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ages of the elevated train structures that dominate the site.3 Designer Sandro Marpillero claims that the design attempts a take on sustainability that is based on an alternative to traditional historic preservation: “I think our attitude about recycling or salvage is much more about being able to see how existing pieces of our cities, of our buildings, can perform in relationship to new operational challenges. It’s not so much a matter of preserving and invoking the past as model, as of reframing the role that existing sites and buildings and infrastructures can have.”(“Urban Omnibus - Queens Plaza”)
figure 8.
proposed Blue Thread and bike lanes that overlap it www.urbanomnibus.com
The designers have proposed to introduce a stormwater treatment system they dub the “Blue Thread”, which runs from the plaza to the waterfront. The stormwater system is composed of a series of narrow vegetated “slivers” which filter and channel stormwater from the subway stations and the Queensboro Bridge. The “Blue Thread” supports a bike and pedestrian lane, and the vegetation serves to also buffer people from the noise and pollution of nearby auto traffic (figure 8). However, protection from infrastructure was not seen as a goal of the design, but rather one approach in a set of complementary strategies. At times the designers aimed to balance exposure to heighten the appreciation of the infrastructure itself (figure 9). For example, voids in the train trestle were highlighted with mesh screens and light, allowing the structure to become an “urban canopy” and a place, an action designed to allow “the imminent arrival of a train (to) become an event (and)…part of public space, not a noisome distraction from it.” (“Urban Omnibus - Queens Plaza”) The designers strove to create a design that could help create awareness “about the immense resource that a piece of infrastructure can be.” (“Urban Omnibus - Queens Plaza”) At the time of this writing, construction work on Queens Plaza is in its initial stages. It remains to be seen if the project will suffer the same criticism that has faced Trinitat, particularly in the balance the designers sought between exposure to and protection from the gritty, noisy qualities of the site. The
figure 9.
screening and exposing at once www.wrtdesign.com
3 The RFP was put out in 2002, and my guess that this balance of graphic and design strategies would be much different today.