Saturday, June 29, 2013
Does Santa Claus still Live in Chelsea?
So I'm walking down 24th Street to see how the Citybench in front of the Hampton's Inn is doing. The bench is fine but the garden is now covered by a sidewalk shed. Then I walk down the street as I pass Zen Bicycles I am looking at a Tandem bike with a green sign, $2200, reduced to $800. Then Macky, one of the stores salespeople comes out to take the bike inside the store, as he takes the bike in I hear an amazing story.
Guy comes into the store to buy a tandem bicycle, but it's not for himself, it's to be an anonymous gift to a couple in East Harlem, one of whom is blind. Seems someone stole their tandem bike.
I'm not sure if Santa still lives in Chelsea but if he doesn't he sure as heck comes to visit from time to time.
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — An Upper East Side couple was stunned to find that a tandem bike that they rely on for transportation was stolen. The bare stoop outside of their East Harlem apartment is now a painful reminder of the crime perpetrated by a heartless thief.
“It was like being kicked in the stomach,” Alexandra Catherine told CBS 2′s Don Champion on Thursday.
Catherine said she stepped outside on Wednesday morning to find that her cherished tandem bike had been stolen.
“It’s like you built something so beautiful and someone comes along and smashes it to pieces,” she said.
It wasn’t the two seater’s charm or it’s green color that made the bike so important; instead it was the experience of riding the bike with her blind husband that Catherine loved so much.
Charles Catherine has been dealing with a serious eye disease for his entire life. Two years ago, shortly after marrying Alexandra, his condition worsened.
Riding the tandem bike in Central Park gave the couple hope. read more
Friday, June 28, 2013
Muhlenberg Library offers More seating to Patrons
Looking at this map, it 's easy to see why, most of the libraries in the middle of Manhattan are on the east side.
Also 2 book retailer superstores, which acted as defacto reading rooms (the barnes and Nonel on 6th @21st, and the Borders at 7th and 33rd) recently closed down. So the Muhlenberg branch with its very limited adult seating capacity(30 people) has to serve a rather large and increasing in size area reading population.
According to Muhlenberg head librarian Ashley Curran, library patrons brought up the need of extra seating to her and she found a solution for it by shifting and consolidating the collection so as to add room for additional seating.
Here is shown the front book stacks were taken out and replaced by 2 new tables and chairs.
and it has also created a defacto outdoor reading room for patrons.
Going from defacto to authorized: Idea 1
Most people passing the Muhlenberg Citybench think it's just for sitting. I was thinking, what about adding a sign to let people know that the bench is also meant for reading and wi-fi access. This will
increase its use as an outdoor reading room. If the city will allow the placing of a sign(below) on the bench, or the library outer wall, it will make more obvious that this spot can be used as an outdoors reading room |
Proposed Muhlenberg Public Library Graphic |
Update: Due to impending construction under the vault in front of the Muhlenberg, the bench has been temporarily removed
Going from defacto to authorized: Idea 2
Currently you have to check your reading material out from the library before you can read it outside or bring your own reading material to the "reading room". More reading convenience may be possible by following the example of some other institutions...Here's a Reading cafe from a library in Australia, the book cart is very moveable.
There's a small cart with an eclectic collection of books for sale outdoors at Chelsea's Revolutionary Books, and a bench is also in front of the store .
And here's the Bryant Park Outdoor Reading Room with moveable racks offering books, magazines and newspapers to people sitting outdoors in Bryant Park.
Stocking the Outdoor Reading Room
Take a Book Leave a Book
Take a Book Leave a Book
One thought, rather than have the proposed Muhlenberg Outdoor Reading Room being stocked exclusively by the NYPL, how about it becomes Chelsea's first community book exchange where residents can take and leave items to read?
The Little Free Libraries concept of Take a book, Leave a book with over 5000 LFL's installed worldwide show that this mode is a viable way to do this. Little free Libraries do not always come with adjacent seating, here's 2 examples that do.
a Little Free Library adjacent to a bench. |
A Little Free Library with adjacent chair seating, part of the PEN World Voices Festival in NYC, designed in conjunction The Architectural League of NY
Pickup Lockers
In addition to stocked outdoor reading rooms, adding pickup lockers to these rooms, can turn them into satellite library sites.
