O2 - Issue 2 - (Page 12)

[freshpicks] IT CAME FROM THE FUTURE t A QUARTET OF LOCAL PROJECTS OFFERS GLIMPSES OF A MORE BEAUTIFUL, CONVENIENT, AND GREEN 21ST-CENTURY NEW YORK designed by Nicholas Grimshaw, who recently redesigned the city’s bus stops. Not only will it bring together 12 subway lines, but it will also make wayfinding easier by replacing a maze of tunnels with wide-open spaces. The icing on the cake, quite literally: a large glass-and-steel cone topping the complex, which will allow natural light down to the subway tracks. That project also is scheduled for a 2009 completion. Further west, 1100 Architect’s design for the New York Public Library branch on the first two floors of Riverhouse starts construction this year. The two-story, 11,000-square-foot sanctuary overlooking the corners of Murray Street and North End Avenue will be the first public library in Battery Park City and the city’s first new public library since the Mulberry Street Branch opened this past March. A sculptural terrazzo staircase and bursts of orange will shine in the library’s minimalist interior—although an array of sustainability features really steal the show. Most of the space’s materials will have been recycled, including its endgrain wood flooring, glass and mirrors, plastic shelf panels, and even its chairs, whose nylon webbing will be made from recycled seatbelts. The space will also tie into Riverhouse’s condenser water and its black and graywater filtration systems. A firstfloor computer kiosk with a “green touch screen” will inform visitors about the enviro-friendly construction, and it will be ready for fingertapping in late 2008 with the library’s opening. – Sam Lubell here is little room left to build in Battery Park City. But that hasn’t stopped some of the world’s best architects from working in the area. Located underfoot, under your nose, or inside buildings, these projects are all groundbreaking in the metaphorical sense. Santiago Calatrava’s $2.2 billion, 800,000-square-foot World Trade Center Transit Hub, near the corner of Greenwich and Fulton Streets, will be completed in 2009. That building will serve as the main terminal for PATH trains coming from New Jersey, link 13 New York City subway lines, and accommodate a potential direct link to JFK. Its stunning design includes a wing-like metal and glass entrance canopy rising over 150 feet into the air, which leads to a ribbed-concrete interior with a multistory grand entry hall, two mezzanine levels, and track levels. The transit hub will connect to Battery Park City via a new pedestrian tunnel to the World Financial Center and Winter Garden that is being developed by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. With the tunnel in place, PATH commuters and Battery Park City residents no longer will have to double back along Vesey or Liberty Streets to get to and from Battery Park City. That tunnel also will be part of an east–west corridor stretching from the new Fulton Street Transit Center through the World Trade Center Transit Hub to the World Financial Center. The Fulton Street hub is being 12 [ O2GREENMAGAZINE.COM ] http://O2GREENMAGAZINE.COM

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O2 - Issue 2 Contents Letter Freshpicks Itinerary The Hunt Flight O2 Outer Beauty Fuel 4 Thought Health Tech One to Watch Great Outdoors Features Future Focus Musings

O2 - Issue 2

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