A Daily Dose of Architecture: Enclosing the BQE

Description

Robert Moses's Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (BQE) did not meet the fate of his proposed roadway bisecting Washington Square Park and the Lower Manhattan Expressway, two well-known failures in the Power Broker's dreams for New York City IN the Automobile Age. The BQE hints at the destruction that would have befallen parts of SoHo and the Lower East Side, but it also illustrates some creative civil engineering and urban design where it passes under Brooklyn Heights, specifically the promenade that offers amazing views of Manhattan.

This stretch of the BQE is mildly perceptible from the promenade above, but the noise of the three tiered levels of traffic makes an obvious impact on the plans of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Plan to the west, where pollution and views are also concerns. To address these, the plan by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates incorporates a sizable berm to reduce the impact of the BQE on visitors to the waterfront and its "lawns, recreation, beaches, coves, restored habitats, playgrounds and beautifully landscaped areas."

As an architectural alternative to the landscaped berm, Daniel Rattner from the Studio for Civil Architecture, along with Hage Engineering PC, is proposing the Brooklyn Bridge Connector, a structure of steel arches spanning the different levels with coverings of translucent sound baffling acoustical shells and photovoltaic fabric.

Original URL

http://archidose.blogspot.com/2009/04/enclosing-bqe.html

http://archidose.blogspot.com/2009/04/enclosing-bqe.html