Above the Flooded Plain – Did New Waterfront Developments Fare Better?

Sandy’s high tide receded, and the buildings on the waterfront in Long Island City stood like sentries on the coast—dry, fully inhabited and powered up almost as though no superstorm had ever occurred.

The situation was much the same in Williamsburg, best as I can tell. The new buildings came through relatively unscathed, despite flooding around them. I don’t know if any of the new Williamsburg buildings took special measures to mitigate 100-year flood conditions, but I know that 184 Kent did, and they worked.

One caveat here (and in LIC) is that the flooding was relatively light. There was definitely flooding, but compared to what was happening across the river and in places like Red Hook and even DUMBO, we seem to have gotten the least of it. Still, like LIC, none of the Williamsburg waterfront developments had to be taken out of service.

Rethinking Building Code, Post Sandy

11/24/2012 | Comment

From the Times, some opening thoughts on revamping the building code in a post-hurricane city. The focus for now is on how to build better in a rising-sea level world, versus just not building in Zone A at all (as a rather silly recent “resolution” from Community Board 1 wants).

As the Times notes, some projects have already gone beyond the current City code requirements for construction in a flood plain, and at least one of those (a recycling plant in Sunset Park) avoided flooding during Sandy as a result. Locally, the new development on the Williamsburg waterfront has also fared comparatively very well. While the flooding on this side of the river seems to have been less severe than it was just across the river, there was flooding. But Schaefer’s Landing, 184 Kent, Northside Piers and the Edge all came through the storm much better than a lot of other newer developments. Unlike many high-rises in lower Manhattan that remain unoccupiable and will be so for months, the systems in the Williamsburg developments survived and the buildings were occupiable pretty much as soon as the evacuation orders were lifted. I know at least one of our waterfront buildings took on a substantial amount of water during the storm surge, but had storm-surge mitigation mechanisms in place that worked, thus avoiding major damage within the building.

Are there lessons to be learned from the local experience, or were we just lucky? (Some of both, I suspect.)

Getting to Work

11/04/2012 | Comment

The L train is still out, but getting to Manhattan from North Brooklyn should be a little bit easier tomorrow. The M and the J trains are both going over the Williamsburg Bridge. The J will only go as far as Essex Street, but the M will have its full route through midtown reinstated. The 7 train is also running to Manhattan, though you’ll have to a bus to L.I.C. to pick it up – the G train remains suspended (the only line completely out of commission now). The full rundown of service changes is posted at the MTA website.

If you need to get downtown, the East River Ferry is probably your best bet, what the the shortened J and no L service to Manhattan. With the exception of Greenpoint’s India Street landing, the ferry was running regular service as of today (Sunday), and they expect to have India Street open Monday morning. Expect long lines at the ferry, but if it is like last week, everyone will get on.