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Chair
Stephen Cassell
First Vice Chair
Hunter Tura
Second Vice Chair
Jared Della Valle

Fact Sheet
Van Alen Institute
L Train Shutdown Charrette
Design teams offer creative solutions for commuting without the L train from
inflatable tunnels to vaporettos

Treasurer
Raymond Quinn
Secretary
Jessica Healy
Mary Jane Augustine
Byron Bell (Emeritus)
Kai-Uwe Bergmann
Jonathan Marvel
Kim Herforth Nielsen
Andre Kikoski
Jing Liu
Mohsen Mostafavi
Robert Richardson
Executive Director
David van der Leer
About
At Van Alen Institute,
we believe design can
transform cities,
landscapes, and regions
to improve peoples
lives.

communities, scholars,
professionals on local
and global initiatives
that rigorously
investigate the most
pressing
ecological
challenges
of tomorrow.
Building on more than
a century of experience,

programs, and inventive

design competitions.

Media contact: Steven Thomson

Van Alen Institute
212-924-7000, sthomson@vanalen.org
On Sunday, June 12, six interdisciplinary design teams gathered at Van Alen
Institute to develop solutions and workshop ideas that would help the commute
of hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers during the L lines planned repair.
Service on the L line will be impacted by repairs scheduled to begin in 2019 and
last between 18 and 36 months.
Nearly 100 people joined the competing teams to participate in a presentation
and question-and-answer workshop. Creative proposals included a floating
inflatable tunnel, bicycles highways on car-free streets, and tailored
transportation that incorporated community engagement tools.
The outflow of creativity and infrastructure ingenuity this competition has
generated illustrates the importance of inviting both designers and stakeholders
alike to the planning process, said Van Alen Institute Executive Director David

212 924 7000

vanalen.org

van der Leer. These proposals can support agencies and everyday New Yorkers
envision an easier, and in some cases, more exciting commute without standard
L line service.
The winning team presented a proposal with two key modes of transit: First, a
low-capacity, high-frequency water shuttle at Newtown Creek; and second, a
new passenger service that uses existing electric infrastructure and industrial
tracks. Team members Youngin Yi, a mechanical engineer at Buro Happold
Engineering, and Dillon Pranger an architectural designer at Kohn Pedersen
Fox Associates (KPF) were awarded $1,000. Van Alen Institute will be working
with the team to further develop their proposal and prepare it for presentations
before transportation planning agencies.
The six teams that presented on Sunday were selected as finalists out of a group
of 33 entrants. The jury used specific criteria, and looked for a proposals
potential to be further developed during the charrette period on Sunday. The 33
teams represented the spectrum of experience, ranging from recent graduates to
seasoned professionals, and included architects, landscape architects, engineers,
planners, media professionals, and programmers. The proposals reflected an
array of practical, hard infrastructure elements, digital innovations, and
fantastical visions. Finalist teams received an honorarium of $200.
The jury included:
Christopher Bonanos, Senior Editor, New York magazine
Tim Braine, Founder & Executive Director, The Station Alliance
David van der Leer (jury chair), Executive Director, Van Alen Institute
Erin Maciel, Project Manager, New York City Department of
Transportation
John Maier, Co-Chair, Public Transit Services Committee, Queens
Community Board No. 5
Shin-pei Tsay, Executive Director, Gehl Institute
The jury also took into consideration a popular vote by audience attendees.
Proposals were judged on criteria including:
Accessibility
Potential for economic development
Financial feasibility
Socioeconomic equity
Disaster preparedness
Inventiveness
High-resolution images of proposals and workshop and presentation photos are
available here.

