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samsonyuen
Guest
Yikes. It's too late for April Fool's though.
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wyliepoon
Guest
New York Times opinion piece
Link to article
Smoke (and Mirrors) on the Water
Published: April 15, 2007
A first look at the drawing of the latest development proposal for the Yonkers waterfront is likely to elicit the kind of reaction a puzzled parent gives a bright-eyed toddler with paint-smeared fingers. “This is interesting, sweetie. Am I holding it right-side up?â€
But then it hits you that this is serious — that the little brown smudge near the bottom is the shell of a real building, the abandoned Glenwood Power Station; that the hulking mass of quilt triangles and gridwork looming above it is a condominium complex designed by a real British architect, Will Alsop; that a real New Jersey developer, REMI Companies, of Hoboken, N.J., wants to throw it up for $250 million, and that the people who run the City of Yonkers might just be inclined to let that happen.
But the main problem with this project, which is thankfully in the early stages of approval, is not its debatable aesthetics. It’s the scale — 25 stories for the main residential tower, far higher than the abandoned power plant’s existing smokestacks, which the developers plan to snip off. The plan is huge and intrusive and strikingly out of whack with the kind of reasonable, human-scale development that should be the central elements of any master plan for a city blessed with such a precious quantity of land along such a cherished river.
When you add this new project to the others bubbling along in Yonkers — the $3.1 billion partnership of Stuever Fidelco Cappelli to build massive amounts of housing and offices and a ballpark downtown, and Forest City Ratner’s Ridge Hill mini-city to the north — you get the impression that the city’s eagerness to throw itself open to splashy development has trumped caution and patient good sense.
It’s understandable that Yonkers officials want to get moving on redeveloping stagnant properties in their promising but underachieving city. It’s impressive that the developers and architect have gone so far out of their way to imagine a complex that is so environmentally friendly, with rooftop windmills providing all its power and solar panels heating its water. And it’s wonderful that they want to include a contemporary art museum in the mix, instead of the usual lame assortment of high-end retail shops and services.
But all the eco-friendly attributes and all the chic extras amount to nothing if they blind the city to an oversized hulk that will squat by the river for generations, blocking light and diminishing public enjoyment by its massiveness. There are a lot of precious attributes of the Hudson waterfront that are easy to overlook in a developer’s proposal — light and air, public access, the matchless view. Yonkers needs to remember that a monster that’s green is no less monstrous.
Link to article
Smoke (and Mirrors) on the Water
Published: April 15, 2007
A first look at the drawing of the latest development proposal for the Yonkers waterfront is likely to elicit the kind of reaction a puzzled parent gives a bright-eyed toddler with paint-smeared fingers. “This is interesting, sweetie. Am I holding it right-side up?â€
But then it hits you that this is serious — that the little brown smudge near the bottom is the shell of a real building, the abandoned Glenwood Power Station; that the hulking mass of quilt triangles and gridwork looming above it is a condominium complex designed by a real British architect, Will Alsop; that a real New Jersey developer, REMI Companies, of Hoboken, N.J., wants to throw it up for $250 million, and that the people who run the City of Yonkers might just be inclined to let that happen.
But the main problem with this project, which is thankfully in the early stages of approval, is not its debatable aesthetics. It’s the scale — 25 stories for the main residential tower, far higher than the abandoned power plant’s existing smokestacks, which the developers plan to snip off. The plan is huge and intrusive and strikingly out of whack with the kind of reasonable, human-scale development that should be the central elements of any master plan for a city blessed with such a precious quantity of land along such a cherished river.
When you add this new project to the others bubbling along in Yonkers — the $3.1 billion partnership of Stuever Fidelco Cappelli to build massive amounts of housing and offices and a ballpark downtown, and Forest City Ratner’s Ridge Hill mini-city to the north — you get the impression that the city’s eagerness to throw itself open to splashy development has trumped caution and patient good sense.
