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May 24, 2011
Is a planted Atlantic Avenue median the latest design casualty at Atlantic Yards?
Atlantic Yards Watch
When asked about plantings on the raised median planned for Atlantic Avenue east of Flatbush, Forest City Ratner project manager Jane Marshall stated there would only be a poured concrete median. Ms. Marshall said that the existence of LIRR tracks beneath Atlantic Avenue made it impossible to include planting beds on the median. Councilmember Tish James pointed out that Park Avenue in Manahattan has railroad tracks running beneath it from Grand Central to north of 96th Street. Ms. Marshall quickly replied that the supports beneath Park Avenue were stronger.
A planted median certainly seemed possible at the time the EIS was issued. A rendering of Atlantic Avenue looking west from Sixth Avenue shows a row of shrubs and trees separating lanes of traffic on Atlantic Avenue. And an aerial landscape plan also shows trees on the median between Flatbush and Sixth.
Related coverage...
Atlantic Yards Report, What happened to trees on the Atlantic Avenue median opposite the arena? They were in the FEIS visuals but not in the text
Then again, as Atlantic Yards Watch, via Gib Veconi, points out, landscape architect Laurie Olin, whose firm produced the renderings, left the project more than two years ago.
And it may be that no one expected Olin's designs to be more than "conceptual."
After all, I'd add, there seems to be a discrepancy between the visuals attached to the Final EIS and the text, which, in Chapter 12, Traffic & Parking, mentions a median but not plantings.
Posted by eric at May 24, 2011 11:50 AM