After the City Planning Commission gave its approval to the Department of Sanitation's ultra-controversial plan to build a three-district garbage truck parking garage and salt shed at Spring and West Streets in Hudson Square, locals opposed to the plan argued that the city has not taken a serious look at other sites and ideas. Before the issue heads to the City Council, one anti-garbage group—the Community Sanitation Steering Committee—has decided to concoct an alternative plan, pairing it with an appeal to City Council Speaker Christine Quinn to have a look at it before "rubber stamping" Sanitation's plan. The new proposal is actually old, kinda. The group has taken one of the designs from last year's Envisioning Hudson Square exhibit—in which architects dreamed up crazy proposals for the waterfront area between Leroy and Canal Streets—and trashed it. Literally!
Hudson Square Rise, designed by Zakrzewski + Hyde Architects and Starr Whitehouse Landscape Architects and Planners, would reduce the height of the garbage garage from 118 feet (five levels) to 75 feet (three levels) and get rid of the salt shed. It would also be for the two local districts (leaving Midtown to find its own spot, which Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer already suggested), and top the structure with park land. The Community Sanitation Steering Committee writes:
Hudson Rise would create 2.5 acres of rooftop park that would start at Canal Street and end at the top of the St. John's Center. In the future, it might connect to a St. John's Park and potential pedestrian bridge to Pier 40 as the southern terminus of the High Line Park. Hidden underneath, would be a two district Sanitation garage for districts 1 & 2, along with the existing UPS semi-trailer parking facility. This plan would be much less expensive ($240 MM instead of $429 MM) and could be built cheaper and faster (and without community lawsuits).
Looks cool, though we're not sure we'd want to frolic in a patch of grass that's sitting right on top of a mountain of garbage. Check out the committee's head-to-head breakdown of the two proposals in this PDF for more exciting trash talk.
· West Soho Garbage Garage Gets Nod from City Planning [Curbed]
· Sidekicks: Soho's Garbage Garage Gets a Salty Shed [Curbed]
· Soho Garbage Garage's Opponents Will Sue [Curbed]For more stories from Curbed, go to curbed.com.
