NYC Future Metropolis Vol III

NYC The Future Metropolis Volume III is part of the New Museum’s Festival of Ideas for The New City, running May 4-8, 2011. For more information about the festival, please visit: festivalofideasnyc.com

Thanks to the presenters and all the attendees at the NYC Future Metropolis Volume III: Water in New York event!

Check back soon for videos and clips from the presentations. And be sure to continue the conversation by joining the “NYC The Future Metropolis” Group on LinkedIn.

New York City The Future Metropolis is an ongoing series of events focused on creative thinkers who are using their expertise to make New York City a more sustainable place to live, work, and do business. Each event is an exciting, fast-paced showcase of pioneering ideas and cutting-edge research, presented in a way that both inspires innovation in green industry professionals and remains accessible to the general public.

The theme of the this installment was “Water in New York.” This theme covered the water bodies surrounding the city, the ways that water gets used in the city, and the cultural significance of water to New York. The speakers covered a wide range of topics that relate to water, for example: harbor ecology, rain/grey water harvesting, green infrastructure, the impact of hydrofracking on NYC’s water supply, creating an innovative waterfront, designing landscapes and buildings with water in mind, learning from and on the water, and art created with or in response to NYC’s water.

Click here to download the poster: NYCFM_Poster_sm

Opening remarks:

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer

Speakers:

Paul Lloyd Sargent, Artist
Maria Aiolova, Architectural, Ecological, and Urban Designer
Susannah Drake, Architect and Landscape Architect
Joseph Schaffer, PE, PP, LEED-AP
Kate Sinding, Senior Attorney
Kate Boicourt, Restoration Coordinator
Catharine Perez & Miguel Martinez, Students
Daniella Topol, Director

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Opening Remarks

Scott Stringer

Manhattan Borough President

Scott M. Stringer, a native New Yorker, is in his second term as the 26th Manhattan Borough President. He has dedicated himself to fostering a safe, affordable and sustainable future for Manhattan – by encouraging responsible growth and preserving a sense of neighborhood for the 1.6 million people who live here. A keystone of his work has been a reform and empowerment of the borough’s community boards.  Before most New Yorkers were even aware of the risks associated with hydraulic fracturing, Stringer sounded the alarm. He built a coalition of environmentalists and community members, calling for a moratorium on natural gas drilling in New York City’s ecologically fragile watershed. Prior to being elected Borough President, Stringer served 13 years in the State Assembly. The New York Times said he had “a sterling reputation as a catalyst for reform.”

Please click here to read his full bio.

The past & the future of water in New York

Paul Lloyd Sargent

Artist - www.recycledcarbon.com

Paul Lloyd Sargent is an artist and writer with an interest in supply and disposal chains. His recent work examines the historical impact of the international shipping industry on the ecologies, economies, and communities along the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River through an amalgam of media tactics, including video and photography, experimental geography, grass roots activism, and sustainable culture as art practice. Sargent has exhibited his work internationally at Para/Site Art Space and the Microwave Media Festival in Hong Kong; Gallery M in Berlin; the Impakt Festival in Utrecht; the Invideo Festival in Milan; Big Orbit and the University at Buffalo Art Gallery in Buffalo; Exit Art, Conflux, Smack Mellon, and Proteus Gowanus in New York; and Mess Hall, the Onion City Film Festival, Hyde Park Art Center, and Gallery 400 at the
University of Illinois at Chicago.

E3NYC & Waterfront Development

Maria Aiolova

Architectural, Ecological, and Urban Designer – Terraform ONE

Maria Aiolova is an architect and urban designer in New York City. She is a Co-Founder of Terreform ONE and Planetary ONE. Her work is focused on the theory, science and application of ecological design. Maria received her MAUD from Harvard University, Dipl.-Ing. from the Technical University of Vienna, Austria and Sofia, Bulgaria. She directs the TerreFarm Summer School for Urban Ecology and the One Prize Award organized by Terreform ONE. Maria is currently faculty at Pratt Institute, Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Design and Parsons the New School for Design. She won the Zumtobel Group Award for Sustainability and Humanity and the Build Boston Award. Maria has a number of winning competitions including first place in the CHARLES/MGH Station, Boston and the Izmir Post District International Competition, Turkey. Maria has taught and been a visiting lecturer at universities worldwide.

Designing NYC’s Landscape with Water in Mind

Susannah Drake

Architect and Landscape Architect – dlandstudio

Susannah is the Principal of dlandstudio llc, an award-winning multidisciplinary design firm. She received a BA from Dartmouth College and MArch and MLA degrees from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. She is the recipient of grants from the Graham Foundation, the James Marston Fitch Foundation and the NYS Council on the Arts for research on campus landscapes and large-scale urban infrastructure projects. Susannah is a Trustee of the Van Alen Institute, was the Trustee and President of the NY ASLA, Director of the Fine Arts Federation, and served on the Directors Council of NYers for Parks. She recently joined the Department of Environmental Protection Green Infrastructure Steering Committee and the Waterfront Planning Working Group that informed the final NYC Comprehensive Waterfront Plan. In addition to her professional practice, she is an adjunct professor of design at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and at City College of New York. Click here for more information about dlandstudio’s Gowanus Canal Sponge Park design.

