Although New York City Parks Commissioner Robert Moses and the City of New York initially commissioned this landfill as a temporary solution to the sudden influx of population and waste in New York City to be utilized for three years, it was used as a dumping ground for over fifty years. It was first extended by eight years, and then fifteen. After that, city officials refused to give a date on when they would close the landfill.
Prior to this conversion, the land was originally a rural agricultural setting. Much of this expanse of land was a salt marsh, where the subsoil was comprised of clay and the topsoil consisted of silt and sand. Other areas included tidal wetlands, forests and freshwater wetlands. As you can see from the map above, Fresh Kills has become primarily used for industry and manufacturing while much of the area around it has become residential with very few commercial or public facility areas other than the Staten Island Mall and the College of Staten Island, respectively.
Abby Halperin of the Fresh Kills NYC Conservation Corps provides more information about the landfill and current land use of Fresh Kills Park.
1) Landfill Interview with Abby: Why Fresh Kills became a landfill? What came out of it?
The future Fresh Kills Park will encompass the entirety of the land that was previously a landfill and is supposed to be self-sustaining. At 2,200 acres, this park will be three times the size of Central Park. This project began in 2008 and is expected to proceed for the next thirty years in three phases, with each phase encompassing about a decade.
The park will be divided into five smaller parks; the Confluence, the North Park, the South Park, the West Park and the East Park. Planned recreational sites at the future Fresh Kills Park include biking trails, cross country skiing, horseback riding, sports fields, and many more.
The Confluence is the middle core of the park at the confluence of Richmond Creek and Main Creek. This area includes Creek Landing and The Point. Creek Landing will be designed for waterfront activities such as an esplanade, canoe and boat launch, restaurants, a visitor center, and a large event lawn for various activities. This area will also include parking space and will be the central point of arrival and departure for visitors. Meanwhile, The Point will be designed for sports fields, event spaces, lawns, artwork, educational programming, and fine dining. In addition to the recreational facilities, this area will also feature old machinery, artifacts, and barges from Fresh Kills Landfill that will become outdoor sculptural pieces and floating gardens.
North Park will contain simple, vast natural settings such as meadows, wetlands, and creeks. Bordering the Travis neighborhood, this area will feature paths and trails for anything from walking to skating.
South Park will also contain vast natural settings but with recreational spaces such as soccer fields and equestrian facility as well. Bordering the Arden Heights neighborhood, this area will feature picnic areas, fields, and trails.
East Park will contain recreational areas for golf, archery, frisbee, and picnicking. Bordering Richmond Avenue and the New Springville neighborhood to the east, this area will become a nature education area with specially designed wetlands, boardwalks, exhibits, and public art installations.
West Park will contain an enormous earthwork monument that will be on top of the site’s largest mound in remembrance of the September 11th recovery effort here and the use of Fresh Kills landfill as a sorting ground. The earthwork would be open to the sky and offer a 360-degree views of the region. This park will border the West Shore Expressway to the east and the Arthur Kill to the west.
In 2001, the Department of City Planning and the New York Department of State’s Division of Coastal Resources created a master plan for Fresh Kills Park called the Draft Master Plan. In 2006, NYC Parks took on the responsibility to implement the plan onto the project in Fresh Kills. The plan focuses on integrating three separate system – programming (recreational activities), wildlife, and circulation.
2) Land Use Interview with Abby
The transformation of what was once the world’s largest landfill into an environmentally friendly park symbolizes the possibility of environmental renewal and how our society can restore balance to its landscape. In addition to providing a variety of recreational opportunities that are unimaginable in the city, the park’s ecological restoration and cultural and educational programming will help emphasize the importance of our environment. There will be diverse habitats for wildlife, birds, and plant communities made possible by ecological innovation and creative design.
Field Operations, a landscape architecture firm, was selected in June of 2003 to become the design and planning consultant for this project after winning the International Design Competition for Fresh Kills Park. Below is a picture of their submission.
For further information on the Fresh Kills Park, please refer to the following link.
Although the Fresh Kills landfill was officially closed on March 22nd, 2001, it was still used as a sorting ground for around one-third of the rubble from Ground Zero. Over 1.8 million tons of debris from the September 11th attacks was sifted through over the course of 1.7 million hours. Thousands of forensic evidence specialists, detectives and agents worked countless hours around the clock in an effort to help identify the human remains in the rubble.
For further information regarding this project, please refer to the following link.
9/11 Memorial
Despite the request and proposal from some families to remove the WTC materials from Fresh Kills, The City of New York decided to leave it undisturbed due to the exhaustive recovery efforts that previously took place here, the difficulty of removing such high quantity of material, and the difficulty of finding an alternative receiving site. The City received different views from members of the WTC Families for Proper Burial who supported this proposal compared to other families who lost loved ones on September 11th. Therefore, the City has taken the stance to leave the material undisturbed.
A total of 1.2 million tons of material came from the WTC site to Fresh Kills and it took 10 months of recovery effort by rescue workers to carefully screen and investigate all of it. All discernable remains were sent to the New York City Medical Examiners office for identification and safekeeping. There were a total of almost 20,000 found remains with more than half of them matched. After all investigations were completed, the WTC materials were placed in a 48 acre area adjacent to the recovery site on the West Mound at Fresh Kills. The mound was covered over with soil at least a foot deep before the placement of the materials and was covered with another layer of clean soil afterwards to protect the site and control erosion.
Because of the city’s decision to leave the WTC materials at the West Mound, the city is accepting preliminary designs for a monument nearby. According to the Fresh Kills Master Plan, the proposed design for West Park will contain an enormous earthwork monument mirroring the forms of the Twin Towers on top of the site’s largest mound with an expansive wildflower meadow outside the WTC materials area.This monument will be designed in remembrance of the September 11th recovery effort here and the use of Fresh Kills landfill as a sorting ground. The earthwork would be open to the sky and offer a 360-degree views of the region. The final plan for the monument is still under development as part of the larger master planning process and the city is open to speaking with anyone interested about this plan.
Citations:
Haplerin, Abby. Personal Interviews. 23 March 2014.
“Time Gone by.” Freshkills Park Blog. New York Department of State, 25 Mar. 2010. Web. 16 May 2014.
“Freshkills Park : NYC Parks.” Freshkills Park : NYC Parks. City of New York. Web. 16 May Recovery: The World Trade Center Operation at Fresh Kills. New York City: The New York State Museum. PDF.
<http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/exhibits/longterm/documents/recovery.pdf> Fresh Kills: LandfillToLandscape. New York City: Nyc.gov, 2001. PDF
<http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/pdf/fkl/about_fkl.pdf> Randall, Judy L. “Photos: NYC Sifts for 9/11 Remains at Staten Island’s Former Fresh Kills Landfill.” SILive.com. Advance Digital, 1 Apr. 2013. Web. 16 May 2014.
The Fresh Kills Park Alliance. “The Park Plan.” Freshkills Park. The Fresh Kills Park Alliance. Web. 18 May 2014.
