MAS and Architizer have teamed up once again to bring you Pitching the City 2015, a signature anchoring event of the New Museum’s IDEAS CITY Festival. Offering a platform for fresh urban ideas, five innovative projects, diverse in scope and scale, will be pitched to both an esteemed panel of experts, who will offer advice on how these ideas may move on to become realities, and a live audience, who will vote to determine the winner. In anticipation of the event at St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral on Friday, May 29, we are pleased to present a closer look at the five finalists.
Pitch:East River Skyway
Name: Daniel Levy, President and Founder
Need a faster commute from Brooklyn to Manhattan? Look up to the East River Skyway, a proposed high-speed aerial cable-car network that would link the Brooklyn and Queens waterfronts to Manhattan. This proposal is designed to alleviate the increased congestion along major transit routes and accommodate the rapid growth of these areas. The cross-river trip from Williamsburg to Manhattan (Delancey Street) would be about five minutes; Greenpoint to Manhattan would be an additional eight to 10 minutes, reducing the trip from Greenpoint to less than 20 minutes. Aerial cable cars can operate in any weather conditions and create no emissions or noise. Many larger cities have already adopted the transportation system or are planning similar proposals including London, Singapore, Rio, Berlin, Hong Kong, Mexico City, La Paz, and Caracas.
Architizer: What was the initial inspiration for your project?
Daniel Levy: As a regular L-train rider, seeing the growth in ridership along the line — and the persistent resulting congestion — led me to ask how our transportation infrastructure is going to keep pace with all of the new development currently in progress. The congestion problem that we want to solve is very tangible to the residents of North Brooklyn, especially those who commute to Manhattan.
Pitching the City brings together people from a range of professions and disciplines. What is your background and how has it informed your involvement with this project?
I’m an entrepreneur and, for the past many years, I’ve been involved with real estate technology companies, one of which focuses on the NYC residential market. With all of the development that is planned for Brooklyn over the next five to 10 years, it is important that new transportation alternatives are introduced. In the absence of new transportation options, the congestion on the subways will invariably get worse, making New York a less desirable place to live and work. The city’s infrastructure needs to keep pace with all of this new development; if not, the city will become a victim of its own success.
What steps have you taken toward realizing your project, and what do you anticipate will be the biggest challenge you’ll face?
To date, we have been focused mostly on outreach and initial engineering. The next big challenge will be navigating the regulatory framework; although it is complicated, I’m confident we’ll be able to get through it.
Where do you hope your project will be in 10 years?
Up and running! And I hope its success will inspire other similar projects, both here in New York and in other cities.
What do you think of your fellow Pitching the City finalists?
They all look amazing! I just wish that the Miami Underline and Melbourne Docklands projects were being done in NYC!!!
Stay tuned for all of the Pitching the City 2015 Finalist Q&As and don’t forget to RSVP to the free event in New York City on Friday, May 29!