Rainwater Harvesting & Greywater Recycling

Joseph Schaffer

PE, PP, LEED-AP – Green Environmental Associates and JFS Engineering

Mr. Schaffer has more than a decade of experience in project management and design of layout, grading, and utilities for commercial development sites, municipal engineering, due diligence studies, and construction oversight. He has produced effective and efficient regulatory permitting and stormwater management solutions for complex scenarios in a variety of sites ranging from undeveloped to highly urbanized and small (<1 acre) to large (>100 acres). He has been involved with numerous box retail and residential development projects, many requiring complex utility and cross-discipline coordination. As a LEED-AP, he brings a holistic approach to minimizing construction costs, infrastructure loading, and waste as well as examining energy, water, and solid waste associated with operations, rainwater harvesting, and manufacturing processes. Click here to read the latest newsletter from Green Environmental Associates. To read Joe’s article “Rain is a Renewable Resource” please visit greencitychallenge.org.

Effects of Hydrofracking on NYC’s Water Supply

Kate Sinding

Senior Attorney – NRDC

Kate Sinding is a Senior Attorney and Deputy Director of the NY Urban Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, where she specializes in New York urban and regional issues, including a variety of solid waste, land use and energy matters. Prior to joining NRDC in November 2006, Kate was a partner in the specialty environmental law firm of Sive, Paget & Riesel, P.C. Kate is a member of the board of the New York Product Stewardship Council and sits on the Manhattan Citizens’ Solid Waste Advisory Board. She has taught Environmental Law at Columbia University and Fordham University Schools of Law. Kate is a graduate of New York University Law School, the Woodrow Wilson School of International and Public Affairs at Princeton University, and Barnard College. Read more from Kate on her NRDC Switchboard blog.

Ecology of the New York/New Jersey Harbor

Kate Boicourt

Restoration Coordinator – NY/NJ Harbor Estuary Program

Kate Boicourt began the position of Restoration Coordinator of the NY-NJ Harbor Estuary Program in September, 2010. Through this position, she is working to coordinate and advance restoration and public access activities throughout the harbor estuary, with a particular focus on those within the goals of the Comprehensive Restoration Plan. Prior to coming to HEP, Kate has worked on climate change adaptation issues for the State of Maryland, estuarine ecology and science communication for NOAA/University of Maryland, on a number of field studies, and collaborated with the Matthew Baird team for MoMA’s Rising Currents Exhibit. Kate holds an MS from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Science, where she studied the success and effects of Phragmites australis removal, and a BA from Kenyon College in Biology. Click here to read the Maryland Climate Change Adaptation Report.

Learning From and On the Water

Miguel Martinez & Catharine Perez

Students – Rocking The Boat

Miguel is a senior at Validus Preparatory Academy which is an outward bound expeditionary learning school in the Bronx. He plans to graduate in June 2011 and attend Lehman College to study Graphic Design and Theatre. Miguel has been a part of Rocking the Boat since 2009 and has worked his way up from On-Water Student to Environmental Job Skills Apprentice.

Catharine also attends Validus Preparatory Academy, plans to graduate this June and then enroll at BMCC in the fall. Catharine joined Rocking the Boat in 2008 as a student volunteer. Through her hard work and dedication, she was hired into the Environmental Job Skills Apprentice Program where she has a lead role in completing environmental restoration and monitoring projects.

Upcoming Play, “WATER (or the secret life of objects)”

Daniella Topol

Director

Daniella Topol is co-conceiver and director of WATER (or the secret life of objects), a theatrical project that aims to make the global climate crisis palpable to audiences through the science fiction tale of a world-altering flood of biblical proportions. Daniella is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon’s directing program. In addition to her work as a director around the country, Daniella has served as Artistic Program Director at the Lark Play Development Center, New Works Program Director at the National Alliance for Musical Theatre, Associate Producing Director of City Theatre Company and resident artist at HERE. Current and recent productions include: Willy Holtzman’s Morini Strad (City Theatre Company), Anna Ziegler’s Photograph 51 (Theater J), and Sheila Callaghan’s Lascivious Something (Cherry Lane). For more from Daniella visit her group blog, “waterblogged“.

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Reception will follow the event. Light snacks and refreshments provided by The V-Spot.

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To check out NYC The Future Metropolis Volumes I and II, please visit their websites:

Volume I: New York City - solar1.org/1nycfm
Volume II: Infrastructure of Green - solar1.org/2nycfm