused on the stability on different materials. The David J. Lewis, Parsons School of Design results indicate that aerosol and fomite transmission Marc 53 Min Tsurumaki, Columbia University of SARS-CoV-2 is plausible, since the virus can remain viable and infectious in aerosols for hours and on Family A and family B overlapping period with surfaces up to days. since seating of 53 minutes

JUNE 22, 2020

Anticipated Challenges

e g a y im

Persistence in air and virus effectiveness MANUAL

Droplets and aerosols released with velocity through coughs and sneezes can reach distances of 23 to 27 feet. The following illustrates factors of risk of exposure in enclosed environment without windows and with mechanical air conditioning, those factors are air flow, density and duration Aerosol particles can remain viable suspended in the air for Droplet diameter 10 5 μm oftoexposure up to 3 hours.

Air conditioner

Source: Bourouiba, Lydia (March 26 2020). Turbulent Gas Clouds and Respiratory PathogenSource Emissions. 1: Lu J, Gu J, Li K, Xu C, Su W, Lai Z, et al. COVID-19 Outbreak AssociDOI: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2763852 ated with Air Conditioning in Restaurant, Guangzhou, China, 2020. CDC

3’

Manual of Physical Distancing provides a visual graphic to the challenges of living in the time of Covid -19 with a particular attention to a range of scales, from classrooms to urban areas where density is an imperative to a creative and vibrant life. The intent of this report is to visualize ongoing studies and practices developed in relationship to addressing the spread and impact of Covid-19. The goal is to provide greater clarity over the spatial implications of addressing and mitigating Covid-19. To the extent possible peer reviewed medical basis for spatial practices are provided, from which the visual material in this document is an illustration.

Item

ANALYSIS OF GRADIENT OF EXPOSURE Respiratory emission and distance ANALYSIS OF GRADIENT OF EXPOSURE Indoor environment air flow-case study ANALYSIS OF GRADIENT OF EXPOSURE

Source

This project is to translated selected pages from the Manual of Physical Distancing into the diverse range of languages used within Jackson Heights Queens to make the scientific information about the spread of Covid-19 and actions that can be taken available to this community. This project proposes printing publications as well as providing these online for dissemination through the community.

Manual of Physical Distancing Budget

MANUAL OF PHYSICAL DISTANCING

Checkout counter

Elevator

27'-3” P. 5 0

P. 22

P. 7

https://issuu.com/djlewis72/docs/200622_manualphysicaldistancing_draft Manual of Physical Distancing is make possible by Princeton University Funding Program for Rapid, Novel and Actionable COVID-19 Research Projects. Professor Paul Lewis and Professor Guy Nordenson from Princeton School of Architecture are principal investigators. The work on the report has been executed in collaboration with Marc Tsurumaki (Adjunct Associate Professor-Columbia University), David J. Lewis (Professor-Parsons School of Design), and Oluwatobiloba Ajayi, Shane Algiere, Maeliosa Barstow, Barrington Calvert, Victor Guan, Larissa Guimaraes, David Himelman, Nick Kim, Anna Knoell, Simon Lesina-Debiasi, Tiffany Lim, Yasamin Mayyas, Luis Munoz, Juan Pablo Ponce de Leon, Clara Roth, Jay Schairbaum.

Project #1 : Manual of Physical Distancing Multi-lingual Publication for Public Safety An abbreviated version of the Manual of Physcial Distancing will be published in multiple languages for distribution to the Jackson Heights Community. Illustrated analysis will depict leading research conducted by others on issues related to the Covid and public health. The illustrations will include the efficacy of mask wearing and research into disease vectors of transmission.

Manual De MANUAL OF Distanciamiento FĂsico PHYSICAL DISTANCING

MANUAL OF PHYSICAL DISTANCING

Space, Time, and Cities in the Era of Covid-19

Principal Investigators: Paul Lewis, Princeton University Guy Nordenson, Princeton University David J. Lewis, Parsons School of Design Marc Tsurumaki, Columbia University

with Oluwatobiloba Ajayi, Shane Algiere, Maeliosa Barstow, Barrington Calvert, Victor Guan, Larissa Guimaraes, David Himelman, Nick Kim, Anna Knoell, Simon Lesina-Debiasi, Tiffany Lim, Yasamin Mayyas, Luis Munoz, Juan Pablo Ponce de Leon, Clara Roth, Jay Schairbaum

Release Date Version: June 24, 2020

Manual De Distanciamiento FĂsico

MANUAL OF PHYSICAL DISTANCING

Space, Time, and Cities in the Era of Covid-19

Principal Investigators: Paul Lewis, Princeton University Guy Nordenson, Princeton University David J. Lewis, Parsons School of Design Marc Tsurumaki, Columbia University

Release Date Version: June 24, 2020

Project #1 : Manual of Physical Distancing Multi-lingual Publication for Public Safety Selected pages from Manual of Physical Distancing will show through visually accessible graphic means the latest medical information on rates of transmission and risks associated with interior and exterior spaces. Specific case-studies relevant to the community, including restaurants and indoor places, will be included to show by example the risks associated with Covid-19 and sharing space.

Persistence in air and virus effectiveness

Indoor environment air flow case study restaurant

Efficacy of mask wearing

Local air patterns influence risk rates

Project #2 : Open Restaurants Design Advocates + workAC + SO-IL + nArchitects

Open Restaurants Budget Item

This scope of work includes two areas of intervention as part of the Open Restaurants program for existing restaurants in Jackson Heights as follows: a. Provisions for sidewalk seating including sidewalk barriers and planters, and b. Provisions for street seating including street barricades and planters. In order to implement these interventions, restaurant owners were asked to fill out a “Client Intake Form.” Our team then conducted initial interviews with restaurant owners followed by subsequent meetings with them to fully understand their business and operations. Measurements were taken as required to provide the clients with sufficient information to apply for the Open Restaurants permits. Additionally, our teams provided layout options for sidewalk and street seating to each restaurant owner as needed.

Sub Total $ $ Street Barricade Construction for 8 x15 Open Restaurants

Additional developments that could be included as part of future interventions may include the following: a. Sidewalk seating shading system, b. Street seating shading system, and c. Outdoor lighting. Current/ anticipated challenges: • funding for resources and materials • fabrication and installation timelines Existing Policy Reconsiderations: • Open Restaurants program length • use of outdoor heat lamps

$/unit

Plywood

30.15

121

Wood Framing (2x2x8)

10.31

Wood Framing (2x4x8)

3.64

Paint (1 qt of paint)

14.98

Local Carpenter (labor)

1,000

Transportation

1,000

1.40

Cinderblock Weights

Street Furnishing 8 x 15 Open Restaurants Plantings

12.99

325

Netting Sacks

3.00

9.99

18.00

108

Zipties Planter Bags

Our team will continue to intake new restaurant clients who request assistance and through the life of the Open Restaurants program. Ideally, funding can be sourced in order to provide these types of interventions for these additional businesses in the neighborhood.

Qty

Sidewalk Barriers & Furnishings for Open Restaurants Plantings

12.99

156

Drainage Dishes

2.99

Planter Bags/baskets

18.00

108

Shelving

19.99

120

Zipties

9.99

Bamboo Screening

31.86

127

Artist Collaboration to paint barriers Open Restaurants: Sidewalk + Street (One Restaurant)

1,000

1,000 $4,368

Project #2 : Open Restaurants Intake + Process As part of the Neighborhoods Now initiative, our main goal was to provide aid to businesses to safely re-open and to help revive the Jackson Heights community. With indoor dining delayed indefinitely, our focus turned to assisting local restaurant owners to set up outdoor seating for patrons per the NYC Open Restaurants program which allows for sidewalk and street seating. Interested restaurant owners were asked to complete a Client Intake Form to provide us with basic business contact information and to gain a better understanding of the restaurant’s service needs. Initial site visits and client meetings were conducted during which as built measurements were recorded in addition to sitting down with restaurant owners to begin building a relationship between us. We asked them to tell us more about the history of their business, their history and experience in the neighborhood and about their families. Each narration was unique and gave us further insight into the Jackson Heights community. Subsequent visits to the restaurants were made to gather additional information and gather additional information from the clients about their businesses.

NEIGHBORHOODS NOW // VOLUNTEER ARCHITECTS NETWORK (VAL) JACKSON HEIGHTS // CLIENT INTAKE FORM Name: ______________________________________________________ Business Name: ______________________________________________ Business Address: ____________________________________________ Business Type: _______________________________________________ Phone Number: _______________________________________________ Email Address: _______________________________________________ Language Preference: _________________________________________

What services would you like us to provide to you? Select all that apply:

Site Map

Our first and foremost goal was to assist the restaurant owners in procuring Open Restaurants permits for sidewalk and street seating depending on which seating locations were allowable and based on the client’s comfort level. Once the scope was established, we then worked with each client individually to utlimately install their respective seating installations.

⬜

Outdoor seating permitting

⬜

Outdoor sidewalk seating plan

⬜

Outdoor street seating plan

⬜

Outdoor seating barrier options

⬜

Outdoor seating furniture options

⬜

Outdoor signage

⬜

Indoor seating plan

⬜

Indoor signage

⬜

Restroom access signage for outdoor seating

⬜

Other: ___________________________________________________

Is there anything else you would like to share with us about your business? _______________________________________________________________

Initial Client Meeting

VAL Client Intake Form

Project #2 : Open Restaurants Case Study: Thakali Mustang Kitchen | 74-14 37th Avenue Thakali Mustang Kitchen was our first client meeting and site visit as part of the Neighborhoods Nows intiative. Located on the main drag of 37th Avenue, there is always a plenty of foot traffic in this area. Unfortunately with indoor seating for restaurants still prohibited, the foot traffic has not helped the Thakali owners, Nabin and Sharmila, keep the business up as most of the patrons prefer to eat at the restaurant. During our initial conversation wtih their son, Ashraya, we learned that many of the people who frequent their restaurant are not from the neighborhood and come from other parts of the city or state to enjoy traditional Nepali food. Many have come recently and are disappointed that they cannot eat-in and must order take-away and eat in their cars. Additionally, most of their customers are families and are usually in groups of four to six people and multi-generational. After taking initial site measurements, we followed up with Ashraya and learned that his parents had decided to close the restaurant as the take out revenue was not enough to justify remaining open. Our team had further conversations with the family in an effort to ask them to try out the sidewalk seating as a first step and if successful to consider roadway seating. They were able to apply for the permits and subsequently we spent one Saturday installing sidewalk barriers and plantings. Before we could finish the installation, tables were set up and patrons sat down immediately. Ashraya reported to us that business was â&#x20AC;&#x153;above averageâ&#x20AC;? over the weekend per Nabin. We spent the next weekend installng roadway barriers and plantings in hopes of business reviving for Nabin, Sharmila, and Ashraya.

