Parks Commissioner Mitchell J. Silver Image Credit: John McCarten

Other agencies still missing from Council’s hearing on Park’s capital process. On November 12, 2019, the City Council’s Committee on Parks, Committee on Contracts, and Subcommittee on Capital Budget held a joint oversight hearing titled “Improving the Efficiency of Parks Department Capital Projects.” The hearing was chaired respectively by Council Members Peter Koo, Ben Kallos and Vanessa L. Gibson. This hearing was held in order to create a dialogue about the state of the capital process. In Fiscal 2020, the Parks Department has 619 active capital projects and anticipates spending almost $2.7 billion. These numbers have steadily increased since Fiscal 2016.

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Historic Districts Council’s annual preservation conference celebrated City history, identified priorities, and looked forward to new battles and a new administration. The Historic Districts Council hosted its 19th Annual Preservation Conference over three days from March 1 to 3, 2013. The conference featured receptions, guest speakers, panel discussions, and walking tours. The American Institute of Architects also provided continuing education credits. New York Law School hosted the conference on Saturday, March 2nd. Participants from various fields spoke on panels regarding preservation campaigns in the public and private sector. Panelists presented individual talks on preservation issues and took questions from the audience and panel moderators. The event attracted people actively engaged in preservation advocacy and sought to strengthen connections between disparate groups pursuing a common cause. In her introduction, HDC President Francoise Bollack called the preservation of historic architecture “a collective endeavor.” Panelists and speakers repeatedly criticized the Bloomberg Administration and City Planning Commission Chair Amanda Burden for their perceived lack of consideration of preservation issues.

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New development would provide affordable housing while incorporating green design features. On October 7, 2008, the City Planning Commission unanimously approved the Dept. of Housing Preservation and Development’s plan to build a mixed-use, mixed-income development in the Melrose section of the Bronx. The proposed project, known as Via Verde/The Green Way, is a product of the New Housing New York Legacy Project competition, sponsored by HPD and the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. The competition sought to inspire new forms of sustainable design for a mixed-use, mixed-income project on the irregularly shaped, City-owned parcel at East 156th St. and Brook Avenue. The winning plan, developed by Jonathan Rose Companies, Phipps Houses Group, Grimshaw Architects, and Dattner Architects, proposed a development that would range in height from three- to 20-stories and provide approximately 220 units of affordable housing, 8,532sq.ft. of retail and community space, and 27,700sq.ft. of open space.

The proposal includes three- to four-story townhouses, a six- to 14- story mid-rise building, and a 15- to 20-story tower that would wrap around two interior courtyards and an amphitheater. In addition, a series of gardens beginning in the courtyard would spiral up the structure through a series of green roofs. The Commission noted that the proposed design was sympathetic to the broad range of surrounding uses. The low-scale section of the proposed building would avoid shading the ballfields to the south, and the taller part of the building would be of similar height to an existing 18-story residential building to the east. (read more…)