Image: Columbia University Website, produced by Renzo Piano Building Workshop
For the first time in my life as a landscape architect, I am compromised by the work before me. I've been working on a project adjacent to Columbia University's 17 acre expansion into West Harlem; the 125th Street corridor that connects the expansion west to the Hudson River, so technically Manhattanville. The University's expansion will displace 3300 locals, brick-clad industry and tenements with a complex of steel and glass buildings by Renzo Piano. In the early stages, Columbia threatened the use of
eminent domain in the name of clearing blight to enormous protest from the neighborhood. Piano says the results will be worth the controversy because "the dirty functions--garbage, ramps, parking, and loading--will all be underground, and because cities are bound to change, we must accept it".
I have developed my own litmus test over the years regarding projects like this: 'would I be o.k. with this happening in Omaha'? I care deeply about Omaha, and when that is so, ultimate well being is foremost. In this case, I say N.O. for many reasons. For the sake of blogger brevity, simply because total hegemony rarely creates vibrancy, in any life context. Especially in the built condition of Harlem, which is undoubtedly one of Manhattan's last chances to retain some real fabric; dirty things still exist and Starbucks does not.
This is not to say that Harlem does not need improvements. But perhaps some type of coexistence with the local community, rather than displacement and singular scale development, would be a better point of departure in which to bring about the changes that Harlem would like for itself.
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