Students Host Seward Park Exhibition
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010
Adam Schleimer overlooks one of the many spaces critiqued by Lang's
On the Lower East Side, next to the Williamsburg Bridge, the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area (SPURA) has been empty for more than 40 years. During this time, it has served as a parking lot and failed to become the low and middle income housing that city officials promised local residents decades ago.
The City Studio course at Eugene Lang, taught last semester by Professor Gabrielle Bendiner-Viani, has focused on issues surrounding SPURA for two fall semesters. Exploring SPURA, the fall 2009 class's exhibition, opened February 4 and featured student projects, including "42 Years Later, and Still Waiting," a video about Ed Rudick, a man who has been living in the area since before it became a parking lot. He made the case for affordable housing and gave a firsthand account of what was demolished to make way for the affordable housing that has still not been built.
The exhibition, on display at 465 Grand St., also features an audio installation, a map detailing the community resources of the area, and photographs emphasizing the effect of the empty lots on the neighborhood. The display "hope[s] to encourage further productive conversation about SPURA's future," according to the exhibition guide.
The exhibition, on display at 465 Grand St., also features an audio installation, a map detailing the community resources of the area, and photographs emphasizing the effect of the empty lots on the neighborhood. The display "hope[s] to encourage further productive conversation about SPURA's future," according to the exhibition guide.
As of now, there is no definite plan for SPURA, but Joel Feingold of Good Old Lower East Side (GOLES), a community-based group that focuses on housing and economic issues, is hopeful that SPURA will be developed soon. "It's back on the table," said Feingold.
On February 16, GOLES will make a presentation at the Community District 3 Land Use, Zoning, Public & Private Housing Committee meeting, to be held at 184 Eldridge St. at 6:30 p.m.
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