An 1,800-square feet pilot sponge park was then completed in 2016 and now captures some 2 million gallons of stormwater each year. That began as a plan for lining the 1.5-mile-long canal with absorbent green spaces that could reduce stormwater from further polluting the waterway. Susannah Drake, FASLA, and her firm DLANDStudio, created the Gowanus Canal Sponge Park™. The canal has drawn in number of landscape architects over the years. Gowanus Canal Sponge Park™, Brooklyn, NY / DLANDStudio ASLA 2010 Professional Analysis and Planning Honor Award. It’s a water body that also continues to receive millions of gallons of combined sewer overflow each year. But they also wanted to keep its layers of history, including the graffiti.Įxiting the rear of the Powerhouse, the expanse of the Gowanus Canal, one of the most contaminated Superfund sites in the country, came into view. The foundation and architects re-imagined the space as a contemporary artist and fabrication studio that will offer community classes, prototyping spaces, job training, and public exhibitions. Interior of new Powerhouse Arts addition, Brooklyn, NY / Jared Green “They brought rigor to the project, maintaining the architecture in as straightforward a way as possible,” Smith said during our hardhat tour. He then hired architects Herzog & de Meuron and PBDW to renovate the power station and graph on a six-story annex, essentially doubling the square footage. Interior of Powerhouse Arts, Brooklyn, NY / Jared GreenĪfter starting a foundation, hedge funder Joshua Rechnitz purchased the building in 2012. And in recent decades, it became known as the Batcave, a place for dance parties. Some of the city’s best graffiti artists left their mark. Since then, it has had many lives, becoming home to both artists and squatters. It was decommissioned in the late 1930s and by the 1970s reborn as a cardboard incinerating facility. The three-story red brick building was developed by the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company. The power station, built at the turn of the 20th century, once housed coal-powered turbines that generated electricity. “It’s how we could use a tight space with a steep slope to do a lot.” Powerhouse Arts, Brooklyn, NY / copyright Barrett Doherty, courtesy of Ken Smith Workshop “It’s both a defensive measure and a living shoreline that will make the site adaptable,” said Ken Smith, FASLA. But they also wove in a nature-based solution to capture stormwater. To protect its waterfront from storm surges and sea level rise, landscape architecture firm Ken Smith Workshop layered in steel and concrete defenses. Powerhouse Arts, Brooklyn, NY / copyright Barrett Doherty, courtesy of Ken Smith WorkshopĪlong the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, a 118-year-old power station has become Powerhouse Arts, a contemporary arts and fabrication space.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |