Youngjin Yi wins L Train Shutdown Charrette run by Van Alen Institute
Youngjin Yi, a mechanical engineer at Buro Happold, and teammate Dillon Pranger, an architectural designer at Kohn Pedersen Fox, recently won a flash competition hosted by the Van Alen Institute.
Interdisciplinary design teams were asked to answer the question of how complications from the imminent shutdown of the L train line might be mitigated through other transportation alternatives.
As neighbourhoods along the L train, a line that connects Brooklyn to Manhattan and serves over 300,000 riders daily, brace for the interruption in service, Yi and Pranger came up with a solution titled, “Transient Transit – Revitalizing Industrial Infrastructure.” Their idea was formed around taking advantage of existing New York City infrastructural assets, proposing the adaptation and reutilization of two existing forms of NYC transit: industrial waterway and the freight track. Newtown Creek, an industrial waterway positioned between Queens and North Brooklyn, would see improvements to allow for narrow, high frequency commuter water shuttles that would operate between several locations in Brooklyn fronting the Creek and across the East River into Manhattan. The retrofit of an existing LIRR freight track, which runs parallel to the L train in Brooklyn, for passenger service would connect passengers traveling from East Brooklyn to the proposed Newtown Creek water shuttles.
Teams submitted 150-word concepts, from which six finalists were invited to participate in the design charrette held on Sunday, June 12th at the Van Alen Institute. The judges based the winning proposal on solutions for accessibility, potential for economic development, financial feasibility, socioeconomic equity, disaster preparedness and inventiveness.
The winning team received a prize of $1,000 and now has the opportunity to work directly with the Van Alen Institute to refine their proposal further.
For more information on the competition and the other finalists, including ideas from new transit apps to an inflatable tunnel across the East River, visit the Van Alen’s page on the project: https://www.vanalen.org/projects/l-train-shutdown-charrette/