VAL Team with Ashraya + Family

THAKALI KITCHEN

Site Map

Exterior View

Project #2 : Open Restaurants Case Study: Thakali Mustang Kitchen | 74-14 37th Avenue SPACE PLANNING - SIDEWALK & ROADWAY SEATING THAKALI KITCHEN | 74-14 37th Ave

SPACE PLANNING - SIDEWALK & ROADWAY SEATING THAKALI KITCHEN | 74-14 37th Ave

ALLOWED SEATING AREAS & REQUIREMENTS:

SEATING LAYOUT 1: (SMALL TABLES)

SEATING LAYOUT 2: (LARGE/FAMILY TABLES)

ROADWAY SEATING

9'-5" ALLOWED SEATING AREA

AREA OKAY FOR SEATING (SHOWN IN PINK) 6'

8' REQUIRED CLEAR PATHWAY

SIDEWALK SEATING

SEATING MUST ALLOW CUSTOMERS AT OTHER TABLES TO BE 6’-0” APART

OPTIONAL BARRIERS/ PLANTERS IF YOU WANT (NOT REQUIRED)

SIDEWALK SEATING

OPTIONAL BARRIERS/ PLANTERS IF YOU WANT (NOT REQUIRED)

15' ALLOWED SEATING AREA

REQUIRED RAMP

BICYCLE RACK

8' ALLOWED SEATING AREA

SIDEWALK SEATING

17'-5"SIDEWALK WIDTH

SPACE PLANNING - SIDEWALK & ROADWAY SEATING THAKALI KITCHEN | 74-14 37th Ave

SIDEWALK CURB AT STREET EDGE

REQUIRED RAMP

AREA OKAY FOR SEATING (SHOWN IN PINK)

15' ALLOWED SEATING AREA

REQUIRED BARRIERS AROUND EDGE OF ROADWAY SEATING (SHOWN IN BLUE)

NEIGHBORHOODS NOW | JACKSON HEIGHTS | RESTAURANTS + RETAIL

Permit Information: Roadway & Sidewalk Plan

BICYCLE RACK

OPTIONAL UMBRELLAS WITH WEIGHTED BASE (DASHED CIRCLES)

REQUIRED RAMP

BICYCLE RACK

OPTIONAL UMBRELLAS WITH WEIGHTED BASE (DASHED CIRCLES)

ROADWAY SEATING

NEIGHBORHOODS NOW | JACKSON HEIGHTS | RESTAURANTS + RETAIL

Outdoor Seating Plan: Option 1

REQUIRED BARRIERS AROUND EDGE OF ROADWAY SEATING (SHOWN IN BLUE)

ROADWAY SEATING

NEIGHBORHOODS NOW | JACKSON HEIGHTS | RESTAURANTS + RETAIL

Outdoor Seating Plan: Option 2

REQUIRED BARRIERS AROUND EDGE OF ROADWAY SEATING (SHOWN IN BLUE)

Project #2 : Open Restaurants Case Study: Thakali Mustang Kitchen | 74-14 37th Avenue

Street Barricades + Planter Installation - Interior view

Street Barricades + Planter Installation - Exterior view

Sidewalk Seating Installation

Project #2 : Open Restaurants Case Study: Bhanchha Ghar | 74-15 Roosevelt Avenue Bimla, the owner of Bhanchha Ghar, opened her restaurant on bustling Roosevelt Avenue in 2015. With the 7 subway line just above, her restaurant provided a respite from the commotion and comfort with the food prior to the pandemic hitting this neighbhorhood. Since then, Bimla’s New York Times’ featured food has only been accessbile via take out and delivery. THAKALI KITCHEN

Unfortunately, due to the restaurant being located directly in front of an MTA bus stop, Bimla did not qualify to apply for a roadway seating permit. However, the sidewalk, albeit noisy and often congested, did qualify. During our initial site visit, Bimla was curious to see how we might be able to help but was clearly skeptical. About a week later, we were able to visit her again and provide her with the information to apply for the sidewalk permit. She contacted the Business Center for New Americans to help her submit her application as at the time there was not a non-English version. Bimla informed our team that she had been approved for the permit and we then planned to help her install sidewalk seating. The following Saturday, we spent the afternoon setting up sidewalk barriers and plantings for Bhanchha Ghar and, again, patrons showed up almost immediately to eat outside. Upon completion, Bimla kindly offered us each an order of her famous “Best Momo in Town” which we all accepted graciously. We made a follow up site visit the following week and were pleasantly surprised to see that Bimla had added some additional plants and decor of her choosing to the outdoor seating area, fully embracing ownership of this new area.

Bimla, owner of Bhanchha Ghar

DELHI HEIGHTS

BHANCHHA GHAR

Site Map

Exterior View

Project #2 : Open Restaurants Case Study: Bhanchha Ghar | 74-15 Roosevelt Avenue SPACE PLANNING - SIDEWALK & ROADWAY SEATING BHANCHHA GHAR | 74-15 Roosevelt Ave

ALLOWED SEATING AREAS & REQUIREMENTS:

SEATING LAYOUT 1: (SMALL TABLES)

SEATING LAYOUT 2: (LARGE/FAMILY TABLE)

18'-9" ALLOWED SEATING AREA

SIDEWALK CURB AT STREET EDGE

LARGE POST AT SIDEWALK EDGE

Permit Information: Sidewalk Plan

SEATING MUST ALLOW CUSTOMERS AT OTHER TABLES TO BE 6’-0” APART

OPTIONAL BARRIERS/ PLANTERS IF YOU WANT (SHOWN IN BLUE — NOT REQUIRED)

SIDEWALK SEATING

SIDEWALK CURB AT STREET EDGE

ROADWAY SEATING NOT ALLOWED

NEIGHBORHOODS NOW | JACKSON HEIGHTS | RESTAURANTS + RETAIL

3'-10" 2'-4"

AREA OKAY FOR SEATING (SHOWN IN PINK)

8' REQUIRED CLEAR PATHWAY

SIDEWALK SEATING

10'-3" ALLOWED SEATING AREA

SPACE PLANNING - SIDEWALK & ROADWAY SEATING BHANCHHA GHAR | 74-15 Roosevelt Ave

18'-3" SIDEWALK WIDTH

SPACE PLANNING - SIDEWALK & ROADWAY SEATING BHANCHHA GHAR | 74-15 Roosevelt Ave

OPTIONAL BARRIERS/ PLANTERS IF YOU WANT (SHOWN IN BLUE — NOT REQUIRED)

SIDEWALK SEATING

LARGE POST AT SIDEWALK EDGE

SIDEWALK CURB AT STREET EDGE

LAYOUT OPTION 2

NEIGHBORHOODS NOW | JACKSON HEIGHTS | RESTAURANTS + RETAIL

Outdoor Seating Plan: Option 1

SEATING MUST ALLOW CUSTOMERS AT OTHER TABLES TO BE 6’-0” APART

NEIGHBORHOODS NOW | JACKSON HEIGHTS | RESTAURANTS + RETAIL

Outdoor Seating Plan: Option 2

LARGE POST AT SIDEWALK EDGE

Project #2 : Open Restaurants Case Study: Bhanchha Ghar | 74-15 Roosevelt Avenue

Sidewalk Seating - Planter preparation with Bimla

Sidewalk Seating - Exterior view

Sidewalk Seating Installation- Exterior view

Project #2 : Open Restaurants Case Study: Las Americas | 4030 82nd Street Las Americas is a small bakery located on 82nd Street just south of Roosevelt Avenue. The interior space of the bakery is quite narrow and there is no existing seating with the venue. Jose, the owner, had never thought to set up outdoor seating on the sidewalk so we pitched this idea to him. He showed immediate interest and was also interested in exploring the possiblity of roadway seating as well.

DELICIAS COLOMBIANAS

Our team was able to provide him with seating layout options for both the sidewalk and roadway along with the information required to apply for permits for both locations. Kevin from the 82nd Street Partnership was able to assist Jose in procuring the permits. The following weekend, our team was able to help Las Americas set up outdoor sidewalk seating for the first time including the installation of our milk crate planter system to provide for separation between the tables and bakery entrance. Our hope is to install roadway barriers along with planters and seating on the street for Las Americas in the coming weeks.

FLAMINGO

TBD

TULCINGO

CASA RIVERA LAS AMERICAS

SABOR ECUATORIANO

Site Map

Exterior View

Project #2 : Open Restaurants Case Study: Las Americas | 4030 82nd Street SPACE PLANNING - SIDEWALK & ROADWAY SEATING LAS AMERICANAS BAKERY | 9304 37th Ave

SPACE PLANNING - SIDEWALK & ROADWAY SEATING LAS AMERICANAS BAKERY | 9304 37th Ave

ALLOWED SEATING AREAS & REQUIREMENTS:

SEATING LAYOUT 1:

SEATING LAYOUT 2:

REQUIRED RAMP

BICYCLE RACK

AREA OKAY FOR SEATING (SHOWN IN PINK) 1'-6" MIN

ROADWAY SEATING 15' ALLOWED SEATING AREA

Permit Information: Roadway & Sidewalk NEIGHBORHOODS NOW | JACKSON HEIGHTS | RESTAURANTS + RETAIL

2' 2'-6"

SMALL PLANTERS (NOT REQUIRED)

REQUIRED RAMP

REQUIRED 18” WIDTH BARRIERS AROUND EDGE OF ROADWAY SEATING (SHOWN IN BLUE)

ROADWAY SEATING

BICYCLE RACK

REQUIRED RAMP

SEATING MUST ALLOW CUSTOMERS AT OTHER TABLES TO BE 6’-0” APART REQUIRED BARRIERS AROUND EDGE OF ROADWAY SEATING (SHOWN IN BLUE)

ROADWAY SEATING

Seating Plan: Option 1

SEATING MUST ALLOW CUSTOMERS AT OTHER TABLES TO BE 6’-0” APART REQUIRED BARRIERS AROUND EDGE OF ROADWAY SEATING (SHOWN IN BLUE) OPTIONAL UMBRELLAS WITH WEIGHTED BASE (DASHED CIRCLES)

OPTIONAL UMBRELLAS WITH WEIGHTED BASE (DASHED CIRCLES)

NEIGHBORHOODS NOW | JACKSON HEIGHTS | RESTAURANTS + RETAIL

BICYCLE RACK

2'-6"

SIDEWALK CURB AT STREET EDGE

SIDEWALK SEATING

SMALL PLANTERS (NOT REQUIRED)

2'-6"

PLANTER BED @ SIDEWALK

SIDEWALK SEATING

11'-11"SIDEWALK WIDTH

3'-11" ALLOWED 14'-521" STOREFRONT LENGTH

8' REQUIRED CLEAR PATHWAY

7'-3" CLEAR FOR SEATING

8' ALLOWED SEATING AREA

SIDEWALK SEATING

2'-6"

AREA OKAY FOR SEATING (SHOWN IN PINK)

Seating Plan: Option 2 NEIGHBORHOODS NOW | JACKSON HEIGHTS | RESTAURANTS + RETAIL

Project #2 : Open Restaurants Case Study: Las Americas | 4030 82nd Street

Sidewalk Seating + Planter Installation

Project #2 : Open Restaurants Case Study: Delhi Heights | 37-66 74th Street Mohan, the owner of Delhi Heights, an Indian and Nepali fusion restaurant and bar, established the restaurant in the Jackson Heights neighborhood almost 8 years ago. The restaurant is operated by Mohan and his brother as well as other family members and friends. It is the largest vendor along Diversity Plaza, formerly 37th Road. Since the onset of the pandemic, Delhi Heights has been solely providing take out food service at their pick up window which faces the Plaza. Like other restaurant clients, Mohan has two floors of interior seating within the restaurant that have been empty for months now. After our initial site assessment and meeting with Mohan, it was determined that he could apply for both roadway and sidewalk seating permits along 74th Street. However it was unclear whether seating along storefront area facing Diversity Plaza would be permissible. Mohan applied for Open Restaurants for both areas and was approved for seating on 74th Street and tentatively approved for Diversity Plaza but would require further Department of Transportation (DOT) review. Mohan decided he did not want to located seating on 74th Street due to an existing bus route and general traffic congestion so we then focused on working with DOT to see if Diversity Plaza would be a feasible option.

