Category: Construction

About that power plant...

2/19/2013

In a previous entry, we highlighted the text from the Fairness Coalition' handout "10 reasons to vote NO on the USTA expansion." Number 2 was the following:

Power Plant in the Park?
The plan calls for building a dirty diesel fuel power plant to be built inside the park. Hidden inside the most recent DEIS report, the USTA seeks to build a 8 Megawatt, 20 foot high diesel-fueled power plant. Surrounding communities already suffer from air quality and asthma rates at epidemic levels. This power plant will emit a massive amount of air pollution into the park and surrounding communities. (page 11-17 DEIS Jan 2013)

Let's take a closer look at what the DEIS says about this:

CENTRAL CHILLER PLANT
To meet electrical power needs during peak demand conditions, the proposed project may include additional reciprocating engines that would serve a central chiller plant. Due to insufficient natural gas availability, it is assumed that the engines would use diesel fuel. The plant would have a maximum capacity of up to 8 megawatts and would be operated only during the US Open.
The plant would be located to north of the project site—north of Meridian Road, east of Arthur Ashe Stadium (Stadium 1), and west of Louis Armstrong Stadium (Stadium 2). This would be approximately 350 feet from areas that would be accessible to the public.

One megawatt can power 1,000 homes for a year. So about 8,000 homes could be powered by this chiller plant. Why would a stadium need this kind of power? And they will house it in a 2-3 story building. Does Flushing Meadows need more non-park-related buildings?

there actually are 4 projects encroaching on Flushing Meadows...

2/18/2013

There's one more, and it's already been approved. The Queens Museum Expansion:

In 2013, the Queens Museum of Art will be a transformed institution. Building on 35 years of success, it will grow to be one of the most interesting and enjoyable cultural institutions in the greater New York area. The key to this transformation is the Museum’s expansion: a doubling of the size, to 100,000 square feet, which will create one of the most refined museum spaces in the country. Grimshaw Architects has developed plans for a stunning facility that will engage diverse communities and make the Queens Museum into a model for the urban, American museum of the future.
On April 12, 2011, the Queens Museum of Art (QMA) hosted a groundbreaking ceremony, marking the commencement of the expansion project that will double the size of the institution, adding 50,000 square feet of new galleries, classrooms, public events spaces, a café and museum shop.
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Queens Borough President Helen Marshall, City Council Member and Chairman of Cultural Affairs Committee Jimmy van Bramer, and fellow members of the New York City Council, joined QMA Executive Director Tom Finkelpearl, board members, funders, artists and community partners in taking this important institutional step.
The $65 million project, expected to be completed by the end of 2013, includes a new 220 foot long illuminated glass façade and entry plaza on the Grand Central Parkways side of the building, a new entrance and expanded outdoor space on the Flushing Meadows Corona Park side of the building, and a generous skylit atrium in between. The expansion, which gives the museum the entirety of the NYC Building – originally built as the city’s official pavilion for the 1939 World’s Fair ‐ is designed by Grimshaw Architects. The museum had, until 2009, shared the building with the World’s Fair Ice Rink, and the ceremony was held on the site of the rink, now the museum’s construction area.

And the museum is not thrilled with having 3 more stadiums built in close proximity to their facilities.

About that power plant...

there actually are 4 projects encroaching on Flushing Meadows...

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