For a full description of all six proposals, please see the following:
Winning Proposal: Transient Transit Revitalizing Industrial Infrastructure
Team: Youngjin Yi, mechanical engineer, Buro Happold Engineering; Dillon
Pranger, architectural designer, Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates
Summary: Transient Transit
proposes the development of two
additional forms of transit in
north Brooklyn by water and rail
through the adaptation of existing
but underused New York City
industrial infrastructure:
Newtown Creek and the LIRR
freight track operating between
Fresh Pond Junction and the
Bushwick Branch.
Submission: Newtown Creek is the
border between Queens and North
Brooklyn, not far from the
residential areas of many L-train
commuters in Greenpoint and
Williamsburg. The narrow body of
water lends itself to vaporetto-style,
low-capacity and high-frequency
water shuttles operating between Dekalb Avenue, the North Williamsburg
Ferry Pier, and Manhattan. The proposed improvements along the creek also
introduce opportunities for economic development and job training programs
for residents of the affected areas.
The LIRR freight track between Fresh Pond Junction and the Bushwick Branch
is an active ground-level freight track with existing electric infrastructure,
making it viable for passenger service. The track runs parallel to the L train in
East Brooklyn and extends north to the terminus of Newtown Creek, which
would become a transfer site for riders to continue on to the proposed
Newtown Creek water shuttle system.
Honorable Mention: No One Thing
Thaddeus Pawlowski, Senior Urban Designer, New York City Department of
City Planning; Zac Frank, Product Director, Vanity Fair ; Dani Simons,
Director of Communications and External Affairs, Motivate, operator of Citi
Bike

Summary: A proposal for six scalable options that would be cost-effective to

implement.

Submission: One solution alone will not address the challenges that will face a
quarter-million MTA riders when the L train shuts down in early 2019. A
combination of technological, policy, and design interventions are needed to
keep things moving cost effectively. A multi-pronged strategy might include:
1) Shutting down automobile traffic across 14th street in Manhattan to allow for
a bikeway/busway leading from the Williamsburg Bridge, as well as Bus Rapid
Transit from Brooklyn over the Williamsburg Bridge
2) Piloting a ticket system that allows riders to pay a flat fare for access to
commuter rail, subway, express bus and bus in a given zone
3) Improvements to the public realm at key transit hubs to facilitate transfers
and increase the economic development potential for small businesses around
these hubs
4) Expansion of capacity for Citi Bike and ferries, and consideration for subsidy
or free transfers to encourage people to shift to these forms of transit, reducing
congestion on trains and buses
5) Overnight truck delivery regulations to reduce congestion and improve safety
on local streets in Brooklyn, on East River Bridges, and along 14th Street
6) A responsive, mobile website to help all New Yorkers navigate these changes
and choose the best option to keep moving. All of these interventions are
relatively inexpensive and quick to implement. A strategic combination will
improve quality of life and help small businesses during the shutdown and
beyond.

Honorable Mention: I <3 the L

Team: Nadine Rachid, Design & Urban Ecologies recent graduate, The New
School; Darcy Bender; Design & Urban Ecologies recent graduate, The New
School; Dimitra Kourrisova, urban theorist, and architect
Summary: Offers a planning process that can be used to engage community
member input and be used by the MTA, this proposal presented important
engagement tools.

Submission: The tactics the MTA uses to address the challenge of the L train
shutdown need to be as diverse as the people that ride the L. Our proposal is
based on the belief that there is no single solution that would be equally
effective for all 200,000 daily riders. Therefore, we propose a community
engagement toolkit that will use local knowledge to uncover solutions. It will be
designed to reveal the ways in which people use and understand transit in the
context of their everyday lives.
This challenge has two sides: the physical infrastructure, which consists of
alternative transit option such as other subway lines, buses, ferries, and bike
lanes; and the social infrastructure, which includes the communication between
the MTA, local businesses, and riders who rely on the L train. Our project will
be funded by developers and businesses that profit most directly from riders
who use the L.