THAKALI KITCHEN

VAL Team meeting with Mohan + Family

DELHI HEIGHTS

BHANCHHA GHAR

Through a series of meetings and drawing exchanges with DOT over the course of two weeks, we were able to liaise between Mohan and DOT to allow for Delhi Heights to place exclusive seating along a portion of the storefront on Diversity Plaza while still meeting all DOT rules and regulations.

Site Map

Exterior View

Project #2 : Open Restaurants Case Study: Delhi Heights | 37-66 74th Street

PROPOSED PLAZA SEATING AREA FOR DELHI HEIGHTS

Exclusive Seating

Proposed Plaza Seating Area

NYC Department of Transportation Approved Plaza Seating Plan

Project #2 : Open Restaurants Case Study: Delicias Colombianas | 37-03 82nd Street Berta, the owner of Delicias Colombianas, has been in NY for 7 years and is very proud of the fact that people regularly visit Delicias because it reminds them of Colombia - the music, the interior decor, etc. However since COVID-19 struck the community, she has seen a major loss in business as people can no longer eat inside the restaurant that usually makes them feel at home. Additionally, Delicias and adjacent businesses on 82nd Street have lost business to mobile vending carts which are far more convenient to patrons being outdoors. In our conversations with Berta, she did not like the idea of roadway seating as she felt 82nd Street was too busy and polluted. Ultimately roadway seating was not an option per the Department of Transportation due to an existing bus route on 82nd Street. Berta expressed that she would love to see 82nd Street converted to a pedestrian-only thoroughfare. While sidewalk seating was an option for the restaurant, the narrow storefront only allowed for a single two-person small table. We provided a final package to Berta including an option for setting up a table along the storefront along with permitting information and instructions.

DELICIAS COLOMBIANAS

FLAMINGO

VAL Team Site Visit

TULCINGO

CASA RIVERA LAS AMERICAS

SABOR ECUATORIANO

Site Map

Exterior View

Project #2 : Open Restaurants Case Study: Delicias Colombianas | 37-03 82nd Street SPACE PLANNING - SIDEWALK SEATING DELICIAS COLOMBIANAS | 37-03 82nd St.

SPACE PLANNING - SIDEWALK SEATING DELICIAS COLOMBIANAS | 37-03 82nd St.

ALLOWED SEATING AREAS & REQUIREMENTS:

SEATING LAYOUT: 1 SMALL TABLE

SIDEWALK SEATING

8'-0" REQUIRED MINIMUM CLEAR PATHWAY

11'-5" SIDEWALK WIDTH

AREA OKAY FOR SEATING (SHOWN IN PINK)

SIDEWALK SEATING

82ND STREET

SIDEWALK CURB AT STREET EDGE

Permit Information: Sidewalk

SIDEWALK CURB AT STREET EDGE

Seating Plan

Project #2 : Open Restaurants Case Study: Sabor Ecuatoriano | 4040 82nd Street Carlos has owned Sabor Ecuatoriano for eight years and feels the restaurant is his second home. He spends more than twelve hours per day in the restaurant and knows everyone who visits. In the past few months though, he has only seen delivery people. There has been a very clear reduction in the amount of foot traffic into the bakery. Many of his clients are seniors and have poor mobility so setting up sidewalk seating was important and a priority for him.

DELICIAS COLOMBIANAS

Like others on 82nd St., Carlos was not interested in roadway seating due to noise, pollution, and safety. He was interested in seeing Dunningham Triangle just across the street turned into a more inviting public space that could serve as a comfortable extension of his restaurant.

FLAMINGO

VAL Team Site Visit

TULCINGO

CASA RIVERA LAS AMERICAS

SABOR ECUATORIANO

Site Map

Exterior View

Project #2 : Open Restaurants Case Study: Sabor Ecuatoriano | 4040 82nd Street SPACE PLANNING - SIDEWALK & ROADWAY SEATING

SPACE PLANNING - SIDEWALK & ROADWAY SEATING

SABOR ECUATORIANO | 4040 82nd St.

ALLOWED SEATING AREAS & REQUIREMENTS:

SEATING LAYOUT: 2 SMALL TABLES

SIDEWALK SEATING

LIGHT POST

8'-0" REQUIRED MINIMUM CLEAR PATHWAY

11'-6" SIDEWALK WIDTH

AREA OKAY FOR SEATING (SHOWN IN PINK)

SIDEWALK SEATING

7'-0"

LIGHT POST SIDEWALK CURB AT STREET EDGE

SIDEWALK CURB AT STREET EDGE

82ND STREET

TO DUNNINGHAM TRIANGLE

Permit Information: Sidewalk

NEIGHBORHOODS NOW | JACKSON HEIGHTS | RESTAURANTS + RETAIL

SEATING MUST ALLOW CUSTOMERS AT OTHER TABLES TO BE 6’-0” APART

TO DUNNINGHAM TRIANGLE

Seating Plan

NEIGHBORHOODS NOW | JACKSON HEIGHTS | RESTAURANTS + RETAIL

Project #2 : Open Restaurants Case Study: Sabor Ecuatoriano | 4040 82nd Street SPACE PLANNING - ROADWAY SEATING

SPACE PLANNING - ROADWAY SEATING

TULCINGO RESTAURANT & BAKERY | 40-11 82nd St.

SEATING LAYOUT:

ALLOWED SEATING AREAS & REQUIREMENTS:

(SMALL TABLES)

SIDEWALK CURB AT STREET EDGE

ROADWAY SEATING

8'-0" ALLOWED SEATING AREA

STREET TREE PLANTING

REQUIRED RAMP

ROADWAY SEATING SEATING MUST ALLOW CUSTOMERS AT OTHER TABLES TO BE 6’-0” APART

AREA OKAY FOR SEATING (SHOWN IN PINK) REQUIRED BARRIERS AROUND EDGE OF ROADWAY SEATING (SHOWN IN BLUE)

1'-6"

6'-0"

15'-0" ALLOWED SEATING AREA

82ND STREET

Permit Information: Roadway

Seating Plan NEIGHBORHOODS NOW | JACKSON HEIGHTS | RESTAURANTS + RETAIL

NEIGHBORHOODS NOW | JACKSON HEIGHTS | RESTAURANTS + RETAIL

OPTIONAL UMBRELLAS WITH WEIGHTED BASE (DASHED CIRCLES) REQUIRED BARRIERS AROUND EDGE OF ROADWAY SEATING (SHOWN IN BLUE)

Project #2 : Open Restaurants Case Study: Casa Rivera | 40-15 82nd Street Casa Rivera is our newest client for the Neighborhoods Now initiative in Jackson Heights and also located along 82nd street, just south of Roosevelt Avenue.

DELICIAS COLOMBIANAS

We have been working with this client to provide preliminary information for their permit applications at both sidewalk and street locations. We have also developed the seating layout options for their review and are awaiting feedback on which option they prefer. Upon Casa Rivera procuring their permits, we will schedule a follow up meeting in order to determine which layouts to execute based on their preference. We look forward to proceeding with this installation in the following weeks.

FLAMINGO

Exterior View

TULCINGO

CASA RIVERA LAS AMERICAS

SABOR ECUATORIANO

Site Map

Exterior View

Project #2 : Open Restaurants Case Study: Casa Rivera | 40-15 82nd Street SPACE PLANNING - SIDEWALK & ROADWAY SEATING CASA RIVERA | 40-15 82nd St

SPACE PLANNING - SIDEWALK & ROADWAY SEATING CASA RIVERA | 40-15 82nd St

ALLOWED SEATING AREAS & REQUIREMENTS:

SEATING LAYOUT 1:

SEATING LAYOUT 2: (LARGE GROUP SETUP)

PLANTER BED @ SIDEWALK BICYCLE RACK

REQUIRED RAMP H2O

1'-6" MIN

ROADWAY SEATING 19' ALLOWED SEATING AREA

SMALL PLANTERS (NOT REQUIRED)

2'-4"

SIDEWALK SEATING

2'-4"

SMALL PLANTERS (NOT REQUIRED)

LIGHT POST

BICYCLE RACK

REQUIRED RAMP

LIGHT POST

BICYCLE RACK

H2O

REQUIRED RAMP

LIGHT POST

H2O

AREA OKAY FOR SEATING (SHOWN IN PINK)

6' CLEAR SPACE

REQUIRED 18” WIDTH BARRIERS AROUND EDGE OF ROADWAY SEATING (SHOWN IN BLUE)

Permit Information: Roadway & Sidewalk NEIGHBORHOODS NOW | JACKSON HEIGHTS | RESTAURANTS + RETAIL

3'-10"

SIDEWALK SEATING

11'-10"SIDEWALK WIDTH

3'-10" ALLOWED 8'-6" CLEAR FOR SEATING

19' STOREFRONT LENGTH

8' ALLOWED SEATING AREA

8' REQUIRED CLEAR PATHWAY

SIDEWALK SEATING

SIDEWALK CURB AT STREET EDGE

AREA OKAY FOR SEATING (SHOWN IN PINK)

3'-10"

SPACE PLANNING - SIDEWALK & ROADWAY SEATING CASA RIVERA | 40-15 82nd St

ROADWAY SEATING

SEATING MUST ALLOW CUSTOMERS AT OTHER TABLES TO BE 6’-0” APART

REQUIRED BARRIERS AROUND EDGE OF ROADWAY SEATING (SHOWN IN BLUE)

OPTIONAL UMBRELLAS WITH WEIGHTED BASE (DASHED CIRCLES)

ROADWAY SEATING

OPTIONAL UMBRELLAS WITH WEIGHTED BASE (DASHED CIRCLES)

Seating Plan: Option 1 NEIGHBORHOODS NOW | JACKSON HEIGHTS | RESTAURANTS + RETAIL

Seating Plan: Option 2 NEIGHBORHOODS NOW | JACKSON HEIGHTS | RESTAURANTS + RETAIL

Project #2 : Open Restaurants Case Study: Flamingo | 85-12 Roosevelt Avenue Luis is the owner of Flamingo, a bar and restaurant located on Roosevelt Avenue just under the 7 subway line. His establishment is a center of night life in the neighborhood and he was desperate to bring this vibrancy back to the area. He requested help from our team to provide assistance with applying for his Open Restaurants permits for both sidewalk and roadway locations. His venue also has street frontage at the rear of the building. Our team was able to provide him with permit information as well as seating plan layout options for both locations. DELICIAS COLOMBIANAS

Luis was able to implement seating at all locations on his own but we were happy to help get to that point.

