Developing a Plan for the East River Waterfront in Midtown

Tomorrow afternoon at 2 p.m., the Municipal Arts Society is holding a meeting at Hunter College to present a brainstormed plan for making the East River waterfront in Manhattan's midtown an accessible public waterfront. The idea is that if the rebuilding of the FDR Drive, the decommissioning of the Con Ed power plant, and the expansion of the U.N. are coordinated, there is the opportunity for a waterfront park to be built, and completing the greenway that stretches from Battery Park to Harlem. The Society has a fuller description of its goals here. The landscape architects that took part in a 12-hour design session are:

* Matthew Urbanski (designer Brooklyn Bridge Park), Van Valkenburgh Associates
* Ken Smith (designer, MOMA roof garden), Ken Smith Landscape Architect
* Ricardio Scofidio (designer, The High Line) Diller Scofidio and Renfro
* Margie Ruddick (designer, Stuyvesant Cove Park) WRT
* Kate Orff, (protégé of Rem Koolhaas) Scapestudio
* Brian Jessick, Hargreaves Associates

One casualty of MAS's proposal would be the Robert Moses Playground, home of the East End Hockey Association. The mostly featureless lot hosts the local roller hockey league, which is claiming that Robert Moses Playground is the only area of its type on the East Side that it can use. MAS is proposing that the playground be traded to the U.N., which would build a 35-story tower on the land, in exchange for waterfront access to complete the greenway.

Reservations are not required and the presentation is open to the public, but an RSVP to rsvp@mas.org is suggested. Sunday, June 10, 2:00 p.m. at the Rotunda, Hunter College, Brookdale Campus, 425 East 25th St., between First Ave. and FDR Drive.

(Image part of the map at eastriverblog.net)