NYC Going High and Low: Crowdfunding Brings an Underground Park Project One Step Closer to Reality

The High Line's Latest Development

Last weekend, I had brunch at the Standard Hotel in the Meatpacking District in NYC and had a chance to walk on the High Line afterward. I was pleasantly surprised by the huge crowd at the High Line, which was originally a stretch of elevated rail line operated from 1934 to 1980.

The High Line allowed meat to be carried to the Meatpacking District, agricultural goods to the factories and warehouses of the industrial West Side, and mail to the post office. Instead of getting rid of the vegetation and old structure, the city has transformed it by building a variegated green space on it that spans more than a mile in the middle of Manhattan. It’s truly a stunning concept, and I was thinking, who knew that an urban relic that has sat in disrepair for so long could have been turned into one of the most popular tourist destinations in the city.

Speaking of transformation, I never could have even dreamed of today's transformation of the Meatpacking District when I first moved to the city 12 years ago (my apartment was at Horatio and Washington St. in the West Village).

The High Line Section 3 Design Plan

The High Line Section 3's Design Plan

On March 12, initial design plans of Section 3 (West 30th Street to West 34th Street) were revealed to the public for the first time. Section 1 of the High Line (Gansevoort St. to West 20th St.) opened in June 2009, and Section 2 (West 20th St. to West 30th St.), opened in June 2011. Section 3 is the last development phase of the project and will wrap around the forthcoming Hudson Yards development and be closely integrated with the new buildings. Based on the design plan, Section 3 will represent a beautiful mix of old and new buildings.

The Underground Park

While the West Side is taking the high way, the East Side is exploring the underground world. The LowLine, the world's first underground park in Lower Manhattan, is the hottest new development idea in NYC. 

The idea for the LowLine came after Ramsey, a New York-based designer, learned about New York's underground spaces from an Metropolitan Transit Authority employee. There are 13 acres of space underground that are unused. The underground space is a 1.5 acre terminal built in 1903 for trolley trains to shuttle passengers between Brooklyn and Manhattan across the then newly opened Williamsburg bridge. When the trolley service ended in 1948, the terminal closed, and it has lain dormant since.  



The Proposed Design Plan for the LowLine

The idea of "year-round public space," supporting farmers markets, concerts and art installations, is a fantastic idea. The obstacle was that the LowLine team needed to raise the money to do three things to propose the idea to the Metropolitan Transit Authority: conduct engineering studies, develop a feasibility model, and build a temporary technology demo to showcase the concept in real form.

Crowdfunding Brings the LowLine Closer to Reality

Have you heard of "crowdfunding"? Crowdfunding is the latest way of raising funds from the public via the Internet, and it’s being used for a variety of purposes, from disaster relief, to artists seeking support from fans, to funding a startup company. Recently, the Pebble e-watch project raised over $7 million via crowdfunding.

The LowLine project moved a step closer to reality on April 6, when Kickstarter, a crowdfunding site, closed an innovative design proposal process. The LowLine project has attracted donations totaling more than $150,000 since February, and, according to the LowLine team, the money has come flowing in from around the world, including from donors in Japan, South Africa and Germany.

With the fund, the LowLine team will be able to get to work on the first stage of the LowLine – a scale model of the park, constructed in an abandoned warehouse steps away from the underground location.  The LowLine remains in the planning stages and the team still faces a long process ahead, but one thing for sure is that over 3,000 individual supporters who already endorsed the project around the world believe that the LowLine will bring positive changes to the Lower Manhattan. 

Final Thoughts

Experts in the field of urban design have noticed a new trend in the last 20 years, where architects and designers are looking to reuse old industrial spaces and capture the core functionality and beauty in original architecture, rather than destroying them and developing new buildings. In this post, I’ve explored the High Line and LowLine in NYC that showcase a major urban design trend. But I am curious about how the trend would actually change our perspectives and emotions for the old buildings and what kind of impact it would have on our lives.

What do you think? Share your thoughts!

What's the Responsible Company? A New Book by the Founder of Patagonia, The Responsible Company

Ford: one of the corporate sponsors

In the corporate world, perception is reality and, perhaps, everything. More than ever, employees, investors and consumers are looking to the companies from which they buy, invest in, and work for to join them in addressing the critical social issues of the day in a creative manner.

We had our first NYC Green Festival last weekend, and this trend was shown by the sponsorships of mega-corporations such as Ford . Interesting panel discussions were held by experts on the various green topics. It really contrasts with the Go Green Expo that I attended back in 2010. That one was held with Home Design Show, and Home Depot was the major sponsor for the Expo. Even though many different vendors had a presence, Green Expo seemed to be a supplement to Home Design Show. However, I found great progress in this year's Green Festival, and here at Ampleen, we welcome anything better and greener.

