The intention of this project is to weave into the existing landscape a greater diversity of functions creating a new local center and generating a new regional center.
The existing landscape is broken into homogenous sectors of residential, industry, commerce and transportation. Neighborhoods of single family residences are insulated by their internal road systems and a leafy landscape of trees, lawns, sidewalks, bicycles and cars, while commercial and industrial buildings litter the asphalt expanses attached to the through roads.
This stratification into non-communicating areas results in fragments that never cohere into places of lively public character. The Grumman site with its airplane hangers, research barracks, runway sits in the middle of this familiar landscape - a unique suburban condition that has the potential to develop a regional center, in turn helping to encourage local development.
Access to the site is by local roads which are serviced primarily by single-user automobiles and the LIRR - a Regional commuter line. There is a need to develop connections into and through the site as well as greater and more varied options for mobility both around the site and in the region.
There is little complexity to the tissue that weaves between separate use areas and the commercial and industrial zones. There is a need to thread a new layer of varied uses into the leftover spaces as well as into existing outmoded or underutilized buildings.
The aim of Probe 1 is to vary and strengthen the existing site elements by threading in new components to build a more habitable and understandable landscape and create a new local center. These new elements include: a. Transportation: addition of new roads, new light rail located above LIRR tracks, new forms and routes of collective transport. b. Varied use spaces: Housing types for more varied homeowners/renters, including shared housing/workplace functions located centrally. c. A more integrated concept of landscape/park/parking.
Probe 2 looks at developing a particular place, the heart of the site, as a regional draw, combining activity, education, play and employment. a. Cultural:An historical, scientific, interactive aviation/space age museum drawing on the Grumman history. b. Employment: new research and technology center c. Use /reuse: existing buildings redeveloped/reconfigured for new uses d.Access: new light rail stop, access road, parking
Effects of Strategy The primary goal is to suggest a way to inhabit, densify, vary and layer the suburban landscape to: 1.create a more gracious, active public nature 2.accessible, vibrant physical landscape 3. create centers of activity.