Author Archives: David Briggs
the loci blog
How Should NYU Expand?
NYU recently announced that it would reduce the size of its proposed expansion by almost 20% in an attempt to overcome the surrounding community’s strong opposition to the plan. By reducing the development’s size, it hopes to win approval of the Community Board and the Department of City Planning who will determine if a zoning variance should be granted. NYU faces a unique challenge in traditional campus planning since its campus is spread around Greenwich Village, occupies a short stretch of First Avenue, has an outpost in Abu Dhabi, and has recently taken over Polytechnic University in Brooklyn. I first … Continue reading
Posted in architecture, urban planning
Tagged Greenwich Village, NYU, Washington Square, zoning
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the loci blog
In this past Sunday’s New York Times Real Estate section there was an article titled “Everybody Inhale” describing the challenges that our city faces with the expected surge in population over the next couple of decades. However, it is a rich irony that planners sit over beers in a Brooklyn bar contemplating how Manhattan should grow larger and taller with nary a mention of the city’s other four boroughs. This sadly supports a long held cultural view that New York City is solely defined by Manhattan. Last summer the poster … Continue reading
Posted in sustainability
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the loci blog
EPA Draft Feasibility Study Presentation at PS 58 in Carroll Gardens
On January 24, the EPA Gowanus Canal Public Information meeting was held in the auditorium at PS 58 in Carroll Gardens. Walter Mugdan, the EPA Region 2′s Director of the Emergency and Remedial Response Division announced that the agency was on schedule with the remedial investigation and feasibility study of the Gowanus Canal Superfund site and that the proposed plan, which will identify the Agency’s preferred cleanup option, will be unveiled later this year. Once the proposed plan is published, there will be a public comment period followed by a selection of the … Continue reading
Posted in sustainability
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the loci blog
The Identity of Climate Change
When I moved to Brooklyn in 1988, I noticed something strange – when telling my neighbors that I had a position at a firm in Manhattan, the inevitable response would be along the lines of, “Oh, so you work in the city?” I was confused since it implied that I was living outside of the city and the urban credentials that I was cultivating were not completely authentic. Little did I know that when I lived on the Upper West Side in 1983-84, and later on the Lower East Side, I had occupied a privileged position. Manhattan was the star … Continue reading
Posted in philosophy
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