Category: Students

Posts written by students

The “Nature” of the Newtown Creek Watershed

The Newtown Creek Sewer Shed is known for the pollution that reigns supreme over the creek and prevents people from wanting to confront how humans have allowed for conditions to become so horrible. The city created the Newtown Creek Nature Walk, using the portion of the money given by the Department of Environmental Protection left for artwork after the creation of the treatment plant (Ruen). The Newtown Creek Nature Walk, through the irony of its own existence, presents humans’ mistakes and misjudgments regarding the treatment of the environment.

With a “brutalist” concrete pathway, the “nature” we see is that of the wastewater pools, a sewage treatment plant, and the large metallic buildings of our post-industrialist era, instead of pretty green forests and butterflies we would normally expect from a nature walk (Ruen). The water of creek is murky with visible rainbow swirls of oil when the sun is out. Grass is nonexistent; the only thing you can see is large slabs of concrete and gravel. This nature walk puts all of the effects we have had on our Earth on display for people to be confronted by the byproducts of careless industrialization that did not take into account the importance of the environment.

It inadvertently provides support for the idea of sustainability, in which the environment, society, and the economy, along with technology, work together to both help the earth and improve the well-being of humans. Maybe if we utilize the environment properly, the Newtown Creek Nature Walk can actually show nature as we would expect it to be.

Battery Park City Adventure

 

How could the engineering of these systems fit into the cities integrated water management plans? What about for your assigned sewershed?

The cities integrated water management plans, including our chosen location of Chinatown which is affected by the Lower Manhattan Newton Creek sewer shed, could greatly benefit from the engineering of the Solaire systems. We could make promoting green infrastructure more alluring if it came with sustainable water systems that reclaim black and grey water which would allow for reusing water and the added benefit of not needing to use fertilizer, just like the open grounds around the Solaire. Taking care of our parks will be crucial as storm surges intensify, and parks such as the one between the Solaire and the waterfront can be focused on to instill systems for flood attenuation and stormwater management. Such systems would be beneficial in all the parks and spaces that border lower manhattan and the rising water levels surrounding the island.

How could art be used to draw attention to and educate people about the fate of city stormwater? (hint….look down as you’re walking the streets on your walk around battery park city)

Art could be used to highlight and emphasize current and future issues. The 9/11 memorial could serve both as a resting ground for our fellow Americans who’s lives were unfairly taken by the selfish act of terrorism, but also as an aesthetically pleasing corner of busy battery park city that uses sustainable water management systems to highlight water issues in the city. I am not sure why we were assigned to see the Jeff Koons Balloon Flower, but I am familiar with the artist and love his use of playful juxtaposition through his choice of taking a subject such as a balloon flower, which is light and airy, and giving it mass and density by choosing a heavy metal to make a sculpture depicting the subject, as well as a texture and shine that one would not expect from a balloon. The surrounding water fountain around the sculpture could be improved by using recaptured rain/stormwater or a sustainable water system that trapped and reused runoff water.

Feel free to check out my groups pictures of the Solaire, the park across the street, Teardrop park, the 9/11 Memorial, the Jeff Koons Balloon Flower, and our chosen location of Chinatown as the location most in need of attention related to our Lower Manhattan Newton Creek sewer shed, at this link:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/16ulR-TEeepNXSjgk6xCZzpeGE-GC1T2B?usp=sharing

 

Battery Park City + The Solaire

For the 700 residents of the Solaire, New York high-rise living is providing a green
culture that has set new standards with New York building agencies. It also shows
the importance of recommissioning to fine-tune efficiency.
Located at 20 River Terrace, The Solaire is the country’s first ever LEED-certified residential high-rise. Designed by the Albanese Corporation and completed in 2003, the building stands 27 stories high and has beautiful views overlooking Battery Park City and the Hudson River. With nearly 300 units, the building today provides an amazing opportunity to live green. The building has since earned LEED Platinum certification and continues improving to provide opportunities for their residents to be environmentally friendly!

I visited the Solaire twice, once on a tour and once because I was close by and forgot to take pictures the first time(lol)
The tour began in the building’s lobby, where I learned how The Solaire was designed with a green mission right from the beginning — which started with the building materials. All materials were imported from within a 500-mile radius in order to reduce transport waste, and after the completion the building was able to recycle 85% of the waste produced during construction.

The tour then proceeded to the basement where I was shown the wastewater system. Part of what makes The Solaire unique is that it strives to reuse and recycle wastewater. The wastewater from bathrooms and kitchens goes through a multi-stage filtration process and is cycled back into use to flush toilets and as makeup water for cooling towers. This not only allows The Solaire to use less water, but also to save and reuse about 50% of the total water it uses.

I then traveled to the building’s green roof, where solar panels help to produce about 5% of the energy used throughout the building. In addition, scattered among the planted grass surface are rainwater collection holes, where storm water drains down to a container in the basement to be cleaned, sanitized, and reused. I found it incredible how all the roof’s features were so carefully conceived and designed to add yet another sustainable feature to the building. The view wasn’t too bad, either.

