Thursday, August 20, 2015

Pedestrian Bridge From Roosevelt Island To Long Island City Proposed For New Mulit Million Square Foot Queens Waterfront Project

The Twitterverse reports today

According to Politico NY:
... The bridge is envisioned as something akin to the High Line — a path for pedestrians and cyclists with views of Manhattan's skyline and space to sit and unwind. On the Roosevelt Island side it would land near the site of Cornell Tech, the applied sciences school that will dominate the south end of the island.

"Part of the presentation includes renderings for an iconic bridge that connects the new, under-development campus on Roosevelt Island to Queens, which would hopefully attract more economic activity," one source said.

"We are intrigued by the idea of connecting the campus and Roosevelt Island to Queens," said Meghan French, a spokeswoman for Cornell Tech. "It's exciting that the campus is sparking ideas like this. We expect to be an active player in Queens economic development and look forward to learning more and discussing the proposal with other stakeholders."...
Google Maps Image Of Site For Proposed Development Including Pedestrian Bridge To Roosevelt Island

Politico NY adds that the Queens site is located at Vernon B'lvd and 44th drive just north of the Queensboro Bridge.



It appears that the Roosevelt Island site for the pedestrian bridge would have to be in Southpoint Park,
 

controlled by the Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) and, ultimately the Governor of NY State.

Do you remember the proposed Trilogy skyscraper project,



lovingly referred to as the Roosevelt Island Tower of Death by Curbed, that was developed by Italian architectural students in 2007. Though only an academic study, it included a pedestrian bridge from Southpoint Park over the East River to Manhattan.

Also, the Hunter College Access RI project included a pedestrian bridge to Manhattan too.

UPDATE 2 PM - Of course, the Roosevelt Island Bridge

Image From Wikipedia

already connects to Long Island City at 36th Avenue and has a pedestrian pathway.

UPDATE 2:45 PM - According to a RIOC Spokesperson:
... the pedestrian bridge connecting Roosevelt Island to Long Island City described in article has not been vetted or even proposed to RIOC.
UPDATE 5:45 PM - According to The Real Deal:
A team of investors led by Bruce Teitelbaum, the former chief of staff to ex-Mayor Rudy Giuliani, is pitching an ambitious mixed-use project based around 44-02 Vernon Boulevard in Long Island City....
Politico NY adds:
... In his pitches, Teitelbaum has relied on the appeal of connecting the increasingly popular waterfront area of Queens to the new graduate school, the sources said....
Mr. Teitelbaum is the husband of NYC Super Lobbyist Suri Kasirer whose Kasirer Consulting represents Cornell Tech. The Roosevelt Island Cornell Tech graduate school engineering campus, scheduled to open in 2017, is directly across the East River from Mr. Teitlelbam's proposed Long Island City development project and adjacent to Southpoint Park.

UPDATE 8/21 -  Alicia Glen, NYC deputy mayor for housing and economic development,  discussed the project in an interview with Politico NY yesterday:
... "It is a very ambitious, aggressive plan," she said. "There's some interesting ideas contained in it. We said we would like to continue to work with them to shape the idea. As presented to us, we thought the scale was a little large even by our standards, and you know we're known to be pro density and pro height.

"We thought it was a little out of scale," she said.

Glen said the city is also unsure to whom it would sell the lot on which the D.O.E. building sits.

"There's so many moving pieces in that transaction they're a long way from it coming together," she said....
Click here for the full Politico NY article.

By ROOSEVELT ISLANDER at 12:38:00 PM

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