Add To Collection
Add to Collection
Bush Terminal Comfort Station
Bush Terminal Comfort Station
This Environmental Learning Center is part of the second phase of an EDC/Parks Department-sponsored project, including the reclamation of a series of abandoned piers at Bush Terminal in Brooklyn. Once an active port facility, in recent decades the piers have become saturated with toxic wastes including oils, oil sludges, and wastewater. In 2006, the State of New York awarded the largest brownfield conversion grant in history ($17.8 billion) to clean up the site.
It was the hope of both New York City Mayor, Mike Bloomberg, and then Governor George Pataki, that the brownfield would be transformed into a park and recreation area with two distinct purposes. The first was to provide communal outdoor space for the surrounding Sunset Park neighborhood, including much needed sports fields.
Second, the park was to function as a nature reserve by re-establishing the historic wetlands that for millennia were part of the Hudson River estuary prior to the rapid industrialization of Brooklyn in the 19th Century. This would create a resource not only for the local community, but for all New Yorkers to learn about the city?s ecological history and its extraordinary context within a natural harbor poised at the junction between the mouth of a major river and the Atlantic Ocean. The Environmental Center, designed by Turett, would be the centerpiece of the reserve, where visitors would study the site?s ecology and history alongside issues of broader ecological concern. Turett worked closely with Donna Walcavage, now of EDAW, to find the ideal site for the center. Perched at the edge of an existing pier, the building acts as a gateway straddling the border between the playing fields and the reserve.
Similar to the park?s Comfort Station (another Turett design, included in the first phase of the park?s construction), the Environmental Center is composed of a series of bound and stacked shipping containers harking back to the site?s industrial past and to the adaptive reuse at the root of the park?s existence. Two containers parallel to an existing pier are nestled within a rising embankment that forms the southern edge of the nature reserve. They contain restroom facilities and create a plinth upon which three additional containers are supported, housing exhibition and classroom spaces. These upper containers cantilever out over open water and a pathway below hugging the pier?s edge, affording views of the river, the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, the reserve itself and the Manhattan skyline beyond. A living ?green roof? blankets the containers; a stair and ramp from the exhibition level to the roof allows access to community gardens and close-up views of the Center?s wind turbines.
The use of eco-friendly materials, alternative energy resources, and an emphasis on durable construction developed for the Comfort Station are equally evident at the Enviromental Center. Turett?s goal for these two buildings and in general practice is to establish a design language that speaks to the importance of adaptive reuse and renewable resources while innovating aesthetically and technically. Bush Terminal is an inspiring example of an architectural intervention which goes beyond respect for a site?s natural history to actively helping that history to start again. Design development of the Environmental center is complete as of May 2009; construction documents will commence following completion of the Comfort Station, currently scheduled for Spring 2010.
It was the hope of both New York City Mayor, Mike Bloomberg, and then Governor George Pataki, that the brownfield would be transformed into a park and recreation area with two distinct purposes. The first was to provide communal outdoor space for the surrounding Sunset Park neighborhood, including much needed sports fields.
Second, the park was to function as a nature reserve by re-establishing the historic wetlands that for millennia were part of the Hudson River estuary prior to the rapid industrialization of Brooklyn in the 19th Century. This would create a resource not only for the local community, but for all New Yorkers to learn about the city?s ecological history and its extraordinary context within a natural harbor poised at the junction between the mouth of a major river and the Atlantic Ocean. The Environmental Center, designed by Turett, would be the centerpiece of the reserve, where visitors would study the site?s ecology and history alongside issues of broader ecological concern. Turett worked closely with Donna Walcavage, now of EDAW, to find the ideal site for the center. Perched at the edge of an existing pier, the building acts as a gateway straddling the border between the playing fields and the reserve.
Similar to the park?s Comfort Station (another Turett design, included in the first phase of the park?s construction), the Environmental Center is composed of a series of bound and stacked shipping containers harking back to the site?s industrial past and to the adaptive reuse at the root of the park?s existence. Two containers parallel to an existing pier are nestled within a rising embankment that forms the southern edge of the nature reserve. They contain restroom facilities and create a plinth upon which three additional containers are supported, housing exhibition and classroom spaces. These upper containers cantilever out over open water and a pathway below hugging the pier?s edge, affording views of the river, the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, the reserve itself and the Manhattan skyline beyond. A living ?green roof? blankets the containers; a stair and ramp from the exhibition level to the roof allows access to community gardens and close-up views of the Center?s wind turbines.
The use of eco-friendly materials, alternative energy resources, and an emphasis on durable construction developed for the Comfort Station are equally evident at the Enviromental Center. Turett?s goal for these two buildings and in general practice is to establish a design language that speaks to the importance of adaptive reuse and renewable resources while innovating aesthetically and technically. Bush Terminal is an inspiring example of an architectural intervention which goes beyond respect for a site?s natural history to actively helping that history to start again. Design development of the Environmental center is complete as of May 2009; construction documents will commence following completion of the Comfort Station, currently scheduled for Spring 2010.
Product Spec Sheet
Were your products used?
Join as a manufacturer to add your products.