More Renderings of the BQE's Hopeful Future
[nggallery id=”51052″ template=galleryview] Yesterday we talked about the possible plans for making the BQE trench a little friendlier to its surrounding neighborhoods. Later in the day Curbed managed to nab some fresh renderings of those possibilities from the EDC. The first two are of the proposed ‘Green Canopy,’ which comes with a price tag of…
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Yesterday we talked about the possible plans for making the BQE trench a little friendlier to its surrounding neighborhoods. Later in the day Curbed managed to nab some fresh renderings of those possibilities from the EDC. The first two are of the proposed ‘Green Canopy,’ which comes with a price tag of $85 million. The third is of the pedestrian bridges, the fourth the massive greenway. The only problem? None of them have a source of funding. At least we’ve got the pictures to fantasize about.
Three Ways to Make the BQE Less Horrible [Curbed]
This space needs re-thinking, but keep in mind that there is already work going on 1-2 blocks away to put the greenway through.
These kinds of cover-overs are indeed possible– battery park is possible because of this kind of tunnel, for instance.
Selfishly, the prospect expressway is a better candidate to cover. There are fewer street, sidewalk patch across it than exist in the columbia street waterfront, and it’s a much wider and louder chasm.
Creating this kind of covered park or wider paths- between 5th ave and 7th ave- there are already pathways and slivers of parks on both side, and the elevation and view corridor available would create a spectacular park with city and statue of liberty views, and would pull back together a neighborhood that was sliced when they knocked the houses down and dug the expressway ditch.
There is also enough space, given the width and lay of land that you could sell or develop parcels around the new park to help fund and maintain it.
It’ll never happen! But i’m sure millions were wasted
on these silly plans. As sure as I am that the people paid to come up with this sillyness that will never happen all had something to do with or are related in some way to local elected officials!!
Bear in mind the “floating” roadway down in the trench.
Because the roadway is built below the water table, I was told that there is an active drainage system under the roadway to pump out the water that accumulates.
Don’t forget the plumbing that goes underneath at Degraw St to flush the Gowanus Canal out to the Buttermilk Channel.
I think the proposals are OK, but let’s face it: This is a completely inexcusably hideous “feature” of Cobble Hill/Carroll Gardens, and whoever built it (Robert Moses, I presume?) should be punched. Lord only knows how the hell this PoS happened in the first place. It’s deafening and the exhaust is filthy. Pretty much any of the “fixes” being considered amount to lipstick on a pig.
Everyone mentioning Boston’s Big Dig is something to imitate are right, except that project was notorious for cost overruns and delays, during which time it ruined the quality of living and driving through it. After it finally was completed, it was a revelation and Boston was transformed, but it wasn’t easy getting there.
If the proposal to build a tunnel connecting the BQE from North Brooklyn to Atlantic Avenue ever gets built, it would probably be very similar. This seems like small potatos, comparatively.
Santiagio, Chile does this very well. The canopies they have on sections of roadway like this are not solid. More like a steel mesh that covers the roadway and obscures visibility of the underneath roadway and traffic from the outside. It blends well into the street with surrounding foliage. Driving underneath isn’t impacted because it still receives full sunlight.
Also – Denton – yes, as a homeowner you can install a solar power system that “spins the meter backward” and feeds into the grid.
Denton – you far from correct regarding a “massive vent system.” This is just another red herring that would easily be analyzed and dealt with during design. I’m betting that there is a solution that would not require any sort of supplementary ventilation (or lighting) system at all.
I am only speaking based on the proposal – and the proposal calls for a “green canopy” – which to me sounds like plants.
And sure all of it is doable – the question is…is it worth doing (versus something else) – given that nothing has been done for the better part of a century – I think realistically tons of platings around the trench and maybe a foot bridge or 2 is all we can realisticly hope for. Although I am intrigued by the post yesterday from Neil W re: similar issue in Ohio, showing the concept of expanding the current bridges and putting buildings for retail on the north and south sides – seems like a cheap and effective way to co-join the two sides of the trench from a pedestrian perspective.