Finally, I explored two of The Solaire’s units where a number of features contribute to helping residents be green. Low-E glass in the units acts to reflect rather than absorb sunlight, in turn helping with insulation and lowering heating and cooling costs. All the faucets installed also work to help save water, lowering the overall usage of the building. Another perk of Solaire living is that building management provides residents with eco-friendly cleaning supplies as well as access to an environmentally-friendly laundromat, helping them be green even at the most basic level.

Suffice it to say, green living is the name of the game at The Solaire, and it served to impress BPC’s commitment to environmental sustainability.

Battery Park City

Battery Park City is located in west side of the southern tip of Manhattan. Home to the Solaire. This park has become an iconic spot for innovative technics in sustainability. Along with its impressive architecture it houses residents and a waste treatment room. This waste treatment room is essential to the area because it helps treat rainwater. This treated rainwater is then used for residential toilets and more. Moreover, the Solaire as a green rooftop. This rooftop allows for the collection of rainwater which is drained into the treatment plant. Not only is this sustainable, but it also reduces costs because it is naturally collected through the drains.

The treatment pumps we see in the Solaire are part of a sustainable plan that other cities should be following. the Solaire should serve as an example. Small changes in green infrastructure like the rooftop water drains can make a huge impact on a cities water supply. To add, not only does this help with water supply it reduces water pollution and biodiversity.

Overall, this trip to the Solaire was fundamental in learning about sustainability. It showed sustainability in the works and therefore, turned an “abstract idea” into reality. I wasn’t sure what to expect when i visited Battery Park City, but what i saw was definitely not what i imagine. Instead of being dirty or smelly like you’d assume a water-treatment building to be it was extremely clean and beautiful.  Lastly, the Solaire makes the idea of future cities being more sustainable more possible. I can definitely see other cities adapting these technics and i hope they do.

My Experience at Battery Park City

First an expectation, and then a feeling.

When we were told to go to Battery Park City I honestly didn’t know what to expect. The area would probably smell. The plant life must be drab. There probably won’t be anyone there; who would want to frolic in toilet contaminates? Sure, it’s a nice experiment on paper and looks great in promotional videos, but surely it isn’t like that in real life. I was wrong on all accounts.

Upon arriving I was met with a clean park system encompassing apartment complexes. I had the sense that, at some point, I had stepped out of New York and into some sort of hybrid society. Walking on the bright green grass, along the water side, I took in deep breaths of the salty ocean air. I watched as children played, couples lounged, and athletes biked or ran, all throughout the park.

As I sat down by a water feature with ducks and coy fish, the picture of which is in my tweet, I was hit with that aforementioned feeling. It is a little hard to explain, as feelings usually are, but if I had to describe it I would say it was a mix of feeling shameful and hopeful at the same time. I felt the shame for being part of a society that could be so wasteful when such efficient, and beautiful, systems had been invented and have already been proven to be effective. However, somewhat paradoxical, I felt hopeful for being a part of that same society, for only through its inventions did such a system come to be, and only through its progression will such systems advance across the globe until we are truly living symbiotically with nature.

Battery Park City (Home of the Solaire)

Located in Battery Park City, the Solaire is a premier example of urban sustainability in practice. Built in 2003, the Solaire actively strives to limit the amount of water used (and potentially wasted) by the residents in the building. Through a highly efficient filtration system located in the basement, wastewater from bathrooms and kitchens is cleaned and recycled, then later used for various purposes like flushing toilets. But the sustainable framework of the Solaire extends beyond the water treatment process. The landscaped roof terrace at the top of the building has been the site of major green infrastructural practices. The specialized roof allows the building to not only collect rainwater (to be filtered through the system), but also harvest the sun’s energy through solar panels. Many of the sustainable features of the Solaire can be adopted by other buildings on a micro-level, and whole cities on a macro-level. Although the residential costs of living in the Solaire are still fairly high, this seemingly futuristic building proves that urban sustainability is quite achievable and beneficial.

 

Sustainability in Action!

The difference between sitting in class and learning about how to improve the environment and then actually seeing what it looks like applied in real life truly makes a difference.

Going to see the Solaire building, where green infrastructure and water sustainability is in effect made me realize that it really is possible to create buildings in which water can be reused rather than thoughtlessly wasted. I guess before this it was more of a theory and an idea rather than an actual reality. Not to sound like a skeptical but it honestly seemed more of an ideal than something that really worked but seeing it and how it worked has given me hope for a brighter future for New York City. The only issue now is to raise the awareness and try and show the public why they should care or make efforts to hopefully work towards a New York City where all building are modeled as the Solaire are.

