South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, one of the Sunset Park project’s brownfield sites

I’ve been working on another project with WXY Architecture + Urban Design, the same firm with whom I’m working on The East River Blueway Plan.

This one is for their brownfields project in Sunset Park. (Brownfields are industrial sites that can be re-used for non-industrial purposes.) I shot footage of their community board meeting in May, where we visited sites on a bus tour and then later shared ideas together.

Later, WXY asked me to put together a short video on the meeting for UPROSE (United Puerto Ricans’ Organization of Sunset Park, a Southwest Brooklyn-based community organization we’re collaborating with). I refined the video thanks to input from UPROSE’s Sabrina Terry and Moe Awawdeh. The video was shown during WXY’s presentation on the Jun. 13 meeting.

Check it out!

Thanks to Shachi Pandey from WXY for giving me the opportunity to assist with this project!

Today, through Facebook, I found a post about the Blueway Plan on Urban Omnibus, a site dedicated to starting conversations about design within New York City today. They used my video of Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer to accompany it! Check it out!

While on the site yesterday, I found out that a couple of articles were recently published about the initiative, and my videos were used!

Here they are:

“Blueways Are The New Greenways in New York,” “Curbed NY” March 22, 2012.

“Surfs Up on the East River: Pols and Planners Team Up to Create East River Blueway,” “The New York Observer” March 27, 2012. Writer Michael Ewing termed my video “nifty.”

Continue to check the Blueway site for more content!

While everyone has been focusing on the transformation of the old industrial waterfront into a new public park, less has been done with what is going on beyond it. Curbed turned up this nifty video for an in-the-works plan called the East River Blueway.

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and the Office of New York State Assemblymember Brian Kavanagh teamed up with a few others and brought in WXY Architecture + Urban Design to develop a community-based waterfront planning initiative.

The project will span from the Brooklyn Bridge to East 38th Street and will combine recreational facilities with surrounding neighborhoods, according to the organization:

The East River Blueway Plan will be the foundation for an interconnected network of waterfront sites. This network will integrate recreational activities and connect neighborhoods to the waterfront. Our work will include visioning; feasibility of locating on-water sites; design and costs; and implementation and campaign strategies for the East River Blueway.

The organization also launched an interactive map in which community members can markers with short blurbs about the conditions along the riverside. Some comments include: “Wow. This is nice.” “Poor lighting.” “Bicyclists get splashed off of FDR when there are puddles.”

Out with the green and in with the blue!

mewing@observer.com

The Plan, run by the Manhattan Borough President’s Office and WXY Architecture + Urban Design, aims to rehabilitate the East River Waterfront in terms of community access.

A few videos are up right now, and more video content will be rotated in on a regular basis.

Links to my work (thus far) are below. Enjoy!

All footage was shot using a JVC HM100U camera.

Introduction of the East River Blueway [Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer]

First Impressions of the East River

Changed Impressions of the East River

Future Evolution of the East River

Urban Design for the East River

Community Engagement with East River Residents