RECENT COMMENTS
2010 Green Spaces Forum comes to Robinson Theater
The James River Green Building Council‘s 2010 Green Spaces Forum, showcasing the entries for this year’s competition, will be held at the Robinson Theater on May 27th:
Building off of last year’s Play Space challenge, this year’s entrants are asked to look at the remaining 34 +/- acres on the Greater Fulton Gas Works site and develop a plan or design for that land that provides space for living, working, recreation, agriculture or something entirely different and unexpected.
From the announcement:
This thoughtfully crafted community discussion will include a combination of regional community leaders, building industry professionals, city officials and contractors in attendance, as well as a moderated panel of four that will debate of the merits of competition entries, while allowing attendees to view all entries and participate in the debate.
This year’s panel will include Cynthia Newbille, Rachel Flynn, Sheila Sheppard and Robin Miller with Becky Clay Christensen moderating.
Sign up today to ensure your spot at the forum. Tickets are $15 for members and $20 for nonmembers. This event will take place from 5-8:00 pm. on May 27th. Light refreshments will be served. This event will take place at the Robinson Theater, 2903 Q Street Richmond, VA 23223.
A time line for this event is below:
5-6:00 pm: Networking; View Competition entries
6:00-8:00 pm: Program and Panel Q&ARegistration required –
log in through the website: http://www.jrgbc.org/greenspaces/. Contact Megan Miller at 804.440.0599 with questions.Challenge:
Last year’s Play Space challenge asked entrants to develop a recreational green space solution on the 10 acre Fulton Gas Works parcel to be shared by the surrounding community. Entrants were asked to consider the existing on-site infrastructure, Richmond culture and climate and to develop a solution that not only conserves natural resources but feeds back into the grid.Building off of last year’s Play Space challenge, this year’s entrants are asked to look at the remaining 34 +/- acres on the Greater Fulton Gas Works site and develop a plan or design for that land that provides space for living, working, recreation, agriculture or something entirely different and unexpected.
Visit the GreenSpaces website to read more about the competition!
http://www.jrgbc.org/greenspaces/
While interesting, this is another example of a charette building an unrealistic expectation that this property is going to be a park.
RRHA probably owns most of, it is safe to say one of the least likely future uses will be making a park, especially considering the huge tracts of land already designated as parks all around it and the need for infill development between the City and Rocketts.
Students from VCU’s Master of Urban & Regional Planning program developed an economic development strategy for this site last spring. Much of the strategy involves applying for bownfields redevelopment funding becuase there is a considerable amount of toxic waste (Coal Tar) still residing on the property.
Dear “neighbor”,
I am glad you find charrettes “interesting,” but do not understand why you have to go so far as to saying the Green Building Council is building unrealistic expectations for the city.
Just because the RRHA owns the property doesn’t mean they have immediate plans to bulldoze the site and put up homes. The 11 acres of the gas works site is owned by the City and currently sits underutilized and polluted.
If you were to actually read the design brief for the second stage of the competition, it asks competitors to examine the potentials for the surrounding 44 acre extended Fulton Gas Works site: allowing for the potential for transportation, residences, commercial uses, recreation, etc. Why are you jumping to the conclusion that the competition is only asking for a park? Last year’s competition, not this one, asked for proposals of a “green space” on the 11 acre gasworks site. This year’s considers the entire 44 acre, RRHA owned site surrounding the gas works.
Considering the history of the site and the soil and groundwater pollution caused by the coal gasification process, remediation and redevelopment of the site is not simple. The entire site also lies within the 100 and 500 year flood plains, and has combined sewer overflows running through it. If developed for housing, there are a lot of environmental issues here that need to be addressed before plopping down some homes for urban infill. A competition challenges designers to come up with creative solutions that address these issues.
I spent an entire year dedicated to researching and examining the potentials and challenges involved with the reclamation of this site, and ultimately proposed a cultural park for one section of the site. That was last year’s competition.
Do you really believe it is such a bad thing for designers to brainstorm innovative uses for the site, and to reconsider and question the traditional methods of redevelopment of these post-industrial sites? Even parks have economic and cultural potential, too … they can be vastly different from what already exists in Richmond.
I do think it is a bad thing when it creates unrealistic expectations. Go to the community meetings around here to see how the unrealistic expectations have already taken root. All anyone ever wants is another park, all when any existing park that doesn’t have an active and member-funded “Friends” group is weedy, unsafe and overgrown.
I’m glad people are being creative and innovative, but watch – when the rubber hits the road for this land, the community is going to say “You told us it was going to be a park!” It doesn’t matter how much you say the park was only one component of a complex, well-reasoned plan. The details don’t matter when the billboard is a high-style garden of delights.