Columbia St Bikeway Art Finally Complete!

Delayed satisfaction is a fact of life for most landscape architects. You may work on a project for years and then it takes years to get built. And the with the speed at which designers change firms, many people often do not get to see projects through to the end. But I was lucky during my six years at Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects to see many projects from design to completion.

But there were a few dangling projects at my departure that I have watched with anticipation. Columbia St. Bikeway was one of those projects. The bikeway itself, the first 1/4 mile of the Brooklyn Greenway, had been completed years ago. It was a standard bikeway in many respects but its adjacent streetscape was designed to emphasize the speed and rhythm of cycling with the addition of a salvaged cobble band  (uncovered during adjacent sewer reconstruction) patterned with bright pink granite. The brightness of the pink was hotly contested, but once it was installed and covered in a layer of grime, it would have had to have been neon pink to really stand out as intended. The trees were alternating groups with yellow flowers or yellow spring leaves to provide continuity as well as diversity. Care was taken to provide larger soil area in this harsh environment. Structural soil and continuous tree pits were used throughout.

newly installed salvaged cobbles and cut pink granite. the texture difference is more noticeable than the color.

But the dangling project in question was the Percent for Art component where 1% of the budget is put towards public art. The artist Nobuho Nagasawa was chosen by the community and I worked closely with her throughout the project to integrate her artwork into the larger streetscape. This included a lot of meetings and multiple presentations to the Design Commission. Nobuho had many interesting ideas for the streetscape but settled in the end on one of her first and clearest ideas; she wanted to trace the shadows of native New York trees that we would hand-pick for the streetscape and etch them in bluestone. So when the tree was large there would be a memory of when the tree was small. Nobohu got to know the community very well and carefully chose locations that were significant.

The design, now called TIMECAST, was finally approved by the Design Commission and won an award in 2007. But the installation timing was tricky. To be truly authentic, the traces were to be made in situ, so the streetscape and trees needed to be installed before the artwork could be created. So we had to add asphalt patches in the streetscape that could be easily removed once the artwork was complete. And of course there were mishaps. Con-Ed boxes and fire hydrants getting installed in art locations, etc. But I left to go to Harvard in 2009 and did not get to see the artwork installed. It was not until this past Spring 2012 that they were finally finished. I was here in Spain when I got the email from the artist telling me that it was complete!

I'm very happy to see that this white swamp oak is doing so well! It was a beautiful tree when we selected it at the nursery

One sad street tree died before its artwork could be installed so this one truly is a memorial.

I was really excited to see that other people are enjoying the artwork. Photographer Tom Rupolo did a very nice series of detailed photographs of the etchings. He kindly gave me permission to post.

 Many thanks to Joe Sopiak from DDC and Susan Chin, Victoria, and Xenia from DCA that made the long process and number of meetings bearable. I really had a great time working with all of them. And many thanks to Signe Nielsen and Nobohu Nagasawa for their unwavering dedication to the project throughout its 8 year duration!

For more information see the following links
http://www.brooklyngreenway.org/columbia-watefront-public-art-dedication-timecast-by-nobuho-nagasawa/
http://blog.archpaper.com/wordpress/archives/39487
dedication video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp6ta263i8I

Anillo Verde Ciclista Bike Loop, Madrid

The Anillo Verde Ciclista is a 65km (40 miles) bike loop completely circumnavigating Madrid, roughly following the M-40 expressway. It cost approximately 33.4 million Euros which also included bridge crossings and plantings along the bikeway. This is my summer journey to see it all!

 Here is an interactive map if you'd like to follow along.

This is the map of the entire route shown in orange. I started on the west side at a bike shop called Rio Bikes near the Principe Pio metro stop. They have an amazing rental deal; if you buy 10 hours of time in advance its only 3 Euros per hour (regular 4, and other shops are 5 Euros). I was also able to get a basket so I didnt have to carry my bag:)

This is just the summer challange I need! I am not strong enough to cycle the whole route right now but little by little I'll ride sections of it and eventually I'll do the whole route in one day! I've taken some short rides south along the Madrid Rio Park and south along the Manzanares River, so today I decided to try going north on the Ciclista. I entered through Casa de Campo. Near the lake I found an information center where I was able to get a good map of the entire route. The beginning part of the route was on paved roads shared with cars but once I got on the official route north of the park it was bikes only on a seperated route.  

On the left is the first section still within Casa de Campo. Its a beautiful ride lined with a London Plane allee.

I hadnt even gotten out of the park yet when I saw this amazing play structure. Of course, I had to stop and try it out! It was all really thick rope with rubber seats at intervals. The color and structure just blended right in with the trees. It didn't distract at all from the picturesque old pine grove.

As you leave the park you ride along the river heading north. It was lush and shaded (nice in this hot summer weather). The river is wild at this point and not controlled by dams like it is along the park. It was shallow and clear and I could see big fish just hanging out. I also saw some nice floodplain areas and even some Phragmites (hello old friend!). 


Then there were a few bridge crossings over highway. I am sure a lot of the budget went to these various structures. But this is what it takes to reconnect a city with a lot of highway infrastructure. In most cases the highways are not going to go away so there has to be a commitment to building bridges and tunnels to reconnect the urban fabric! 

There was this interesting older bridge that was integrated into the route. I assume it was an old car bridge but was made obsolete by larger highways and off ramps. It was cobbled and had these great statue gate keepers.

...and from there it got a lot less picturesque. The route got more narrow and directly paralelled the highway for awhile. Luckily the bikeway was a lot higher than the expressway so was separated by elevation and a fence covered with blooming honeysuckle. I think this distracted nicely from the car smell.

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This was a nice moment in this part of the route with an allee of poplars. I headed north toward El Pardo, a large natural area. But then the route became very stark, hot and dry. I kept hoping for some relief around the corner but there was nothing. I was also getting tired so I decided to turn around and leave El Pardo for another day when I have built up more stamina.

The route back seemed to fly by, I think because I was more familiar with it. Hopefully as I explore I will know the best places along the way so I know when to push through a less desirable section to get to something good around the bend!

My total today was about 16km!

My trusty steed (above)
But even though some parts aren't the most beautiful I think its amazing that they were able to piece this route tegether in an existing city fabric.  Also I got a sneak peak at the new city General Plan that will be released next month and it includes more cycling routes within the center city that will connect like spokes to the Anillo Verde Ciclista to create a more comprehensive network. Sounds like Madrid will just keep getting better!