Starve the Beast! Feed the IPA!
Support the IPA's 2020 Residency "TO BE OR NOT TO BQE" which proposes alternatives to repairing the BQE. Your contribution will help us disseminate our Fellows' groundbreaking work from the 2020 Residency.
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TO BE OR NOT TO BQE?
2020 FALL RESIDENCY
With the Brooklyn Queens Expressway crumbling, and the cost of repairing just the triple cantilevered elevated section estimated at billions of dollars, the IPA asks: What might replace the BQE if it were to be removed, rather than repaired?
Learn more about the BQE brief
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PAST EVENTS
PANEL 4
NOVEMBER 18TH 2020 6-8 PM
The final IPA Fall 2020 Residency Fellow Presentations and Panel had fellows sharing their proposals, research, as well as how they are incorporating what they have learned through speaking with community stakeholders into their work.
Panelists included: Harriet Harriss, Moses Gates, Susannah Drake, Danny Harris, Nina Rappaport, Mark Gardner, Michael King and Fred Harris.
This is the last of four public panels where Fellows present their work during the IPA Fall 2020 Residency.
PANEL 3
NOVEMBER 4TH 2020 6-8 PM
The third IPA Fall 2020 Residency Fellow Presentations and Panel had fellows sharing their progress, research, as well as how they are incorporating what they have learned through speaking with community stakeholders into their proposals.
Panelists included: Mark Gardner, Margaret Newman and Michael King.
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This is the third of four public panels where Fellows present their work during the IPA Fall 2020 Residency.
PANEL 2
OCTOBER 21ST 2020 6-8 PM
The second IPA Fall 2020 Residency Fellow Presentations and Panel had fellows sharing their progress, research, as well as how they are incorporating what they have learned through speaking with community stakeholders into their proposals.
Panelists included Mark Gardner, Danny Harris, Harriet Harriss, Michael King, Amanda Schachter and Alexander Levi.
This is the second of four public panels where Fellows present their work during the IPA Fall 2020 Residency.
PANEL 1
OCTOBER 7TH 2020 6-8 PM
The first IPA Fall 2020 Residency Fellow Presentations and Panel had fellows sharing their progress, research, as well as how they are incorporating what they have learned through speaking with community stakeholders into their proposals.
Panelists included Michael King, Margaret Newman and Benjamin Prosky.
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This is the first of four public panels where Fellows present their work during the IPA Fall 2020 Residency.
KICKOFF
SEPTEMBER 23RD 2020 6-8 PM
The IPA Fall 2020 Residency Kickoff Panel was moderated by Michael Kimmelman. This panel provided some context and history for the BQE while grappling with the question: What opportunities and challenges would be created by its removal?
Panelists included Monxo Lopez, Michael King and Jeffrey Shumaker.
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In addition to this panel, there will be four public panels where Fellows present their work during the IPA Fall 2020 Residency.
MEET THE FELLOWS
BQE: Freight, Mobility, Community
Our team knew that a study on the future of the BQE needed to include consideration for freight movement. We sought to understand the geography of regional freight movement in order to make recommendations for reducing freight demand on the highway. We also proposed a phased approach to modifying the corridor based on reduced freight demand, a streets framework that prioritizes people, and evolving mobility technology
BQE! or Building Queens’ Economy! Bring Queens Employment! Bring Queens Enjoyment!
BQE! (or Building Queens’ Economy! Bring Queens Employment!
Bring Queens Enjoyment!) is conceived as a new industrial park along Newtown Creek which empowers manufacturing and centers workers’ needs and aspirations. Trucks on the BQE will be replaced by re- activated rail and water routes, and new intermodal hubs will support water-to-rail, water-to-truck, rail-to-truck, and water-to-air transfers. Passenger ferries, a new NYC Loop transit system, and bike paths
for workers would dramatically improve commute conditions. We propose strategically located Co-Manufacturing Hubs (Co-Hubs) which instigate and support manufacturing activities through providing shared fabrication facilities, career centers, and resource libraries.
Pre/Post BQE
The BQE was built to serve a singular, auto-centric vision of what a city should be. In this version of the city, neighborhoods were bulldozed and carved up, leaving generations exposed to pollution and desolate, harsh urban landscapes characterized by impossible-to-navigate crosswalks and “left-over” lots with no ownership. Pre/Post BQE imagines how this damage can be healed once the BQE is gone. We propose to replace the BQE with a system of linear ecologies that attempt to heal both the economic and social human ecologies that were destroyed by the BQE and the pre-colonial natural ecologies that were superseded by the city more generally. The reintroduction of natural ecologies, while continuing to address the needs of humans, will make this project a generator for a healthier, more sustainable urban environment.