Snøhetta’s dreamy vision for the new Far Rockaway public library in Queens, New York, is inching closer towards reality. Queens Public Library announced that the existing 50-year-old structure will officially close next week ahead of reconstruction. The $33-million project, designed by the Brooklyn- and Oslo-based firm, will break ground over the footprint of the 9,000-square-foot building in the coming months. The library is located at 1637 Central Avenue and was the talk of the town after Hurricane Sandy nearly destroyed the surrounding Rockaway community in 2012. In the aftermath of the storm, the library helped provide disaster relief to local residents. Snøhetta’s design for the new library is slated to not only bring stellar architecture to an often-neglected area of New York, but also help spur revitalization in the neighborhood. The redesign will double the space inside the library by adding new children’s and teen rooms, an ADA-compliant entrance and restrooms, an elevator, a large meeting room, and more. With these enlarged spaces, the library hopes to expand its burgeoning community programming. While significantly bigger than the original library, the two-story structure will feature an entirely green design to help it run efficiently. It will be LEED Gold certified, utilize daylight to control interior temperatures, and include a blue roof that captures stormwater. The site will also be elevated to exceed the new FEMA flood zone guidelines in case of future storms. Snøhetta’s sunset-hued, boxy building is sure to stand out in downtown Far Rockaway not only because of its angular massing but also because of its distinctive cladding. According to the architects, “the simple form provides a calm contrast to the visual noise of surrounding retail outlets.” At the corner of Mott and Central Avenues, the library’s main entrance will take the shape of a carved pyramid, outfitted with transparent glass so passersby can see what’s going on at night. Through a fritted glass curtain wall wrapping the structure, light will be diffused into the central atrium and gathering spaces below during the day. The new Far Rockaway Library is expected to be complete in 2021. Starting October 30, the library will operate out of 1003 Beach 20^th Street through the end of construction.

A remote beachside stretch of Queens is set to get a fashionable hotel by architect Morris Adjmi. This week, the New York firm filed plans for a six-story, 61-key hotel at 108-20 Rockaway Beach Boulevard, on the peninsula's main drag near the terminus of the A train. The 86-foot-tall hotel, to be built on an assemblage of lots, will include 9,000 square feet of residential space. This space will most likely be used for the project's seven extended-stay rooms, where travelers can bunk up for a month or more. In total, YIMBY reports that the building will have almost 39,000 square feet of hotel and retail. A top floor bar and events space will sandwich the rooms, and a bar-restaurant will occupy the bottom two floors. While Morris Adjmi Architects' portfolio includes four other hospitality projects, most notably the Wythe Hotel in Williamsburg, the firm will have the opportunity to realize its restrained, tasteful style from the ground-up. In keeping with its semi-industrial surroundings, the Wythe was a transformation of an old barrel factory into a 70-key hotel. As AN's March studio visit suggested, the firm will surely be busy through 2017: This summer, the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) approved an angled 10-story office building in Noho, and in Philadelphia, Adjmi is set to build a cantilevered rooftop pool at a hotel in the city's Fishtown neighborhood. Developers Good Company Hospitality Group and JBS Project Management have applied to rezone the lots for commercial use. The proposal is making its way through the municipal land use review process right now.

Fort Tilden beach might be New York City’s best-kept summer secret. Sandwiched between Jacob Riis Park and Breezy Point in Rockaway, Queens, it is nearly impossible to get to on public transportation—an indie comedy called Fort Tilden caricatures two Brooklynites on a doomed adventure to the titular beach—but those willing to make the trek will be rewarded with a strip of protected shoreline on the site of a former Army Reserve post. It’s also the site of Rockaway!, a public art installation put on by MoMA PS1 to help remediate the area and build awareness post-Hurricane Sandy. This year, German artist Katharina Grosse turned a derelict aquatics building into a brilliantly colorful outdoor painting that uses the existing structure as well as the surrounding landscape. Her signature spray-painting technique brings the rundown concrete structure to life both inside and out.

Rockway! will be at Fort Tilden beach, New York, through November 24, 2016.

A proposal for a dense forest along the Rockaways shoreline in New York City could boost storm resiliency in the area. Local Office Landscape and Urban Design, led by Walter Meyer and Jennifer Bolstad, has proposed the forest along the Robert Moses roadway in Rockaway, Queens. The so-called “Rockaway East Resiliency Preserve” would turn the storm-weary Rockaways into a blooming, natural location. The Rockaway East Resiliency Preserve is among the projects adding to the more general plan to install structures and natural objects to better protect the city's coastal areas against future storms. Prior to the arrival of Hurricane Sandy in 2012, the Shore Front parkway stood between the boardwalk and the rest of the residential areas. The parkway, albeit large and four-lanes wide, was rarely used and is on Meyer’s agenda of places to renovate and re-purpose. Meyer intends to take half of this parkway and create an area filled with dunes and trees as a solution to any future problems involving natural disasters. This dune system will house trees of pitch pine, that, when fully grown, will grow thick roots into the ground which will interlock with each other. Once planted, however, these trees will need to or three years in order to be strong and durable. The nature preserve will be well sunken, and will act as an efficient water basin in case of a flood. Meyer has stated his intentions to lower areas of this nature preserve to different heights so as to create an effective dune system. The preserve will also house wetlands and freshwater habitats for animals as well as to quickly absorb water from a flooding. The proposal is currently under review by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), and has garnered the support of some local politicians. City Councilman Donovan Richards has taken to supporting the proposal, and stated he would be speaking with HPD department to get this project passed.

