From An Infrastructure to An Urban Renewal

The light rail is more than a simple infrastructure, it is a urban renewal catalyst. Our approach aims to design the urban projetct of the lightrail : the one of the 3 needed mutations for a sustainable city.
A social mutation – and it is one of the main priority of the new city team de la ville incarnated by Bill de Blasio – in :
– making easier to all the access (bus, train, ferryboat) to the heart of the working and living Midtown Manhattan, especially from affordable residential areas (NJ, Queens, Upstate NY…) but also complementing the existing metro and bus networks (line 7)
This will happen in 3 phases : the first, high priority and intensity link (bus to train), the second, rivers banns reconquest link (river to river) and the prefiguration of a Manhattan light rail network (34th loop).
– implicating the local communities in the public realm planning
– giving birth to an urban square in front of the United Nations to express ideas and to get involved into the world transformation.
An environmental mutation – the success the People’s Climate Walk encountered in NYC (21 September) confirms we ought to proceed on an iconic site ! – in :
– creating a bike lane «river to river» with priority on the avenues intersections connected to the existing network
– the Bryant park amplification for a much intense open public realm and green heart on the 42nd St
– bind the green networks : Hudson park network linking the High Line to Hell’ kitchen and l’Eastern park network joining Saint Vartan’s park from the Ford foundation winter garden
– winning back the Hudson river and the East river banks in creating the East River promenade (transformation of the highway shoulder into a belvedere and a pedestrian/cyclist connection) and the Hudson River Piers (docks and barges mutation into recreation centers)
An economical mutation – stake to involve local and international investors- par :
– going beyond public limits and considering public buildings, landmarks, courtyards, theatre, commercial spaces on each sides like being part of the project strategic boundary
– thinking with the new local economy and new pedestrian/cyclists use. These new businesses (new retail stand) are implemented in the line of the light rail platforms to place the infrastructure at the heart of the urban renewal, of the uses (terraces, open air activities, sports, flower markets, tourism services, box office, street food festivals) : the stations become super-actives and echo their neighborhood.
– the economical enforcement of the activity giving the access to limos during great events or to hotels shuttles (between 5th and 3rd avenue) a
– aloud under conditions «up-zoning» schemes to negociate the involvment of landlord in the planning
– attract investors and slick urban projets

Mathieu Delorme
Aurelien Delchet
Yvan Okotnikoff
Thibault Barbier
Hugo Bruley
Valérie Tasseel
Arthur Poiret