Giachino and Kupferman talks

Here they are, as promised.

http://saveandrewgarib.com/audio/08.04.11-10h31m12s_INV_Alyssa_Giachino_talk.wma

http://saveandrewgarib.com/audio/08.04.11-12h52m45s_INV_Joel_Kupferman_talk.wma

For those of you who complained the link to the last talk wasn't working: I think it's working now.

Nitey nite,

Andrew

Ps.: All these audio files will be labeled "talks" instead of whatever crazy crap I was doing before. AG

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/

Site to check out

I came across a site that might be helpful background info for a lot of people, The Safety Library

The site has information on:
Disasters (disaster safety, emergency management, terrorism)
Hazards and controls (biological safety, chemical safety, environmental safety, fire safety, physical hazards, etc.)
Industry Safety
Laws and Regulations
Safety Management

In addition to compiling research, the site also has a great number of links updated constantly on the issues listed above and others (the list is pretty long, but I selected the most relevant ones for the list above).

Sooyeon's Memo

I'm planning to do a profile of the UN renovation process, a $1.88 billion rehabilitation project.
I researched how the process has been going and figured this whole plan has been delayed too long for bureaucratic reasons, budgeting, looking for temporary building for workers and stuff.
But I expect this profile of the UN will focus the aspects on security, environmental and safety issues. They plan to achieve a LEED Silver rating and there
Also when I looked up news articles in the past, I could not find any criticism or conflict opinions about actual renovation, except the criticism of hight costs.
So I wonder if the plan is perfect. (is it possible?) I have to set up the interview with experts who can give some other opinions about this plan.


****** Brief note **********

They set up the plan called "Capital Master plan,'
That would be a glass-encased Secretariat tower and the General Assembly Building’s main hall which have gotten no major renovations since they opened more than 50 years ago.

The renovation targets include the Secretariat Building built in 1950; the Conference and General Assembly buildings opened in 1951 and 1952; the Dag Hammarskjöld Library, North Lawn Building, and South Annex Building, opened between 1961 and 1982; and the complex’s three-level basement with a parking garage.
Rrenovation also entails installation of new, energy-efficient and blast-resistant glass curtain wall that will have double or triple glazing.


http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/28/world/28nations.html
("The glass curtain wall will be replaced by a heavily laminated one that appears identical but is far stronger and able to withstand the blast of a bomb attack.Energy-saving additions include sensors that turn off lights in unoccupied rooms and solar power systems")

http://www.nysun.com/article/67949
(Once the project is completed, "the U.N. headquarters will not only be a safer, healthier, greener, and more secure place, but our renovated workshop for peace will also stand out as a symbol for building a revitalized U.N. for a better world," Secretary-General Ban said in a statement yesterday, thanking members for the approval of the plan.)


http://newyork.construction.com/features/archive/2007/12_feature1.asp
(The renovation program will introduce a full roster of green measures, some tied into broader tasks and others focused on sustainability. A recent UN staff report estimates that the project will achieve a 40% reduction in energy consumption.
The new curtain wall for the 39-story Secretariat Building, modern lighting, and more efficient building systems are examples of needed upgrades that will introduce energy savings. The HVAC systems, for instance, will use no CFC-based refrigerants, while electrical generators may run on biodiesel fuels and plumbing fixtures will use low-flow water technology.)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_7060000/newsid_7065300/7065366.stm?
(video report)

UN(Capital Master plan) (www.un.org/cmp)
UN procurement Division (www.un.eog/depts/ptd)
U.S. government accountability office (www.gao.ov)

Need to contact
-Experts who can give some neutral view of this plan
-Mr Werner Schmidt; Public Information Officer, capital master plan.
Tel. (917) 367-5420Fax (917) 367-5377

Giambusso Memo

Building Battles:

OVERVIEW:

I am attempting to examine the political battles that go into building and development. I hope to examine specific sites and demonstrate how the pressures of City Council, Congress, developers, community groups etc, shape building safety. I would like to look at a development that has been finished, one that is being constructed and ne that is in the planning stages.

I am looking specifically to examine how the race to develop may be having a deleterious effect on building safety. Politicians and developers are often involved in projects that garner government funds (affordable housing, brownfield development) making enterprises more lucrative for builders.

The question I hope to raise is how safe are these projects, what are the standards and what have been the real-life consequences of projects that perhaps moved too quickly for political economic expediency while ignoring safety standards.