There are a couple problems that arise, though they come along with solutions as well. The cost, of course of erecting buildings that take the designs necessary to make more sustainable buildings possible is a huge factor, however, if it becomes a city project then it can be the city’s goal to build or reform at least 10 current buildings each year until essentially the entire city is considerably more sustainable. Another issue that comes to mind is the malfunctions that can go wrong considering all the systems that are in place to keep the Solaire operational. To rectify that, there would be a staff always available to regulate and check on the inner workings – thus a surplus of jobs that can be open to the public after certain courses in learning how to manage the technology in use.

After seeing this, I actually feel as though a more sustainable future is just beyond the horizon.

 

Newtown Creek Sewershed

 

While doing the sewer-shed project i learned that most NYC sewer-sheds are moving towards sustainablility. Newtown Creek sewer-shed is a priority watershed for DEP’s Green Infrastructure Program. According to the program, DEP has installed, or plans to install, approximately 1,300 GI assets. these assets include right-of-way practices, public property retrofits, and GI implementation on private properties (nyc.gov).

With these new implementations, annual CSO levels are projected to reduce by 83 million gallons. With this we can see that other sewer-sheds should follow the same plan. By reducing CSO levels water quality and bio diversity increases.

Battery Park Teaches Sustainability

My trip to Battery Park City was a wonderful experience, and gave me more hope that a sustainable future is possible. Although I have lived in the city since I was 5 years old, I never truly had a chance to take in the beauty of Battery Park City. In addition, I had no idea that the area was known for using water in a way that models sustainability. I met up with Maryia and we embarked on a journey of discovering water it meant to use water wisely.

My first stop was the 9/11 Memorial. Going at night and looking at the street lights bringing the infrastructure to life made it look all the more beautiful. Not only was I touched at what the memorial stood for, but I was impressed with how the water used in the fountains is not wasted. I read that 16 pumps circulate 480,000 thousand gallons of recycled water. The Memorial pools are the largest man-made waterfalls in the country, pumping 52,000 gallons of recycled water per minute. The way the fountains use water conservatively made me believe that it would be possible to use recycled water in our everyday water systems as well.

Next, we visited the Jeff Koons Balloon flower. Not only did this fountain have an appealing, artistic look, but is a homage to 9/11 survivors. Fountains and other structures like these can collect runoff and use grey water and rainwater to create art. Art in general can definitely help educate people on the fate of city stormwater, as it grabs people’s attention and allows them to see there are solutions to the problems.

Last, we visited the Solaire Building and Tear Drop Park. It was so interesting to see the building in-person after watching the detailed video on it during class. All the water used in the building is irrigated with reclaimed black and gray water. This is true even for the public bathrooms in the park. The building reduced water consumption by 50% compared to other building similar to it. The membrane bioreactor-based wastewater treatment and recycling system installed in the building’s basement is what makes all of this possible. Having a building and park that is sustainable on its own made me realize that every building can and should implement changes that reduce water consumption.

These structures in our own city can be a model for how sewer systems operate. Residents have been shown that it is possible to use water conservatively and make a sustainable world. This knowledge can also be implemented into our sewer sheds and fix the problem with flooding and CSOs too. My sewer shed, Coney Island, is one of the dirty dozens and is in great need of change. Having systems that filter our water and collect runoff will greatly reduce the negative impacts of CSOs. We can only hope that the increase in green infrastructure will occur sooner than later. Overall, this trip to Battery Park City was a wonderful learning experience that I am thankful I got to have.

Solaire? So there!

When I (sluggishly) got out of bed yesterday morning I was overcome with a feeling of dread at the prospect of making the trek out to the city. I first had to meet up with Priyanka, Gabe

 and Daisy – we had to film for our Redhook project, then the girls and I hopped onto the train to Battery Park City, fully expecting to just take a few blurry photos and head back home. But upon seeing the Solaire building, Priyanka informed Daisy and I in a very determined voice, that we would be making out way to the top of the building.

I doubted they would let us in, there were three (intimidating) doormen chatting with each other at the front desk, and going through the revolving doors just added to my nervousness and expectation of rejection. Yet Priyanka confidently strode in, mentioned we were Brooklyn College students studying sustainability , name dropped Alex’s name and suddenly we were in a narrow hallway being let into rooms with pipes snaking the walls, loud banging noises and strange odors. Our tour guide, Artur explained to us what made this building work – pressure systems that allowed for water to be cooled at 45 degrees Fahrenheit, black water and grey water systems, their filtration systems (complete with UV rays to kill bacteria).

Then we piled into an elevator that took us to the rooftop with such speed our ears popped several times. Then we were on the roof.

The view was absolutely breathtaking. We had arrived just in time to see the sunset, and as Artur was describing how he collected water every morning to make sure there were no leaks in the building, how the green roof collected rain water and helped stop the streets from flooding, I couldn’t stop myself from looking out at the

river, looking down at the roofs of other buildings (we were on the 30th floor), at the stunning and picturesque city life.

 

I never expected this trip to be so informative or fun. Shoutout to Priyanka and Daisy for making everything great.