It’s understandable that Yonkers officials want to get moving on redeveloping stagnant properties in their promising but underachieving city. It’s impressive that the developers and architect have gone so far out of their way to imagine a complex that is so environmentally friendly, with rooftop windmills providing all its power and solar panels heating its water. And it’s wonderful that they want to include a contemporary art museum in the mix, instead of the usual lame assortment of high-end retail shops and services.
But all the eco-friendly attributes and all the chic extras amount to nothing if they blind the city to an oversized hulk that will squat by the river for generations, blocking light and diminishing public enjoyment by its massiveness. There are a lot of precious attributes of the Hudson waterfront that are easy to overlook in a developer’s proposal — light and air, public access, the matchless view. Yonkers needs to remember that a monster that’s green is no less monstrous.
B
building babel
Guest
Free Willy Alsop
You give 'em an iconic building on the waterfront and they complain. You don't give 'em an iconic building on the waterfront and they still complain. Humans - crazy, or what?
You give 'em an iconic building on the waterfront and they complain. You don't give 'em an iconic building on the waterfront and they still complain. Humans - crazy, or what?
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adma
Guest
Re: Free Willy Alsop
No by-line attached to that opinion piece? Any second opinion from Ouroussoff? (Muschamp? Goldberger?)
No by-line attached to that opinion piece? Any second opinion from Ouroussoff? (Muschamp? Goldberger?)
adma
Superstar
Bogtrotter
Senior Member
There's good iconic and then there's bad iconic. These buildings would fit better next to the magic kingdom in Orlando.
Pep'rJack
Active Member
^ Exactly, though I strongly doubt that even Plastic-Absurdity-Burg, USA would go for this dumb joke of a structure.
from Mays:
"...looking at Mr. Alsop's proposal for Yonkers, we see something Toronto's waterfront surely needs in greater quantity: more merriment, a keener celebration of pleasure, the kind of acutely focused over-the-topness Mr. Alsop brings to the problem of revitalizing urban space."
Absolutely right, total agreement: we do need the "kind of" thing Alsop dishes out. But this proposal looks like ass, full stop.
from Mays:
"...looking at Mr. Alsop's proposal for Yonkers, we see something Toronto's waterfront surely needs in greater quantity: more merriment, a keener celebration of pleasure, the kind of acutely focused over-the-topness Mr. Alsop brings to the problem of revitalizing urban space."
Absolutely right, total agreement: we do need the "kind of" thing Alsop dishes out. But this proposal looks like ass, full stop.
adma
Superstar
Though maybe you're taking too much of a "Toronto" perspective on this. As I inferred earlier, provincial jerkwaters like Barnsley and Yonkers really do bring out the best/wildest/whatever in Alsop, and perhaps the "looks like ass" judgment misses the point here.
A bit outlandish for Toronto, maybe--but something like this *could* work in Hamilton; at least, it's consistent with that Stanley Roscoe spirit of dipsy-doodle modern
...and I think there'd be people in UT who think *that* fatally "looks like ass", too. Snobs
A bit outlandish for Toronto, maybe--but something like this *could* work in Hamilton; at least, it's consistent with that Stanley Roscoe spirit of dipsy-doodle modern
...and I think there'd be people in UT who think *that* fatally "looks like ass", too. Snobs
Urban Shocker
Doyenne
Johnny Boy clearly likes big girls in colourful frocks every bit as much as babel. If we want iconic on our waterfront we have to give starchitects free rein to produce it - you can't be a little bit pregnant. It requires a leap of faith.
Such high fashion merchandise is as much about personal expression as anything else, standing out against the modest and contextual Toronto buildings that form the neutral ground and support their florid, adolescent, charming, look-at-me, flouncing alternative.
Such high fashion merchandise is as much about personal expression as anything else, standing out against the modest and contextual Toronto buildings that form the neutral ground and support their florid, adolescent, charming, look-at-me, flouncing alternative.