Closing Bell: Competition to Reinvent GAP
The Design Trust for Public Space has recently announced an exciting competition that all Brooklynites should care about: Reinventing Grand Army Plaza. Working with theGrand Army Plaza Coalition, the Design Trust is reaching out to the global community of designers, architects, urban planners and others to generate fresh ideas for the plaza’s future. “Currently an…
The Design Trust for Public Space has recently announced an exciting competition that all Brooklynites should care about: Reinventing Grand Army Plaza. Working with theGrand Army Plaza Coalition, the Design Trust is reaching out to the global community of designers, architects, urban planners and others to generate fresh ideas for the plaza’s future. “Currently an underdeveloped public amenity, a redesign of Grand Army Plaza will invigorate surrounding communities, just as the re-conception of Manhattan’s High Line set off an explosion of activity in West Chelsea,” says the competition brief. First prize is $5,000 and submissions are being accepted until April 25; details can be found here. Oh, and if you check out the list of jurors, you might recognize someone.
Rethinking Grand Army Plaza: Safety and Utility [Brownstoner]
If I read this correctly, Van Valkenburgh is chairing the jury – which means he’s judging OTHER people’s submssions, instead of offering his own design suggestions. Right?
Design generally comes in at around ten percent of a project’s cost. The millions of dollars paid to Van Valkenburgh Associates seem like a lot, but they’re around ten percent of what is now looking like a $250 million park. And even if you think he’s a thief, the guy can design.
my concern with this competition is that half of the people who have commented on their website are from other countries — can international designers know enough about GAP to create a redesign that’s right from bklyn?
we should move the conversation that we’re having here over to the comment section on the competition website to increase bklyn representation in their competition:
http://designtrust.org/projects/gap/comment/
Van Vacklegurgh is one of the top experts on collecting millions of dollars in fees for the design and redesign of mediocre projects that will never be built.
This is right up his alley. His fee for an unbuildable design at GAP could easily be ten million.
He’s a total scam artist.
‘stoner may look like a member of a Cuban resistance group, but that’s a pretty hot-shit jury. It would be great to have Meyer or Smith or Van Valkenburgh; to have all three is pretty amazing and that’s just the landscape architects. Wasn’t Ellen Salpeter in that Italian movie…come on, you know the one.
The cars gotta go underground. Problem is: the subway already is…
I will donate, if they promise to get rid of the purple lighting!
B- spend the money on the bad side of the
park =)
Solid gold statue of The What.