Exterior Street View

FLAMINGO

TULCINGO

CASA RIVERA LAS AMERICAS

Site Map

Exterior Sidewalk View

Project #2 : Open Restaurants Case Study: Flamingo | 85-12 Roosevelt Avenue SPACE PLANNING - SIDEWALK & ROADWAY SEATING FLAMINGO | 85-12 Roosevelt Ave

SPACE PLANNING - SIDEWALK & ROADWAY SEATING FLAMINGO | 85-12 Roosevelt Ave

ALLOWED SEATING AREAS & REQUIREMENTS:

SEATING LAYOUT 1: (LARGER GROUP TABLES)

SEATING LAYOUT 2: (SMALLER TABLES)

8' ALLOWED SEATING AREA

18'SIDEWALK WIDTH

8' ALLOWED SEATING AREA

REQUIRED BARRIERS AROUND EDGE OF ROADWAY SEATING (SHOWN IN BLUE)

AREA OKAY FOR SEATING (SHOWN IN PINK)

REQUIRED RAMP

8' REQUIRED CLEAR PATHWAY

3'-10" ALLOWED

6' 6'

ROOSEVELT AVE

BIKE RACK

MTA BARRIER

40'-058" ALLOWED SEATING AREA

MTA BARRIER

40'-058" ALLOWED SEATING AREA

ROOSEVELT AVE

BIKE RACK

40'-1" ALLOWED SEATING AREA

ROOSEVELT AVE

40'-1" ALLOWED SEATING AREA

MTA BARRIER

BIKE RACK

SEATING MUST ALLOW CUSTOMERS AT OTHER TABLES TO BE 6’-0” APART

REQUIRED BARRIERS AROUND EDGE OF ROADWAY SEATING (SHOWN IN BLUE)

REQUIRED RAMP 6'

SIDEWALK CURB AT STREET EDGE

6' 6'

8' REQUIRED CLEAR PATHWAY

7'-6" ALLOWED SEATING AREA

LIGHTPOST

LIGHTPOST ROADWAY SEATING NEIGHBORHOODS NOW | JACKSON HEIGHTS | RESTAURANTS + RETAIL

SIDEWALK SEATING

ROADWAY SEATING NEIGHBORHOODS NOW | JACKSON HEIGHTS | RESTAURANTS + RETAIL

Permit Information: Roadway & Sidewalk Roosevelt Ave. / Front Facade

Seating Plan: Option 1

LIGHTPOST SIDEWALK SEATING

ROADWAY SEATING NEIGHBORHOODS NOW | JACKSON HEIGHTS | RESTAURANTS + RETAIL

Seating Plan: Option 2

SIDEWALK SEATING

Project #2 : Open Restaurants Case Study: Flamingo | 85-12 Roosevelt Avenue SPACE PLANNING - SIDEWALK & ROADWAY SEATING FLAMINGO | 85-12 Roosevelt Ave

SPACE PLANNING - SIDEWALK & ROADWAY SEATING FLAMINGO | 85-12 Roosevelt Ave

ALLOWED SEATING AREAS & REQUIREMENTS:

SEATING LAYOUT 1: (LARGER GROUP TABLES)

SEATING LAYOUT 2: (SMALLER TABLES) 6'

SPACE PLANNING - SIDEWALK & ROADWAY SEATING FLAMINGO | 85-12 Roosevelt Ave

6' 6'

SEATING MUST ALLOW CUSTOMERS AT OTHER TABLES TO BE 6’-0” APART REQUIRED RAMP

(SIDEWALK SEATING NOT ALLOWED; MUST KEEP CLEAR)

8' REQUIRED CLEAR PATHWAY

ROADWAY SEATING 8' ALLOWED SEATING AREA

Permit Information: Roadway & Sidewalk Forley St. / Rear Facade

NEIGHBORHOODS NOW | JACKSON HEIGHTS | RESTAURANTS + RETAIL

Seating Plan: Option 1

(SIDEWALK SEATING NOT ALLOWED; MUST KEEP CLEAR)

ROADWAY SEATING NEIGHBORHOODS NOW | JACKSON HEIGHTS | RESTAURANTS + RETAIL

Seating Plan: Option 2

(SIDEWALK SEATING NOT ALLOWED; MUST KEEP CLEAR)

17'-8"SIDEWALK WIDTH

FURLEY

SEATING MUST ALLOW CUSTOMERS AT OTHER TABLES TO BE 6’-0” APART

SIDEWALK CURB AT STREET EDGE

NEIGHBORHOODS NOW | JACKSON HEIGHTS | RESTAURANTS + RETAIL

REQUIRED RAMP

REQUIRED BARRIERS AROUND EDGE OF ROADWAY SEATING (SHOWN IN BLUE)

FURLEY

REQUIRED BARRIERS AROUND EDGE OF ROADWAY SEATING (SHOWN IN BLUE)

FURLEY

51' ALLOWED SEATING AREA

51' LENGTH OF PROPERTY STOREFRONT

AREA OKAY FOR SEATING (SHOWN IN PINK)

ROADWAY SEATING

Project #2 : Open Restaurants Case Study: Cantina Paisa | 96-12 31st Avenue Cantina Paisa is located in a quiet, predominantly residential area of northeast Jackson Heights. It remains temporarily closed due to COVID-19, as all of their pre-covid business was in the spacious indoor bar. Much of the Cantina’s business was music-oriented and catered to large birthday parties, events, etc. Fortunately the sidewalk in front of the restaurant is very deep allowing for the possibility of roadway seating. The venue also has a small backyard which could potentially be explored for future rear yard seating. We met with Roger’s brother on site and although we did not have a Spanish translator, his enthusiasm for reopening outdoors was very apparent. He had several ideas already for what they wanted roadway barriers and sidewalk seating to look like, and were very excited to get proceed with their own implementation ideas. Our team ultimately provided Roger with a few options for both sidewalk and roadway seating, as well as permitting information and instructions.

Roger’s brother, representative of Cantina Paisa

Exterior View Site Map

Project #2 : Open Restaurants Case Study: Cantina Paisa | 96-12 31st Avenue SPACE PLANNING - SIDEWALK & ROADWAY SEATING

SPACE PLANNING - SIDEWALK & ROADWAY SEATING

CANTINA PAISA | 96-12 31st Ave.

ALLOWED SEATING AREAS & REQUIREMENTS:

SEATING LAYOUT OPTION 1:

SEATING LAYOUT OPTION 2:

(SMALL TABLES)

(LARGE + SMALL TABLES)

SIDEWALK SEATING

6'-10"

SIDEWALK SEATING

AREA OKAY FOR SEATING (SHOWN IN PINK)

8'-0" REQUIRED MINIMUM CLEAR PATHWAY

28'-0" SIDEWALK WIDTH

6'-0"

OPTIONAL UMBRELLAS WITH WEIGHTED BASE (DASHED CIRCLES)

6'-0"

14'-0" ALLOWED SEATING AREA

SEATING MUST ALLOW CUSTOMERS AT OTHER TABLES TO BE 6’-0” APART

OPTIONAL UMBRELLAS WITH WEIGHTED BASE (DASHED CIRCLES)

SEATING MUST ALLOW CUSTOMERS AT OTHER TABLES TO BE 6’-0” APART

16'-0" ALLOWED SEATING AREA

8'-0" PLANTER

6'-0" PLANTER

SIDEWALK PLANTER SEATING MUST ALLOW CUSTOMERS AT OTHER TABLES TO BE 6’-0” APART

AREA OKAY FOR SEATING (SHOWN IN PINK)

OPTIONAL UMBRELLAS WITH WEIGHTED BASE (DASHED CIRCLES)

REQUIRED BARRIERS AROUND EDGE OF ROADWAY SEATING (SHOWN IN BLUE)

1'-6"

16'-0" ALLOWED SEATING AREA

ROADWAY SEATING

SIDEWALK CURB AT STREET EDGE

6'-

8'-0" ALLOWED SEATING AREA

ROADWAY SEATING

REQUIRED RAMP

REQUIRED BARRIERS AROUND EDGE OF ROADWAY SEATING (SHOWN IN BLUE)

NEIGHBORHOODS NOW | JACKSON HEIGHTS | RESTAURANTS + RETAIL

Seating Plan: Option 1

REQUIRED BARRIERS AROUND EDGE OF ROADWAY SEATING (SHOWN IN BLUE)

6'-0"

BIKE LANE

31ST AVENUE

Permit Information: Roadway & Sidewalk

SEATING MUST ALLOW CUSTOMERS AT OTHER TABLES TO BE 6’-0” APART

ROADWAY SEATING

BIKE LANE

NEIGHBORHOODS NOW | JACKSON HEIGHTS | RESTAURANTS + RETAIL

OPTIONAL UMBRELLAS WITH WEIGHTED BASE (DASHED CIRCLES)

31ST AVENUE

NEIGHBORHOODS NOW | JACKSON HEIGHTS | RESTAURANTS + RETAIL

Seating Plan: Option 2

Project #3 : The Field Office MOS Architects

Field office + Table No. 2 + Workshirt Budget

MOS is interested in vacant storefronts and the potential to activate them to provide services to the community. In Jackson Heights a Field office has been set up utilizing and existing vacant storefront with the dedicated help of our partner, Director at the 82nd street Partnership- Leslie Ramos. The Field office is meant to provide an on ground presence for the volunteering architects as part of the Neighborhoods Now initiative. It is an effort to make the process of communication and delivery of services efficient and also provide other struggling businesses a point of contact in their neighbourhood in the form of a store front.