Pickup Lockers
In addition to stocked outdoor reading rooms, adding pickup lockers to these rooms, can turn them into satellite library sites.
Conclusions
-If we can get the NYPL to install a movable reading materials holder placed in front of the Muhlenberg, it will enhance the usefulness of Chelsea's new outdoors library reading room.
Lately, I've noticed reading has lost its gusto! As virtual realities and games becoming increasingly prevalent, reading and literacy must be redefined as a fun, engaging experience. An aesthetically pleasing, outdoor reading room can begin to accomplish that-. Books for the People
see also Outdoor Reading Rooms aka Read-Fi Hotspots
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Van Alen Parklet 30 West 23rd Street
On Sept 21, 2012 Van Alen Institute put up a parking day parklet for a day in front of their bookstore
Now in 2013 , the Van Alen Institute has proposed a seasonal parklet in front of their bookstore.
It is the NYC's s first site-specific parklet that is not in front of a restaurant.
According to their blog, the space is intended to:
We envision this installation as a neighborhood-scale public space that will:
• decrease traffic noise and speed
• offer opportunities for social interaction and individual use
• create a place for office workers to sit and eat lunch, students from the local school to gather, and offer a seat for children, the elderly, or other pedestrians
• encourage and support business activity on our block
• enhance greening on the block
• increase activity and visual interest for pedestrians
Why is Van Alen a great steward for a Street Seat? Van Alen’s mission and connection to design communities, as well as the general public on a local, national, and international scale, makes us an ideal partner for a DOT Street Seat. Our mission is to catalyze design innovation in the public realm, and a Street Seat offers a platform to extend the work we do to enhance our local community.
In addition, we hope to advance the Street Seat program by partnering with DOT to use our installation as a prototype to help pioneer innovative strategies for engaging the public, while reducing operating expenses and simplifying installation for future Street Seat sponsors—and elevate the profile of this exciting city initiative. link
An article in Landscape Architects Magazine said this about parklets...
Some city planners would like to use parklets more assertively. “So far each one has been something in and of itself, but we’re beginning to think about their potential as tools for larger change,” says David Alumbaugh, who directs the department’s City Design Group, which includes the parklets team. He contemplates using a series of parklets as a way to pull people into neighborhoods that otherwise might be avoided by outsiders, or concentrating them in such a way as to form a sort of traffic-calming system: “There might be ways to tie several of these spaces together…. A few years ago, any proposal to do something in the street was met with such resistance. Now that they’re popular, it’s ‘Why not do more?’” link
We're all for tying these spaces together. Along with the recent installation of 10 Citibenches in Midtown South (white dots below) installing more parklets like the Van Alen Parklet (red pin below) are a key element in our plan for the creation of an Age-Friendly Midtown South. that offers area seniors a place to sit outdoors within a 3 minute walk of anywhere they are in the area.
Update:
On July 11, 2013 the parklet was approved by Community Board 5
Adding adult areas to Children Only Playgrounds
I have talked to adults who unaccompanied by a child have been asked to leave NYC playgrounds. One way to solve this problem is to add adult areas in playgrounds, but this will take away space from the children's playground. Another is to add adult areas on the outside of existing playgrounds.
Adding seating outside of our larger parks is already don, here's a view of this at Central Park
By the addition of seating and plantings the sidewalk was activated and transformed into a sidewalk park.
By doing a similar transformation to NYC playgrounds, it can resolve the issue stated at the beginning of this post.
Additionally the parks dept can create street paklets with active recreation for adults in place of parking in front of playgrounds.
Adding seating outside of our larger parks is already don, here's a view of this at Central Park
By the addition of seating and plantings the sidewalk was activated and transformed into a sidewalk park.
By doing a similar transformation to NYC playgrounds, it can resolve the issue stated at the beginning of this post.
Additionally the parks dept can create street paklets with active recreation for adults in place of parking in front of playgrounds.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)