Giambusso Gowanus Pitch.
City officials and developers have been encouraging new housing development along a stretch of Gowanus basin, one of the most polluted ecosystems in the country, if not the planet."Public Place" is the Orwellian title given to the central project, and is currently being vetted for construction over a former gas manufacturing plant. A high-rise apartment building with affordable housing, commercial/office space, and outdoor landscapes is being proposed over a festering toxic mass, in the belief that two centuries of sewage and all manner of toxic dumping can be covered up with a slab of concrete and a fresh coat of paint.The central question of my investigation will be, what guarantee can the developers and policy makers give that this site is safe to live on? Professors of architecture and engineering at Columbia recently published a survey of the site that suggests the financial and political investment necesarry to seriously remediate the Gowanus basin isn't feasible.One of the major safety issues after 9/11 has been airborne toxins from building demolition and construction. To what extent have we heeded these lessons and to what extent has the rabid development market run afoul?Photo survey of proposed site:http://www.flickr.com/photos/giambusso/sets/72157604111664762/
Posted by Giambusso at 9:13 PM
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I'm still hurt that you ditched my project. I really thought we had something good going there. It was all illusions. I'm so mad at myself for getting fooled again. Never again will I trust a journalist. It will take some time for me to learn to love again.
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