Item

Qty

Donated Recycled Plywood 4’x8’

For Neighborhoods Now! MOS would like to enagage in the programming of vacant storefronts through the anticipated needs of the community. We intend to use tools such as chalkboards for writing and suggestion boxes to collect information. We would like to focus on Health related programming such as providing information booklets regarding safe social distancing, counselling and art projects as therapy. We want to engage in the very local work of artisans to create objects for the prominent storefront Field Office and work collaboratively with SSWR and local tailors for the work shirts and Studio Lin for signage and wayfinding. MOS has written several books, including ones that focus on children’s education as it intersects with design. MOS would like to work on programming of the field office and its neighborhood table to be the site of such programming focused on children’s education and their learning especially around design and making to reflect the multicultural neighborhood of Jackson Heights. It’s been a preivilege to work with VAL, UDF and Van Alan Institute. Thank you!

CNC milling and Fabrication Work Shirts New Glass Storefront Ventilated steel rolling garage door Demolition of Interiors Renovaiton of Space to sheerstock New Flooring

•

Acquiring and forming partnerships for utilizing vacant store fronts

Policy that should be reconsidered from our experience • •

Short term leases on vacant store fronts Incentivize to Use vacant storefronts for community based programming

Sub $

Total $

10,000 10

150

1,500 15,00020,000 3,000 400 10.000 10,000

New lighting New Shelving Bathroom Wall Chalk Board

500

Seating made with local woodworker Signage + wayfinding hire a graphic designer

1,500 5,000 61,500

Additional Components TBD education programs Recording Devices Pads of Paper Art Supplies

Current/ anticipated challenges

$/unit

Project #3 :The Field Office

The Vacant Storefront As part of a collective group of architects and designers calling ourselves Volunteer Architects Limited (VAL), we focused on Jackson Heights working with the 82nd Street Partnership Director Leslie Ramos and led the initiative to secure and design a working Neighborhoods Now! Field Office. Beginning with researching found existing vacant storefronts, we began a design exercise to activate those spaces simply. An available vacant storefront measuring only 6â&#x20AC;&#x2122; wide and 18â&#x20AC;&#x2122; deep, provides a convenient presence directly on the street and opens up to the sidewalk. The Field Office and its adjacent sidewalk serves as a place of collective meeting for individuals and businesses for engagement and efficiency to the process of collecting information and providing services and is a front for several other small businesses to reach out to. The Field Office serves as a place to distribute information, goods, and services necessary for businesses and individuals during the Covid pandemic - safe social distancing and protocols for inhabiting public spaces; job loss - learning and education courses, and Anti-racism education. The Field Office can host a range of other services from storage to other functions such as a food bank, small training classroom and individual counseling around health. Although the storefront is very small, less than the Covid socially acceptable distancing, it holds the potential to rework the facade and make it completely open with a new glazing system. MOS designed a moveable table with circles and semicircles cut out of recycled sheets of plywood to ensure adequate distance between users. Inside of the storefront, the table can seat two people, and when moved to the sidewalk can expand into a longer family style table accumulating people and extending to bring together larger groups safely. Table No. 2 is to be covered in an antiviral coating.

Project #3 :The Field Office

The Space and Services Client Intake Form

Please return to 82nd St Partnership 37-06 82nd St #309 or Business Center for New Americans 78-27 37th Ave #1

Name:___________________________________ Business Name: _________________________ Business Address: _______________________ Business Type: __________________________ Phone Number:_________________________ Email Address:__________________________ Language Preference:___________________ What Services can we provide for you? (select all that apply) Outdoor seating permitting Outdoor sidewalk seating plan Outdoor street seating plan Outdoor seating barrier options Outdoor seating furniture options Outdoor signage Indoor seating plan Indoor signage Restroom access signage for outdoor seating Other: __________________________

Top left : Vacant Store Front Interior Top Right : Vacant Store Front Window Bottom: Field Office Side walk Plant + Paint Party and Table No. 2

Top left : Intake form for businesses Top Right : Field Office Sign Bottom left: Order sheet for the signage. Can be selected based on needs of individual businesses Bottom Right: CoVid Protocol Signage for distribution by Pentagram

Project #3 :The Field Office

Table No. 2 MOS has been inventive in thinking about the nature of the pandemic and occupying public and private spaces. We worked on a prototype Table No. 2 which is a social distancing table by virtue of its design, through predetermined cut out seating spots. The Prototype is a first of an ongoing study of the table and was constructed in situ by our team using donated recycled plywood from Gilbane and utilizing donated trestles. MOSâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wishlist requests additional funding to CNC fabricate more tables and trestles, buy paint, and study the use of the table through documentation.

Project #3 :The Field Office

Table No. 2 at the Field Office

Top: Table No. 2 at our field office in Jackson heights, expanding onto the sidewalk. The drawing proposes a test for perforated ventilated metal rolling doors to replace the storefront.

Top: Table No. 2 at our field office in Jackson heights represents the versitility of the modular designed. The mutiple configurations allow for safe social distancing while gathering in an open space around the table. It presents an opportunity for engaging with the community through identified and desired health and education related programming.

Project #3 :The Field Office

Table No. 2 Configurations

Project #3 :The Field Office

Work Jacket Front

Back

Front 5

2 8

7 3 6 1. Pens 2. Note Pad 3. Clip Board 4. Tape Measure 5. Mask 6. Hand Sanitizer 7. Flyers / Intake form 8. Digital no- touch Thermometer 9. Gloves Unisex Size S

Front

Back

Back 5

2 8

7 3 6 1. Pens 2. Note Pad 3. Clip Board 4. Tape Measure 5. Mask 6. Hand Sanitizer 7. Flyers / Intake form

Project #3 :The Field Office

Works + Vision : Education Programming MOSâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s previous work includes temporary art and architecture installations for public use, from the stackable benches from A/D/O, to a Shaded shelter in Shenzen, to the Petit Ecole at Versailles, our work provides adaptable, lightweight, durable seating arrangements and covered spaces that remain open air for gathering of groups between 10-25, the acceptable amount of people permitted by the NYC Parks Department. In addition, MOS is working with a wide range of arts, educators, and designers to formally put together programs around education and design for children. We would love to bring this initiative to the Jacksonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Heights neighborhood and work with the community to create public events.

Project #4 : Viva La Comida Returns LTL Architects / SO-IL

Viva La Comida Budget

Viva la Comida! is an annual festival highlighting the cultural diversity of Queens, combining food with music, art, dancing, entertainment and more on a street known for its outpouring of vibrancy. With local food vendors, an art exhibition, an open market atmosphere, and dancing amid live music, Viva La Comida is a pure celebration of what makes this diverse community the heart of the city. Unfortunately, the 2020 Viva La Comida is canceled due to the pandemic.

Item

Qty

$/unit

Public Furniture

Sub $ 15,000

Truck Rental / Misc

300

LEGEND 1

82nd Street Deli and Grill

Los Parceros Bakery Restaurant

Tulcingo Restaurant

Casa Rivera

Las Americas Bakery

Sabor Ecuatoriano Bakery

Barricades for 82nd Street

Outdoor seating, see pages 5-7 for distinction between restaurant seating and potential public seating

2 3

Shading Devices (2x4 Structure 50 with netting top) Printed Materials 500

425

17,000

144

7,200

1,000

Artist integration for Sidewalk Mural (all-in) Street Event Support (staff)

The Volunteer Architects Limited assisted the 82nd Street Partnership with an Open Streets: Restaurant Application that will help restore some public space to the Community. This will need to be physically distanced outdoor space.

2,500 3

100/hr 3,000

Shading Lighting / District Identity Installation

3,00030,000 49,00079,000

Current and anticipated challenges • Maintaining Social Distancing • Safety and Enforcement • Community Engagement and Participation

82nd Street BID, Jackson Heights Community Application Open Streets: Restaurants

Policy that should be reconsidered: • DOT should expand the businesses that are eligibile to participate in outdoor seating. Retail should have a similar program as Open Restaurants.

June 29

Total $

Meeting with Leslie Ramos, Executive Director of 82nd Street Partnership July 9

July 6

Q&A with the Department of Transportation July 9

First meeting with Department of Transportation July 16

July 13

July 20

Second meeting with Department of Transportation July 20

Initial comments received from Department of Transportation July 29

July 27

Application submitted July 22

Meeting with VHB Traffic Engineers, Discussion with NYPD 110th & DOT July 30

August 3

Expected completion of application process Early August

August 10

Project #4 : Viva La Comida Returns Background VIVA LA COMIDA! The future of Viva La Comida is uncertain in post-pandemic Jackson Heights. The event is far too crowded to occur the way it once did this year. Stages are not even permitted in public spaces by the parks department, as dancing and crowding could be dangerous. What does this mean for the future of the street fair? Canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t we still find a way to inhabit the street safely and responsibly, enjoying food and friends in the comfort of our community? Though itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not the same, we believe an Open Streets : Restaurants permit could be a step in the right direction towards a new interpretation of Viva La Comida.

Existing Transit Network

Project #4 : Viva La Comida Returns Existing Transit Network

Existing Transit Network

Existing Conditions ProjectParking #4 : Viva La Comida

Returns Existing parking diagram site plan

383 parking spots total in BID 75 parking spots in one block radius from Roosevelt Ave and 82nd St

Morning Conditions ProjectParking #4 : Viva La Comida

Returns

Morning parking site plan

Afternoon Conditions Project Parking #4 : Viva La Comida

Returns

Afternoon parking site plan

Evening Conditions ProjectParking #4 : Viva La Comida

Returns

Evening parking site plan

82nd St Seating Individual Restaurants Project #4 : -Viva La Comida Returns

Open Restaurants with Individual Seating

82nd St Seating Holistic Project #4 : -Viva LaApproach Comida

Returns Open Restaurants with combined outdoor restaurant seating

SITE PLANNING Project #4 : Viva La Comida Returns Planning Research Open restaurants with public seating Seating ● ● ●

The 82nd Street BID plans to utilize the sidewalk bump outs that already exist on 82nd Street to define the area where seating will be allowed. The area corresponding to the bus stop will be left unoccupied. An emergency lane of 15 feet will run continuously down 82nd Street to Baxter Avenue.

Site Seating and Safety Plan

Project #4 : Viva La Comida Returns 82nd St South of Roosevelt Existing Condition The Volunteer Architects Limited developed drawings for the section of 82nd Street south of Roosevelt in order to highlight the changing conditions of the street as impacted by the potential adoption of the Open Restaurants and Open Streets: Restaurants policies.

Project #4 : Viva La Comida Returns ‘Open Restaurants’

Project #4 : Viva La Comida Returns Open Restaurants Intervention Each restaurant is allowed street seating directly in front of their frontage. Each restaurant is in charge of their own barriers and maintenance, though they may keep barriers up throughout the week.

