Freightway Steering Committee walk through May 23rd, 2017

The steering committee met Tuesday morning for a guided walk to the project site.

 In attendance, in no particular order: Barbara Jaffe, Village Planner Elizabeth Marrinan, ZBA member Justin Arest, Frank Fish from BFJ Planning, Jonathan Martin also from BFJ Planning who led and organized the walk and the meeting, former BAR Chair and architect Farley Baker and member of the steering committee, Richard Pinto  (on behalf of the Overhill Board member Kristin Friedman who could not attend the meeting ), Bob Harrison, Heather Harrison, Chris Morin from the Board of Education, and Matthew Martin as Chair of SNAP. BK Mungia was in attendance as well. She said she was attending as a "concerned citizen". It was nice to see a good group of people interested in our Village.

Jonathan Martin, Project Manager and Senior Associate who lives on Garth Road handed each one of us a map of our walk, below as well as a map of the site on the other side of the map which was very helpful.

Here is the  walking map and then the project site.

Context Aerial Map

Project Site

We started our walk in front of Martine's on East Parkway and walked along East Parkway, across Ardsley Road, Popham Bridge to the Freightway parking lot on the ground floor. Then, we went up to the top floor of the Freightway Garage for an aerial view. Jonathan Mark commented it would be a nice place for a restaurant with a nice view.

Here below is Mr. Frank Fish addressing committee members former Mayor and current Committee Chair Jonathan Mark and current Trustees Marc Samwick and Jane Veron. Jonathan Martin is standing to the right.

Later on in the morning walking on East 56th Street in Manhattan, I took these pictures wishing as much green, if not more on our Freightway site.

As I have previously put on my post published in April here, I wish for a site with the following features among others:

1. A circular plaza, 

                        2.  A fountain with lots of plants, 

                                                                  3. A quarter moon amphitheater for people to sit and enjoy, ( check Internet )

                                                        4. A quarter moon garden of wildflowers for wildlife, ( birds, butterflies, hummingbirds )

                                                                  5. A quarter moon sprinkler plaza like the one at the plaza at AMNH for kids in the summer or an ice rink in the winter. That leaves a quarter moon of empty space.

Here are some pictures to which I will add as inspiration dictates:

Fountain in the UK

Fountains lit at night in Switzerland circulating water with pool basins.

Former mayor Bloomberg's  street garden in Manhattan on May 24, 2017

BK Mungia attending as concerned citizen also thought there had to be some public space.

Last revision 8:26 a.m. EDT Thursday, May 25th 2017.