New York City is an environment of consistent densification with more footprints being raised up to taller heights above the street to leave the island of Manhattan as one of the most densely populated places on the planet.When the recession hit the Big Apple full force in 2008 there were many building projects that were suddenly without the funding they had already secured, forcing them to stop—sometimes even after construction had already begun—until market conditions improved. The Department of Buildings refers to these occurrences as “Stalled Sites.”
On the east side of Kip’s Bay, one restaurant took the opportunity of an adjacent stalled site and turned it into an urban farm used to grow produce for their culinary creations. The project serves as a reminder of how we can make the most of any site in the city in any condition, leaving there no place for vacant lots absently waiting out the test of time.
Where 29th Street meets the East River, the tower that rises from the shore is the Alexandria Center for Life Science. The building is a taught skin of reflective glass and mechanical grilles, complete with exterior louvers that add a lighter texture to the LEED Gold core and shell holding around 310,000 square feet of space. But the impressive building is actually an unfinished story. As only half of its original vision, the lone tower was to be one of two buildings with the second situated on a site directly west. Walking by, the pedestrian can see the brand new concrete slab poured over a foundation with steel columns poking their heads above the surface, each bearing two large plates with one half affixed to the metal and the other pointing open towards the sky to accept the building that never came to be.
The Alexandria Center was not the only place that felt the sting of an unfriendly market. Hundreds of sites across the metro area were forced to stop at some point of construction until things improved. When it comes to large sites that are only partially built, one of the chief concerns of the city is safety. Issues of stormwater drainage, hazardous materials, refuse, vermin, and illicit activity can all become problems on a vacant construction site when not appropriately monitored. In 2009, the growing number of these sites prompted the Bloomberg administration to create the Stalled Sites Program. In exchange for a series of site safety measures enacted by the client, the Department of Buildings would allow the construction permits for the project to be renewed for up to four years instead of the customary 12 months allotted by code.
For some this vacant site would be viewed as little more than an inconvenience, but an innovative neighbor saw it as an opportunity. Residing in the base of Tower 1, the restaurant Riverpark enjoys water views and the relative peace of being a block away from fast-moving traffic. Funded by celebrity chef and restauranteur Tom Colicchio, Riverpark is a high-end restaurant specializing in healthy food. When the vacant site of tower two lingered beside them, the restaurant approached the developer with an idea to make use of the site as a temporary urban farm. The developer agreed.
Now the restaurant can enjoy things like squash, tomatoes, radishes, broccoli and a world of herbs that travel a mere 100 feet from soil to the kitchen before being beautifully plated for consumption. Last week I got to listen to the restaurant’s head chef, Sisha Ortúzar, talk about the eatery’s farming project. According to Ortúzar, the farm is the largest urban farm in the city that is directly associated with a restaurant. Apparently the creation of the garden created a full time job for two urban farmers and is worked year round.
Though there is a growing conversation about the possibility of cutting edge urban greenhouses and even vertical farms, there is nothing high-tech about the Riverpark Farm. 15,000 square feet of soil is held inside modified milk crates, stacked two high to lift the 6,000+ plants off the ground. Unsurprisingly, the restaurant utilizes its own food-based waste stream that can pour fresh (and free) nutrients back into the soil via composting. In the winter tents are erected around the site to facilitate a continued growing season. In building the farm, the restaurant was not putting down roots as it were, underscoring that the farm is constructed as a temporary venture to take advantage of the conditions that currently exist.
“The thing we had to get past was the idea of building something that had to last a long time,” Ortúzar said. So far, the results speak for themselves. In the cooler months, the farm fills around 10-15% of the restaurant’s demand for fresh produce. “But in the coming months,” Ortúzar pointed out, “it will be up to 80%.”
The cityscape is an ecology with individual parcels going through their own cycles of life, death and rebirth. Part of using our urban landscapes sustainably is maximizing the value that any site can offer in any state of its evolution. Plus, while the restaurant may be harvesting its cash crops, the farm itself is contributing to the city in other ways. An installation like this is essentially a green roof, which brings a number of accolades to the urban environment as a whole. With every rainfall, the water that the plants are craving is stormwater that the rivers are trying to avoid. In the absence of the rows of plant-laden milk crates the sun would be beating down on an open concrete slab that would collect and store sunlight, contributing to the city’s heat islands as it radiated higher temperatures throughout the day and night. Instead, the sunlight is captured and turned into energy for healthy products. Not only is it in Riverpark’s best interest to sponsor this farm, it’s in the entire city’s best interest.
New York currently has over 600 sites in the Stalled Sites program, meaning there is still a wealth of opportunity for similar conditions to be utilized with temporary facilities. Why not community gardens? Or farmer’s markets? Or showcases for container homes? Or new pieces of infrastructure? If plots are sitting there gathering dust then there should be little reason for owners to hold back from offering a space for community use that would likely cost them nothing.
This also begs the question as to why only these 600 sites are getting this kind of attention and innovation. As far as I’m concerned, any site that is vacant or unused (inside or outside of the city) is “stalled” with the possibility of conversion into some temporary facility. For many developers and owners, the process of trying to find and facilitate these uses might be considered more of a hassle than its worth, but if some network was created that linked groups with usage terms then we could end up with temporary homes/studios/markets for more young businesses.
Image Credit: riverpark.com
May 2, 2012 at 3:46 pm
Reblogged this on Hwaairfan's Blog and commented:
Turning the city back into a natural resource, increase food security, provide cheaper healthier food for those who eat in restaurants — there is hope after all!