Painted barriers made of plywood and wood framing separate the roadway from the seating.

Project #4 : Viva La Comida Returns â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Open Streets: Restaurantsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Intervention The addition of public seating, combined with the the seating for the Open Restaurants, would allow for larger communal seating. Flexibility of the design would need to accomodate BID maintenance capacity. Street closure barricases separate the pedestrian only space from traffic. On site attendants will move barriers as needed for emergency vehicle access

Canopies act as shade structures, providing cover from the sun and light rain Painted barriers made of plywood and wood framing separate the roadway from the seating.

Project #4 : Viva La Comida Returns Walkable Plaza - Future Proposal

Project #4 : Viva La Comida Returns Open Streets Application COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT Open Streets: Restaurants Application

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT Open Streets: Restaurants Application

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Project #4 : Viva La Comida Returns Open Streets Application COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT Open Streets: Restaurants Application

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Project #4 : Viva La Comida Returns Open Streets Application COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT Open Streets: Restaurants Application

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82nd Street Deli and Grill

Los Parceros Bakery Restaurant

Tulcingo Restaurant

Casa Rivera

Las Americas Bakery

Sabor Ecuatoriano Bakery Outdoor seating, see pages 5-7 for distinction between restaurant seating and potential public seating

2 3 4

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Project #4 : Viva La Comida Returns Pedestrianizing Street Barricades

Existing Street Barriers: NYPD saw horses and metal barricades are the typical street closure barriers for Open Streets in NYC. These barricades do not create a welcoming neighborhood entry to an outdoor public space.

Proposed Pedestrian Friendly Barriers: Barricades may include planters and street signage. The street planters may include lockable casters to provide for ease of mobility.

Proposed Material: perforated powder coated metal plate

Project #4 : Viva La Comida Returns 82nd St Shading and Lighting - Overhead Options Establishing a District Identity

Installation of lights could create a more distinct identity for the neighborhood. It is likely that new structural columns as well as design input from structural engineer to review wind loads would be required to support the tension cables.

Lights would create a friendly and welcoming atmosphere for the district. Friendly lighting will help promote security and a family friendly atmosphere in a district where safety and security are a top concern.

Impromptu tarps and shades are currently installed in restaurants around the district. Shading is a common need that restaurant owners request. It is likely that new structural columns as well as design input from structural engineer to review wind loads would be required to support the tension cables.

Installation of a district-wide shading device would need close coordination and approval between multiple agencies including DOT, FDNY and NYPD. One recommendation for improving the Open Streets process moving forward would be to allow for more creative solutions that can promote outdoor activity.

Project #4 : Viva La Comida Returns Establishing a District Identity 82nd St Overhead Shading

41 Shading options could create a distinct identity for the district. This would promote the district as a destination shopping and dining area which would encourage increase public engagement and economic activity.

Project #4 : Viva La Comida Returns New Ways of Sharing the Street

Scenario 1 : Weekday Open Restaurant

Scenario 2 : Weekend Open Streets: Restaurant

Scenario 3 : Pedestrianization, Viva La Comida Returns!

Restaurant permits individually and sets up seating on their frontage

Multiple restaurants may permit a street closure together and set up seating on their frontages. 82nd street BID application in progress

NYC needs a policy mechanism to allow public seating, shading and inhabitation outside all storefronts - not just restaurants. Many of the small restaurants in JH will not be able to survive without seating beyond their small frontages.

Project #4 : Viva La Comida Returns Rethinking Street Furniture

Ugo La Pietra : Il Commutatore (1970), Urban Furniture for Society (1979), Instructions for Living in the City (2016) The current challenge in Jackson Heights is how to learn how to live our lives in exterior space. This is not what streets in New York City were designed for. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been looking to Ugo La Pietraâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s urban furniture collections to try to think up new ways to use what we already have - to better form public space to its new purposes.

Project #4 : Viva La Comida Returns Rethinking Street Furniture CHAIR

SHELVES

TABLE

STEPS

Home Futures (2019) + Murmuration (2020) The streets don’t have to be considered as ‘in-between’ other spaces. The streets are shared public space too. We can design multi-functional objects that will allow us to change the ways we we are able to use them - together and apart.

Project #4 : Viva La Comida Returns Open Streets Flexible Furniture

Scenario 1 : Weekday Open Restaurant

Scenario 1b : Weekday Open Restaurant with Deployable Shading

Scenario 2 : Open Streets: Restaurant Weekend

Scenario 3 : Publicly Shared Streets & Furniture : Viva La Comida Returns!

Project #4 : Viva La Comida Returns Open Streets Flexible Furniture

Concrete base

26’’

’’ 96

’’

30’’

’’ 96

’’

Reinforced hole for shade pole

26’’

’’

Stowable stool or Canopy support

30’’

’’

14.25’’

’’

26’’

.25

30’’

Holes for chaining

’’

Hinges along length

30’’

14.25’’

Polyurethane-coated foam top

Separated posts support various canopy sizes

Concrete base

Foldable street barrier

As part of our Open Streets : Restaurants design for the 82nd Street BID, we would like to produce a set of furniture that will help them to easily and collectively manage and adapt the street for these new forms of inhabitation.

’’

Mobile Planter or Flexible Barrier

6' 6'

3' - 6''

Public, Shareable Furniture for All

3' - 6''

’’

30’’

Table for eating, street vending or restaurant use

26’’

Project #4 : Viva La Comida Returns

Existing Conditions ProjectParking # 4: Other Opportunities:

37th Rd and Diversity Plaza

Existing Conditions

74th Street and 37th Street Planning Opportunity Beyond there 82nd Street Partnership BID area, there are additional opportunities for improving pedestrian safety and walkability. Although it was not the primary focus conducted by this research, short term programs such at Open Streets, Open Streets: Restaurants and Seasonal Streets can improve upon the pedestrianization of Diversity Plaza to further expand long-term walkability for the district. The lack of open space and the primary use of streets as car-dominated spaces make safe physical distancing a difficult proposition for pedestrians in Jackson Heights.

Short Term#Parking Conditions Project 4: Other Opportunities:

37th Rd and Diversity Plaza

Short term Improvements

Short Long Term Term# Parking Parking Conditions Conditions Project 4: Other Opportunities:

37th Rd and Diversity Plaza Potential for Future Pedestrianization

74th Street and 37th Road Open Streets: Restaurants The proposition of including 37th Road in the Open Streets: Restaurants program is an opportunity for creating an identity for a underserved portion of the district. This could create a pedestrian refuge from the busy traffic and congested crosswalks of Roosevelt Ave. This will also work to spur portential business development along the 37th Road that could be the location for new restaurants and local businesses. This proposition expands upon Diversity Plaza which is seen as a successful use of space by local community members and is an outdoor civic space for the community.

25 26

Project # 5 : Open Space, Open Community ARO / nARCHITECTS

Outdoor Room Budget (one site)

The beauty of Jackson Heights lies in the diversity and strength of its many ethnic communities. Their bond is visible in how their cultural centers nurture the minds and bodies of communities that extend well past the physical boundaries of the neighborhood.

Item

Qty

$/unit

Concrete Jersey Barrier includes transport Steel Brackets w/ powder coat finish Bamboo, No. 20’x1-1/4” poles (cleaning, prep, delivery on flat bed truck) Bamboo Install Labor

Sub $ 1,344

180

10,080

213

2,975

ARO is working closely with these cultural hubs on space planning efforts to help them help others. However, many of their events are currently not permitted indoors. nARCHITECTS is therefore proposing outdoor rooms, as extensions of the cultural center activities as well as to help the community live outdoors, under shade. Our next steps for the Cultural Centers include securing parking space use permits for the Librería Barco de Papel, assisting with street barrier installation, and allocating plexiglass barriers and extended food support for the United Sherpa Association. Our next steps for the Outdoor Rooms include determining the site(s). As both proposed sites - Manuel de Dios Unanue triangle and/ or the north side of Elmhurst Hospital - both lie outside of the 82nd Street BID, we will reach out to NYC DOT, Jackson Heights Historic Preservation, Community Board 4 and hospital representatives. Current/ anticipated challenges: • DOT approval for the right of way • DOT approval of parking space use for non-restaurant business • Locating food assistance Policy that should be reconsidered from our experience: • Use of parking space for nonrestaurant business

Total $

10,000

Bamboo & Climbing Plants

2,000

Exterior Paint / Local Artist Integration Allowance (20%)

1,800 5,640

Total

33,839

Cultural Hub Budget Libreria Barco de Papel

Qty

$/unit

Parking Barriers (includes transport)

Sub $ 500/ea 2,500

Moveable Shelves for Outdoor Book Distribution Exterior Improvements (demo broken windows, Install Operable windows, installation for book loans) ADA Ramp

400/ea 2,400

5,000/ ea

15,000

300

Total $

20,200

United Sherpa Assoc.

Qty

Plexiglass Barriers

Food Donation Assistance

N/A

Total - United Sherpa Assoc.

$/unit

Sub $ 250/ea 2,500

Total $

2,500 + Aid

Project # 5 : Open Space, Open Community Existing and Augmented Nodes Jackson Heights and Elmhurst host an array of cultural, community, and open space assets that transcend race, culture, and creed. Indeed, the conjoined neighborhoods are a microcosm of cultural wealth unparalleled in most sectors of the city. Despite the cultural capital, community interaction has been taxed by the limitations that COVID has levied on indoor collective engagement. To bolster the capacity of community institutions to sustain their efforts, we propose augmenting existing urban spaces as outdoor rooms to be shared and enjoyed by the community at large.