There are some superstars in the corporate world that earned a name for the most sustainable company.  Knights Inc., the company for clean capitalism, made the 2012 Global 100 Most Sustainable Companies list. In a report titled The Corporate Reality of Consumer Perceptions by GreenBiz.com, Whole Foods, Google, Kashi and Yahoo are described as "Standouts."

From Facebook

But a recent incident with Kashi shows that a great perception can be destroyed overnight. This week, Kashi (acquired by Kellogg in 2000) made an announcement that its "organic" products contain artificial ingredients. Kashi mislabeled and misled consumers. Now there is a class-action suit against the company (and Facebook even has a page called Boycott Kashi). What did Kashi do wrong? How should we as consumers respond to corporations that mislead us to improve short-term earnings?

This month, Yvon Chouinard, a founder of the outdoor-clothing brand Patagonia, will release a new book, The Responsible Company. The book offers detailed checklists for making money without inflicting undue societal harm. To be sure, his recommended initiatives also serve as effective branding. Part of Patagonia's appeal is coming from its commitment to sustainability. Perhaps Patagonia is the only company that advocates the "buy-less" theme.

Consider the clever reverse psychology of its recent advertising. Last November, on Black Friday — the unofficial American holiday of consumer gluttony — Patagonia took out a full-page ad in the New York Times with the bold-face headline "Don't Buy This Jacket."

So, what did Kashi do wrong? Kashi initially appealed to the niche "super green" market and gained a trust from consumers. Kashi, however, dismissed its original mission and lost transparency and accountability in communicating and creating a relationship with consumers.

What we consumers need to do is to be more informed and actively share our feedback with others. That’s our power. What's the responsible company? The responsible company is one that seeks out consumers' true needs and desires and creates a space where a real dialogue is possible.

I would like to hear your opinion.  Share your thoughts!

Be Cool But Conscious? - H&M's Success with the Conscious Collection

Have you ever wondered how to be cool but conscious? Or, are you an eco-conscious consumer but find it hard to be the same when it comes to fashion?

If you do, you are not alone, dear readers! I, too, have a hard time finding organic or recycled fashion very appealing. Also, I find seeking sustainability in fashion simply confusing. A post on the blog Fashionista-at-Law from December 2009 asked: “Is Fashionista acting sustainably if she buys organic or fair trade clothes and what exactly are ‘ethical’ clothes? Fashionista would love to see those terms on labels so that she no longer has to spend her time researching a brand that claims to be ethical, green, organic, before facing the tricky question as to whether it is more ‘green’ to order the item of desire online or to check for its availability in a shop close by.” Is it that hard to be cool but conscious?

SimpleShoes, from Santa Barbara, CA, offers eco-certified shoes made from recycled products and is run with a sustainable business model. When Simple Shoes was first introduced, we were all very excited and applauded the company's philosophy and business model. Now, unfortunately, the business is closed. Simple Shoes' website said, "after 20 years of shoe making, Simple was ready for a vacation, a ‘creative re-engineering.’" But why did Simple Shoes fail? Did Simple Shoes serve a broad enough audience to keep its business going? And why don't we see similar success stories like Simple Shoes' with other companies in the fashion industry?

Despite what we see -- a slow development of sustainability in mainstream fashion -- sustainability in fashion is becoming one of the key concepts for success. Vanessa Friedman, the Financial Times fashion editor, says words such as “sustainability,” “green,” “eco,” “organic” and “ethical” are increasingly a part of the fashion conversation. Mintel, the international market research company, notes: “As consumers demand more from the companies they do business with, they’ll want . . . more scrutiny on ethical claims than ever before.” So why hasn’t the fashion world sought more sustainable business models?

The answer is partly because a concept of luxury doesn't sit well with environmentalism. Why? Because an industry based on not need but desire is one that is often associated with indulgence and excess. It sits at the opposite end of table from the concept of collaborative consumption that I introduced in my previous post.

On my search for a cool summer dress for my recent vacation in South Beach, Miami, I finally found the answer. The answer had a label on it; it reads the H&M Conscious Collection. H&M, a global fashion house, is trying to revamp the image of its eco-friendly line, the Conscious Collection, into something that’s going to appeal to consumers who cannot compromise on their sense of style, even for a worthy cause. Despite the huge success of the line, the Conscious Collection had failed to capture the attention of the few who live and breathe fashion. And H&M knows how to communicate its effort with us cool-but-conscious consumers. But did you know that H&M is the biggest users of this eco-aware fabric in the world? No longer is the Conscious Collection the domain of tree huggers and hemp fetishists pretending to be trendy.

Finally, sustainable fashion is becoming a legitimate option for the true-blue fashionista. We can continue being cool while being conscious and smart about our choices.

Do you have any sustainable fashion stories to share?

I am wearinga a dress from  the H&M Conscious Collection
 in South Beach, Miami (via Instagram)