Finalist Proposals:
Infraflex
Team: Greg Reaves, Architect & Partner, Moshe Safdie Architects; Steven
Haardt, Architect, Principal at Haardt Studio; Petra Kempf, Architect & Urban
Designer, Urbantransits.Net; Ziyan Zeng, Planner & Programer,
Urbantransits.Net
Submission: InfraFlex is a mobile app that
connects existing and proposed modes of
transportation with current data-collection
technology. This application will provide
residents affected by the shutdown with realtime travel information to make smart choices
when using different modes of transportation in
Manhattan and Brooklyn without adding
carbon emissions to the environment.
Each resident will automatically collect game
points towards the cost of their trip via the app.
The more environmentally friendly their
choices, the more points they (and ultimately,
their neighbrohood) can accumulate. Rewards
could range from free admissions to museums, a
year-long pass to public transportation in NYC to the implementation of new
neighborhood facilities.
Light at the End of the Tunnel
Team: Gonzalo Cruz, Landscape Architect, Lead, AECOM; Xiaofei Shen,
Engineer, AECOM; Garrett Avery, Landscape Architect, AECOM; Rayana
Hossain, Landscape Architecture Intern, AECOM

Submission: We propose a transporter tunnel for New Yorkers as a temporary

solution to alleviate mobility between Manhattan and Brooklyn. Using
technology developed by NASA, the project would create an alternative route
via a covered translucent tunnel immersed within the East River with digitally enhanced environments for commuters as they make their journey across the
river. The 2,400-foot tunnel will allow pedestrians and bikers to navigate a
fantastical throughway all year round. On the ground, commuters will travel in
a fast cart people-mover commuter system along the shutdown path along 14th
Street (Manhattan) and North 7th Street (Brooklyn) to provide a connection to
THE L TRANSPORTER entrances located on the river edges.
The system could be accommodated within the existing tunnel, either
underwater or as a floating and partially submerged tunnel along the river to
accommodate other forms of river navigation. The project would be temporary,
could be prefabricated offsite within 6 months, and easily deployable.
Project Lemonade
Team: Jaime Daroca, Columbia University C-Lab; Nicolas Lee, Hollwich
Kushner; Daniela Leon, Harvard GSD; John Tubles, Pei Cobb Freed Architects
Submission: In 2019, New
York becomes what it really
is... an island. Enter
Lemonade Line (LL), a
multimodal transportation
strategy that provides an allaccess pass to seamlessly
linked buses, bikes, carshares, and ferry lines
following the L line above
ground.
In addition to replacing the L subway route, LL will help users to identify
alternative paths that explore Brooklyn, the East River shorelines and
Manhattan neighborhoods. LL is supported by large and small-scale New York
partnerships. LL utilizes an all-in-one app, which facilitates and evolves this
network, based on real-time data throughout the closure. Imagine island life
included in your daily commute, making life a bit sweeter.
About the L Train Shutdown Charrette
Part of the Van Alen Spring Festival, Disruption?, the L Train Shutdown
Charrette invited teams to disrupt the complex process of public
transportation improvement. This one-day charrette offered an opportunity for

fresh thinking, and asked interdisciplinary teams to imagine systemic design

solutions for hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers during an extended period
of reduced subway service.
Following a workshop period among teams, community members were invited
to attend the presentation of proposals and ask questions. A jury of planning
experts judged the entries and announced a winner at the conclusion of the
event. The winning team shared a $1,000 prize.
The L Train Shutdown Charrette is presented as part of the Van Alen Spring
Festival, Disruption?, June 11 16, which considers the meaning of disruption
within and beyond technologyand how disruptions take form in built
environments, local communities, and municipal policies. Learn more and
register for events on vanalen.org.
About Van Alen Institute
At Van Alen Institute, we believe design can transform cities, landscapes, and
regions to improve peoples lives. We collaborate with communities, scholars,
policymakers, and professionals on local and global initiatives that rigorously
investigate the most pressing social, cultural, and ecological challenges of
tomorrow. Building on more than a century of experience, we develop cross
disciplinary research, provocative public programs and inventive design
competitions.
Visit vanalen.org to learn more about our current projects, including Ecologies of
Addiction, Fair Share, Memorials for the Future, Van Alen Sessions presented with
The Atlantic and CityLab, and more.
Twitter: @van_alen
Instagram: @van_alen
Facebook: /vanaleninstitute
Photo credit: Flickr User Dan Nguyen