6 8 7

Augmented Urbanisms 1

82nd Street Weekend Open Street

Manuel de Dios Unanue Shade Structure

Elmhurst Hospital Shade Structure

Existing Community and Cultural Infrastructure 1

Urzúa Queens Center of Performing Arts

P.S. 69

Terraza 7

Queens Pride House

Librería Barco de Papel

Queens Center for Gay Seniors

2nd Story Yoga + Pilates

Queens Public Library

P.S. 089 Elmhurst

P.S. 212

United Sherpa Association

Dunningham Triangle

Roosevelt Terrace Playground

Frank D O’Connor Playground

Moore Homestead Playground

O’Connor’s Tail

34th Avenue Open Street

Nine Heroes Plaza

Travers Park

Diversity Plaza

37th Avenue Open Street

Existing Open Spaces 1

4 6 3 2

Project # 5 : Open Space, Open Community Existing Hub: Librería Barco de Papel

“For many of our customers and community members, we are providing them exposure to literature, arts, and culture for the first time in their lives.” “We are in a constant balancing act between the need for space for community events and the need for inventory for sales. If we can strike that balance, we’ve hit the jackpot.” - In conversation with Ramon Caraballo and Paula Ortiz

Ramon Caraballo and Paula Ortiz - Owners

The Librería Barco de Papel (LBdP) was founded by Paula Ortiz and Ramon Caraballo 17 years ago, originally as a children’s bookstore that aimed to promote reading and education to youth in the neighborhood. Since its founding, LBdP has evolved into a broad ranging community asset. As it stands now, the non-profit is at once a bookstore, a cultural center, a small venue, and local hub, whose ambition is to nurture appreciation of arts, culture, literature, and discourse amongst the community. While the largely immigrant population of Jackson Heights/Elmhurst commonly regard food, work, and shelter as the essential trifecta, LBdP advocates for cultural education, engagement, and expression as equally essential components for community vibrancy and resiliency. Many of the immigrant population of Jackson Heights/Elmhurst come from communities abroad with limited access to cultural education. In many cases, the Librería Barco de Papel provides exposure to arts, literature, and culture to community members for the first time. To expand outreach to community members, LBdP partners with the Jackson Heights/Elmhurst 82nd Street Business Improvement District and works with volunteers, local schools, and community institutions to develop community cultural programming and to provide books to schools, prisons, and health centers - fostering education, literature, and the arts to the community at large.

Librería Barco de Papel - Exterior (above), Interior (below)

In order to maintain the immersive relationship that Librería Barco de Papel holds in the community, VAL has partnered with the organization to provide interior and exterior space planning, brainstorm ideas for improving existing facilities in the medium and long terms, and propose use of the cultural center’s parking space to the city as a case-study for outdoor space use for non-restaurant businesses. An outdoor presence will facilitate continued presence in the community, despite the challenges wrought by COVID, providing relief space for reading, book sales, and limited socially distanced community engagement. Paula and Ramon envision the Librería Barco de Papel as a lifelong project – a project that has so far weathered the challenges brought about by online book sales and diminishing book printing. The partnership with VAL and LBdP aims to propel the bookstore and cultural center’s mission toward an enduring future.

Project # 5 : Open Space, Open Community Studies: Librería Barco de Papel

In its pre-COVID form, Librería Barco de Papel not only served as a bookstore, but also hosted indoor gatherings for poetry reading, lectures, art workshops, musical performances, theater performances, and political exchanges. Allowing for six feet of social distance per user severely limits indoor seating capacity to a small fraction of the Librería Barco de Papel’s previous use. The size of the community audience would decrease dramatically and the prolonged occupancy of the interior space would pose increased risk of exposure to the attendant community members.

81ST STREET

3'-0"

Exterior/interior book browsing

1'-6"

8'-0"

6'-0"

DOT standard barriers

DOT standard barriers 20'-0"

20'-0"

81ST STREET

Proposed Outdoor Occupancy - Browsing and Reading

20'-0"

81ST STREET

Proposed Outdoor Occupancy - Lecture

8'-2"

Audience seating in the round

1'-6"

Speaker 6'-0"

8'-0"

1'-6"

Reading tables

8'-0"

8'-2"

Movable ADA ramp

8'-0"

By shifting book browsing, reading, and lecture areas outdoors, the Librería Barco de Papel is able to retain their relationship to the community. Book browsing and sales are facilitated by replacing the existing fixed windows with operable windows that provide exterior access to interior bookshelves. The sidewalk and parking space immediately outside of the bookstore are repurposed via DOT guidelines for sidewalk and parking space seating. The parking space will allow for extended browsing, reading, and discussion areas. If the proposal is approved by DOT, Librería Barco de Papel will serve as the first sidewalk and parking space outdoor area permitted for use by a non-restaurant business; a prototype that can be replicated by other cultural and community institutions.

Socially Distanced Indoor Occupancy - 6 Persons

3'-0"

Pre-COVID Indoor Occupancy - Lecture

Project # 5 : Open Space, Open Community Existing Hub: United Sherpa Association

“Our community spans the northeast. On special holidays, thousands attend our celebrations.” “We have been able to provide boxes of food for up to 300 families per week, and prepared foods to the elderly and infirm, but are looking for ways to do more.” - In conversation with Mr. Urgen Sherpa

erpa Association - Exterior

Mr. Urgen Sherpa, Left

The United Sherpa Association (USA) is a non-profit community and cultural association that was founded in 1996 by Mr. Urgen Sherpa to foster community and promote the shared goals of the growing Sherpa population in the region. The USA’s primary mission is to preserve and promote the unique socio-cultural and linguistic heritage of the Sherpa people by maintaining an environment that nurtures the cultural assets of the community. A core tenet of the USA is to facilitate, empower, and support disadvantaged groups, providing tools and resources to meet common community needs. The ongoing COVID-19 crisis has severely limited the capacity of the community to hold religious and cultural gatherings, including the cancellation of large lunar new year celebrations that typically draw thousands of community members from across the region. Though the inability to safely gather en masse has presented unprecedented challenges, the United Sherpa Association has found alternative means of providing community support. Throughout the crisis, USA has distributed food aid to hundreds of community members, delivered prepared meals to the elderly and infirm, and provided select financial assistance to those in deepest need.

United Sherpa Association - Exterior (above), Interior (below)

CHITECTS LIMITED RESEARCH OFFICE

VAL has worked with Mr. Urgen Sherpa and the USA to provide space planning to assist use of their building that aligns with state government and CDC guidelines. Space layouts strategize use of the congregation space per Phase 3 and Phase 4 guidelines of the state’s re-opening plan. Assistance from MEP engineers will help USA implement best operational practices for utilizing their space, and the implementation of moveable plexiglass barriers will function as physical and visual reminders to maintain social distancing measures while congregating. In addition to providing operational assistance, VAL is engaging local food distribution agencies to bolster USA’s capacity to support the community at large. 07.15.2020 pg. 2

Project # 5 : Open Space, Open Community

41ST AVENUE

United Sherpa Association (USA) once hosted mass celebrations, gatherings, and meditations â&#x20AC;&#x201D; serving both the immediate Sherpa community and the broader Mahayana Buddhist community. As a precaution, USA ceased all community activity at the beginning of March, before the New York state mandated PAUSE initiative. A key effort of the USA since the PAUSE initiative has been to store and distribute foodstuffs â&#x20AC;&#x201D; supporting community members despite their inability to frequently congregate. Operable windows on both sides of the congregation space can be opened to provide cross ventilation and maximize air changes for those maintaining the building and coordinating food storage and distribution.

41ST AVENUE

Studies: United Sherpa Association

75TH STREET

Pre-COVID Indoor Occupancy

Interior use studies explored the capacity of the space to host congregants during two phases of the PAUSE initiative: phase 3 permitted gatherings up to 25 persons; phase 4 permits gatherings up to 33% of designed occupancy. Occupancy of 25 persons allows a relatively high degree of social distancing, which can be reinforced by the supplementation of plexiglass barriers that serve as reminders to maintain distance between pods. Socially distanced seating is much more difficult to achieve above 25 persons. Regardless of the quantity of people occupying the interior space, countless studies demonstrate that prolonged proximity to others in an enclosed space dramatically increases the risk of COVID exposure to attendant community members.

FOOD DIST.

75TH STREET

Cross-ventilation and Food Distribution Study

Movable plexiglass barriers between seated pairs

Phase 3 Occupancy Study - 25 Persons

Phase 4 Occupancy Study - 45 Persons

Project # 5 : Open Space, Open Community Existing Park: Dunningham Triangle

The most proximate existing outdoor spaces to the 82nd Street Business Improvement District are Manuel de Dios Unanue Triangle and Dunningham Triangle. Both sites enjoy regular informal and programmed uses by residents and local organizations. Dunningham Triangle, which was recently renovated, is composed of a triangular shaped paved area surrounded by planters. The paved area hosts loose seating and an elevated stage for speeches and performances. While the interior footprint of the park allows for small socially distanced functions, large gatherings and active/exercise functions require the additional use of Ithaca Street to the north. The Open Street proposal for the 82nd Street BID includes weekend closure of Ithaca street to allow for such planned or spontaneous outdoor gatherings.

~17 St ~17 ~14 Pa

~14

Project # 5 : Open Space, Open Community Dunningham Triangle/Ithaca Street Studies

Planter Party PLAN A

Dunningham Triangle and Ithaca Street

Arts and Reading - 14-22 Users

ITHACA ST (WEEKEND OPEN STREET)

Street barriers

ITHACA ST (WEEKEND OPEN STREET)

Exercise area (12â&#x20AC;&#x2122; distancing)

Street barriers

ITHACA ST (WEEKEND OPEN STREET)

( ST

Seated Pods

RE ST

Open Space Design Board 2: July 15, 2020 )

)

RE ST

BAXTER AV

)

RE ST

nARCHITECTS / VAL NEIGHBORHOODS NOW SO-IL, LTL, ARO, MOS, WorkAC, Design Advocates

Temporary tents for staging

General Notes: Tarps or ground covers should be used at all times to protect park and street surfaces.

BAXTER AV

( ST

Open Space Design Board 2: July 15, 2020

Performance Tent

Information and supply tables

( ST

NEIGHBORHOODS NOW

Street barriers

Work area

Open park triangle

Performance/Lecture - 14-22 Users

General Notes: Tarps or ground covers should be used at all times to protect park and street surfaces.

BAXTER AV

Exercise Group - 11 Users

General Notes: Tarps or ground cove protect park and str

Project # 5 : Open Space, Open Community Existing Park: Manuel de Dios Unane Triangle

Manuel de Dios Unanue Triangleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s structure is the inverse of Dunningham Triangle, with a large paved perimeter and a smaller central planted space. Due to the large paved area, Manuel de Dios Unanue Triangle can more easily host larger gatherings. It has previously been the site of miniature bazaars, karate demonstrations, yoga classes, meditation groups, dance performances, and art installations. What the park offers in space, it lacks in shade. Thought the pandemic has limited indoor activities, many organizations have not been able to utilize this outdoor space due to summer heat and exposure to the sun.

Manuel de Dios - Use: Performance Manuel de Dios Use: Casual (no programming) Manuel de Dios Use: Class Project # 5 : Open Space, Open Community Manuel de Dios Unane Triangle Studies

Casual (no programming) Manuel de Dios - Use: Class Informal Table seating

Use - 45 Users

Manuel de Dios - Use: Performance Performance - 44 Users

Group Exercise - 31 Users

~17 Students ~17 Students ~14 Parents Watching

~14 Parents Watching

~8 Performers ~36 In the Audience

Project # 5 : Open Space, Open Community Elmhurst Hospital Bridging the borders of Jackson Heights and Elmhurst, Elmhurst Hospital became the ‘epicenter of the epicenter’ of the COVID-19 crisis in New York City. A 545 bed hospital serving the most vulnerable, largely working class immigrant population, it operated at well over 100% capacity during the height of the outbreak. Hundreds of residents still queue to be tested every day - the temporary tents and lines of people snaking down the entrance ramps expressing the hospital’s chaotic transformation into a COVID treatment center. Around the corner from the queue, along 41st Avenue across from the 81st Street corner, the sidewalk widens to approximately thirty feet. We would love to create a moment of respite here, at the edge of the mega-complex island, as a small expression of gratitude to the healthcare workers. I ♥ Elmhurst Hospital!