FIRST SITE: Gowanus Canal, “Public Place”
Lede(?)

Along the trendy restaurants of Cobble Hill and the nouveau-chic bars of Park Slope, underneath the lacquered hardwood walkups, where hipsters, yuppies and trustafarians, meet, live, and raise their young, between two lands conquered by the inexorable armies of gentrification, there runs a river of poison--a mile and half of putrid waterway that once served the factories and chemical plants lining its banks.

For over a century the Gowanus Canal has acted as an industrial sewer, suffering the runoff of tanneries, machine shops, and factories churning soap, paint, ink, and sulfur. The waterway, which connects Upper New York Bay to the neighborhoods of Red Hook, South Brooklyn, and Park Slope, runs along a flood basin of toxicity.

In the eyes of politicians, the banks of the Gowanus are a fertile ground for green spaces and affordable housing. In the eyes of developers, the Gowanus valley is a gold prospect promising government funding and quick profits. For the starry-eyed denizens of the outlying neighborhoods, the land along the Gowanus is another chance to recreate the city’s landscape in their own image--complete with coffee shops, dog runs, and tree lined walkways through which to push the seemingly endless stream of baby carriages that follows the march of young urban affluence.

In the fever to develop this infamous stretch, though, some in the community have raised the unwelcome flag of caution and warned that we may not know exactly what has been created underneath these banks. There is skepticism that a layer of sod and some shrubberies may only mask the feet of sledge and chemical waste that have built up over the last one hundred years. Some warn that the consequences of living among these noxious deposits may be dire…

SECOND SITE: Atlantic Yards

THIRD SITE:


LINKS:

http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=5&id=18585

http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=27&id=18300

http://www.gowanus.org/gowanus.htm

http://www.waterfrontmuseum.org/dredgers/links/voice.html

http://www.gowanusartists.com/home.html

http://www.plannyc.org/project-75-Gowanus-Development

CONTACT:

Jessica Pozzuoli: Television Producer, Environmental Activist, Urban Planner
Sarah Ryley: Reporter, Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Bill deBlasio, NYCity Council
David Yassky, NYC Council
Jim Brennan, NYS Assembly
Nydia Velazquez, U.S. House of Reps, 11th District. (The fightin 11th!)
Toll Brothers Development Co.
A.J. Carter, press person at the Empire State Development Corporation
Bob Zuckerman, GCCDC
Patricia Culligan, Professor Engineering Mechanics at Columbia University
NYC D of Buildings
DEP
Seth Donlin, spokesman, Department of Housing Preservation and Development (NYC DHPD)
Bette Stoltz, executive director of the South Brooklyn Local Development Corporation (SBLDC)

TO DO:

GOWANUS
• Get a copy of Culligan’s report/conduct interviews to learn what clean up methods are used in brownfields.
• Also from Culligan, where else have cleanup methods been used and what have been the consequences.
• Contact policymakers, agencies, advocates to determine who is pro, who is against Public Place (GCCDC, SBLDC, EDC, NYS DEP, HPD, D of B, Yassky, Brennan, Velazquez)
• Determine how much Public Place will cost: cleanup, design, construction commercial rent, residential rent, government funding
• Visit other Toll Brothers sites. Do they usually flip brown fields? What do residents say of their developments what is their reputation, who are the architects?
• Visit sites listed in Culligan’s report

Daily Eagle

Two recent, interesting articles from the Broolyn Daily Eagle:

safety legislation:

http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=27&id=18200

and toxic legacies , Brooklyn-style:

http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=27&id=18300

Environmental Issues

The starting point for post 9/11 Environmental Issues is NYCOSH (New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health): http://www.nycosh.org/index_environment_wtc.html

They are a non-profit that coordinates the work-related health and safety advocacy for a lot of unions and other groups in NYC (there are similar groups in other cities, in Philadelphia it's called PHILcosh or something like this). Their web site lists the significant events/legislation that have happened/been enacted on health issues since 9/11. I just started digging into all their materials, enough to see that a timeline needs to be created just to get up to speed with the major players we need to interview. So I thought I would start working on this.

I also contacted the office of US Representative Jerrold Nadler whose jurisdiction covers lower Manhattan, I believe, and has been very active in air quality and other environmental issues. His office gave me some material to go over, so I'm going to start digging into that.

Lastly, I'm going to see if there are any scientists on campus or at the NYU Medical Center who know how to test the air quality.