Visions of Urban Farmland for the Grand Concourse
November 30, 2009 at 7:55 pm 1 comment
The Grand Concourse in the Bronx would be transformed into four miles of contiguous urban farmland under a proposal submitted to the Bronx Museum of the Arts as part of an international competition.
The Grand Concourse in the Bronx was supposed to be the city’s Champs Élysées. Instead, it turned into a nine-lane motorway.
The 100-year-old boulevard may be in for a makeover though. Nearly 200 proposals for the Grand Concourse flooded the Bronx Museum of the Arts in response to the museum’s call for ideas as part of a global competition jointly sponsored with the Design Trust for Public Space.
Guess which idea placed second? One called Agricultural Urbanism, a proposal that would transform the concourse into four miles of contiguous urban farmland and public open space. The envisaged stretch of land would produce more than 500,000 pounds of organic produce, with water harvested from two million square feet of green roofs.
The six other finalists proposed plans that featured everything from windmills to tree farms and agricultural greenhouses. Animations, renderings, models and interactive installations of the top seven proposals are on view at the Bronx Museum of the Arts through Jan. 3, 2010, as part of the “Intersections: Grand Concourse Beyond 100” exhibition. Click here to see some of the renderings and learn about each of the proposals.
Entry filed under: Food and Art, Local Food Production, Urban Agriculture. Tags: agricultural urbanism, Bronx, Bronx Museum of the Arts, Grand Concourse, Intersections: Grand Concourse Beyond 100, Urban Agriculture, urban farming, urban farmland.
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Wrap-up of a Year’s Worth of Blogging: Power of the People and a Politician Propel New York Local Food Movement in 2009 « New York Bounty | December 31, 2009 at 3:33 am
[...] Visions of Urban Farmland for the Grand Concourse: A proposal to transform the Grand Concourse, a nine-lane motorway in the Bronx, into four miles of contiguous urban farmland won second place in a global competition to remake the 100-year-old thoroughfare. Farming inspired other artists in 2009. In September, artist Leah Gauthier celebrated the close of a five-borough micro-farm installation consisting of modest growing spaces donated by New Yorkers. In return for the spaces, Gauthier became a “sharecropper,” paying donors with a portion of the produce she grew on individual locations for the season. It’s the ultimate high-concept art project. [...]