Project # 5 : Open Space, Open Community Augmented Network

l ta pi s o e t H ur rs ruct u h St m El ade h S

n am pe h .O ning t S n nd Du 82 eet/ r St

s io e Dgle d el an re nu Tri ctu a e ru M an St Unade Sh

Providing open street space on 82nd street and new temporary shade structures at Manuel de Dio Unanue and Elmhurst Hospital augments the existing network of open spaces, enriching the network of available outdoor assets available for cultural institution and community group use.

Project # 5 : Open Space, Open Community Green and Screen Open Spaces Jackson Heights is/has: Nearly three times as dense as the borough of Queens. More than twice as dense as all of New York City. One of the lowest percentage of tree canopy coverage in the City.

83RD ST

Yet, we are welcoming the signs of hope, as businesses (those that can) expand their services onto sidewalks and streets. Barriers - separating vehicular flow from pedestrian occupation in the streets, isolating movement from stasis on the sidewalks, distancing customers from workers inside shops - have become the new urban venacular. Proliferating alongside the outdoor barriers, an explosion of planters and greenery opens up a design opportunity - the barriers that divide us also enable us to come together. Jackson Heights, can we green and screen your open spaces? To improve air quality and mental health, to make nature and natural forms of growth visible and to support the work of the Jackson Heights Beautification Group, we propose to not only green the neighorhood, but to also build outdoor rooms enveloped and screened by greenery.

3. Elmhurst Hospital Front 2. Dunningham Triangle 1. Manuel de Dios Unanue Triangle

Jackson H/Elmhurst 15.5%

Murray Hill 31%

Kew Gardens 29% Tree Coverage per Neighborhood

Middle Village 24%

Flushing 15%

Project # 5 : Open Space, Open Community Greening Jackson Heights During our four month lockdown here in NYC, we have found small pleasures. In the absence of vehicular traffic, the sudden amplification of bird song and growth of vegetation amidst previously barren grounds has produced a rewilding (of sorts) of the city’s public spaces. Can we enable both the reopening and re-greening of Jackson Heights? Plants such as yucca and marigold carry positive cultural associations for Jackson Heights’ South Asian and Latinx communities. With plant donations from Future Green Studio and soil donations from We Plant NYC, we were able to green pockets of Jackson Heights, beyond the restaurant planter prototype. Specific tree pits were chosen due to their proximity to the residences of members of the Jackson Heights Beautification Group and BID. As these members would unofficially care for the plants, it’s just one example of this diverse community’s investment in their shared common ground. With more funding, we want to keep greening Jackson Heights.

“Planter Party” in Jackson Heights, July 26th

Project # 5 : Open Space, Open Community nARCHITECTSâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Obsessions Full confession - we have been obsessed with the relationship and ambiguity between landscape and architecture for a long time. We see architecture as an armature for registering the dynamically changing contexts and exterior environments of its site. But also, how can the armature instigate wildly diverse modes of social engagement? For a Canopy at MoMA / PS1, a Forest Pavilion in Taiwan, a polycentric pavilion in Milan and a wind pavilion in France, and in public parks in NYC, Chicago and Seattle, nARCHITECTS has created open-ended environments for informal and formal gatherings. These environments are very much shaped by the fluctuating dynamics of their material properties and participants. With the same spirit, we hope to green and screen Jackson Heights, with outdoor rooms that host the diversity of its community and their previously indoor activities, enabling them to gather together or alone together.

Project # 5 : Open Space, Open Community Outdoor Rooms phasing As our life contexts have radically changed on a daily basis, how can we respond with agility and speed to the urgent need for outdoor rooms now? Below are the immediate, short and long term steps.

Phase 1: Artists / Community Quilt

Phase 2: Planters / Seats / Foundations

Phase 3: Outdoor Room ‘canopy’

We invite Jackson Heights artists and/or residents to delineate the outdoor room with a painted quilt on the ground. Similar to the BLM mural in Foley Square, each region would celebrate the diverse contribution of individuals or groups, adding up to an expression of community and interconnectedness.

Gilbane Construction has generously donated several jersey barriers, to serve as the ‘foundation’ for the outdoor room. With simple additions of seats, planters and plants attached to the barriers, these barriers could be installed with a limited initial budget. Artists and/or community groups would also be invited to paint approximately twelve jersey barriers.

Having built with green bamboo in our past life, nARCHITECTS would assemble a team of volunteers and/or architecture interns to build the ‘canopy’ out of freshly cut green bamboo. Over time, the bamboo will change from green to yellow, as the climbing plants slowly take over, completing the enclosure.

Project # 5 : Open Space, Open Community Outdoor Room Details We have donated jersey barriers, that just need attachments for the bamboo enclosure, seating and climbing plants. Hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s how we would do it (in collaboration with Silman for structural integrity).

Steel strap Steel Sleeves to receive bamboo Hanging planters

Jersey Barrier

Project # 5 : Open Space, Open Community Outdoor Room at Manuel de Dios Unanue The Manuel de Dios Unanue triangle, pre-COVID, hosted an eclectic mix of performances, classes, gatherings and protests despite its dirth of shade, seating or other amenities. We understand from the 82nd Street BID that tables and chairs, donated and maintained by Target, have been entirely missing during COVID, due to staffing shortages. nARCHITECTS would love to bring a temporary outdoor room to this critical site, to gather the community under an new arbor. It could be built out of green bamboo - an inexpensive, lightweight and strong, renewable resource that would resonate with the diverse Jackson Heights communities. As the previous phasing diagrams show, the outdoor room could materialize in phases, starting now!

Project # 5 : Open Space, Open Community Outdoor Room at Manuel de Dios Unanue

30'-0"

1 5'-6 2"

Structure for elevated tracks

14'-1"

28'-2"

11'-9"

10'-0"

Elevated tracks above

Scale: 3 32" = 1'-0"

Project # 5 : Open Space, Open Community Outdoor Room at Manuel de Dios Unanue

Project # 5 : Open Space, Open Community Outdoor Room at Elmhurst Hospital The footage from inside Elmhurst Hospital during the height of the outbreak will forever be etched in our memories as examples of the polar extremes of the crisis - the heartbreaking suffering alongside the incredible bravery and perseverance. nARCHITECTS would love to bring a temporary outdoor room to the northern edge of the hospital island - for healthcare professionals and the larger community to decompress under a canopy of green bamboo and climbing plants.

8'-0"

5'-0"

2'-0"

min 8'-0"

Project # 5 : Open Space, Open Community Outdoor Room at Elmhurst Hospital

2'-0"

12'-9"

2'-0"

13'-3" 50'-0"

2'-0"

1 9'-11 2"

6'-0"

2'-0"

Project # 5 : Open Space, Open Community Outdoor Room at Elmhurst Hospital

Thank You to our Donors & Supporters This work would not be possible without: Baggu Business Center for New Americans Future Green Gilbane Building Company Herman Miller Millerblaker Julien Leyssene & Cristina Webb Noble Construction Group Sherwin Wiliams Spinneybeck Uniqlo We Plant NYC

Funding Opportunities Manual for Physical Distancing Budget Item

Qty

Layout

Sub $ 5,000

Tranlsation Services Publishing (soft cover)

$/unit

1,000

5.00

Open Restaurants Budget Total $

Shading Lighting / District Identity Installation

Qty

Item

Qty

$/unit

Donated Recycled Plywood 4’x8’

Concrete Jersey Barrier includes transport Steel Brackets w/ powder coat finish Bamboo, No. 20’x1-1/4” poles (cleaning, prep, delivery on flat bed truck) Bamboo Install Labor

Sub $ 1,344

180

10,080

213

2,975

5,000

Wood Framing (2x2x8)

10.31

Work Shirts

Wood Framing (2x4x8)

3.64

New Glass Storefront

Paint (1 qt of paint)

14.98

Local Carpenter (labor)

1,000

Ventilated steel rolling garage door Demolition of Interiors

Transportation

1,000

1.40

300

Artist integration for Sidewalk Mural (all-in) Street Event Support (staff)

Item

121

Truck Rental / Misc

Shading Devices (2x4 Structure 50 with netting top) Printed Materials 500

Total $

30.15

Public Furniture

Sub $

Sub $ 15,000

Barricades for 82nd Street

$/unit

4,000

Viva La Comida Budget Qty

Qty

Outdoor Room Budget (one site)

Street Barricade Construction for 8 x15 Open Restaurants Plywood

14,000

Item

Field office + Table No. 2 + Workshirt Budget

Total $

Cinderblock Weights

$/unit

CNC milling and Fabrication

Renovaiton of Space to sheerstock New Flooring

Sub $

Total $

10,000 10

150

1,500 15,00020,000 3,000

Total $

10,000

Bamboo & Climbing Plants

2,000

Exterior Paint / Local Artist Integration Allowance (20%)

1,800

400 10.000

5,640

10,000 Total

33,839

New lighting

425

17,000

Street Furnishing 8 x 15 Open Restaurants Plantings

144

7,200

Netting Sacks

1,000

Zipties

2,500

Planter Bags

New Shelving

Cultural Hub Budget

12.99

325

3.00

Wall Chalk Board

500

9.99

1,500

18.00

108

Seating made with local woodworker Signage + wayfinding hire a graphic designer

Bathroom

100/hr 3,000

5,000 61,500

3,00030,000 49,00079,000

Libreria Barco de Papel

Qty

Parking Barriers (includes transport)

Sub $ 500/ea 2,500

Moveable Shelves for Outdoor Book Distribution Exterior Improvements (demo broken windows, Install Operable windows, installation for book loans) ADA Ramp

400/ea 2,400

5,000/ ea

15,000

300

Sidewalk Barriers & Furnishings for Open Restaurants Plantings

12.99

156

education programs

Drainage Dishes

2.99

Recording Devices

Planter Bags/baskets

18.00

108

Pads of Paper

United Sherpa Assoc.

Qty

Shelving

19.99

120

Art Supplies

Plexiglass Barriers

Zipties

9.99

Food Donation Assistance

N/A

Bamboo Screening

31.86

127

Artist Collaboration to paint barriers Open Restaurants: Sidewalk + Street (One Restaurant)

1,000

Additional Components

Total $

20,200

Total - United Sherpa Assoc.

4,368

$/unit

Sub $ 250/ea 2,500

Total $

2,500 + Aid