Seventeen months after Superstorm Sandy pummeled New York City, Mayor de Blasio and U.S. Senator Charles Schumer announced major changes to the city’s Sandy relief efforts. At an announcement in late March in the Rockaways, Mayor de Blasio said that $100 million of federal money has been reallocated into the city’s Build it Back program, which will help storm victims regardless of their income or priority level. The mayor’s office says that funds from this program are already being sent out. In an effort to further cut red tape, the mayor also announced new staffing and policy changes to accelerate the delivery of resources to those impacted by the storm. “Today’s announcement is a down payment, and I look forward to this administration taking additional steps to ensure Sandy victims who went into their pockets to pay for repairs themselves will be quickly made whole. The De Blasio administration deserves major credit for tackling this problem quickly and making necessary changes to a program that wasn’t working well at all,” said Senator Schumer in a statement.

In early April, the ten finalists in the Rebuild By Design competition unveiled their proposals to protect the Tri-state region from the next Sandy. And in the near future, a jury will select a winner—or winners—to receive federal funding to pursue their plans. But before that final announcement is made, AN is taking a closer look at each of the final ten proposals. Here's how the team led by HR&A/Cooper Robertson plans to bring resiliency to the East Coast from the Rockaways to Red Hook. The HR&A/Cooper Robertson team focused on creating resilient communities and resilient businesses in Red Hook, the Rockaways, and Asbury Park, New Jersey. To make that possible, they propose the "Commercial Corridor Resiliency" project, which includes flood protection measures and commercial revitalization for at-risk businesses. Specifically, this includes, "behavioral modification, such as the creation of preparedness plans and use of deployable flood protection systems, and capital investment in building and tenant spaces." In Red Hook, they create the "Maker’s District," which includes dry and wet-flood-proofed buildings, as well as a raised promenade to promote public access to the water. In Far Rockaway, the team invests in transportation infrastructure and a revitalized  commercial corridor. And in Asbury Park, flood protection measures are put in place to protect the beach and local businesses. The team includes HR&A Advisors with Cooper, Robertson & Partners; Grimshaw Architects; Alamo Architects; Langan Engineering; W Architecture; Hargreaves Associates; and Urban Green Council.

Sweden-based firm White Arkitekter has been named the winner of the "For a Resilient Rockaway" (FAR ROC) design competition. The team's winning proposal, Small Means & Great End, offers a set of design strategies to transform an empty swath of land, known as Averne East, along the Rockaways in Queens, New York into a resilient, mixed-use community. The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), along with private developers and the AIA New York Chapter,  shortlisted four finalists back in July, including Ennead Architects, Lateral Office, and Seeding Office. Ennead's design, "Fostering Resilient Ecological Development," was recognized by the jury for Leading Innovation in Resilient Waterfront Design for its diverse ecological design solutions. White Arkitekter, which has been granted a $30,000 prize to realize its plan for the 80-acre site, has proposed implementing "a series of small, affordable, and smart interventions," which aims to mitigate damage, provide improved access during a storm, and create what they call an "antifragile" environement that fares better during and after extreme weather conditions.

Designed to survive the force of a hurricane, the new prefab bathrooms by Garrison Architects have apparently not been weathering this mild summer very well. DNAinfo reported that the stations are leaking and many surfaces are rusting in the salty air. "I look at it now and I say, 'Is this going to last the winter?'" one anonymous lifeguard assigned to one of the comfort stations told DNAinfo. "There's leaks right next to the equipment closet. They left it half-done and now there's problems. The job was done like people didn't care. It's a monstrosity. It's a debacle." Parks hopes to treat the rust and leaks after the beach season ends. Until then, relieve yourself with caution.

Even as New Yorkers throng to the beaches in the Rockaways, the remnants from Hurricane Sandy still linger. One such vestige is the damaged boardwalk that once stretched from Far Rockaway to Rockaway Park in Queens. The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation with the help of the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) in July seeking designs for the 4.7-mile boardwalk, and now the August 14th deadline is nearing. The RFP calls for a multifaceted approach that incorporates a range of flood protection measures such as seawalls and dunes: "The design shall provide for protective structures that are more resilient and able to withstand storm and tidal forces that may impact the coastline in future years." The proposals will focus on the coastal area from roughly Beach 20th to Beach 126th. The Parks Department anticipates that they will select a group of finalists within the next several weeks, and present the designs to the public and Community Board 14 sometime in September.

Four teams of architects have been selected to envision new possibilities for a long stretch of vacant land along the Sandy-battered coast in the Rockaways. The ideas presented at Thursday's announcement range from practical resiliency tactics to creative design solutions such as dune sand filters, elevated undulating boardwalks, and clusters of low-rise and mid-rise housing. The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) along with private developers and the American Institute of Architects New York Chapter, launched the Far Roc Competition back in April to generate proposals to turn an 80-plus-acre site, called Averne East, into a resilient mixed-use waterfront community. The competition calls on architects to think expansively about the challenges facing the Rockaways and come up with a multi-layered proposals that offer concrete ideas for sustainable mixed-income housing, flood protection measures, and recreation and park land. "We need to build durable, affordable infrastructure for those who really need and deserve it," said Bomee Jung Enterprise Community Partner, an affordable housing organization. The competition yielded 117 submissions from more than 20 countries. The jury panel whittled it down to four finalists, all hailing from across the globe: New York-based Ennead Architects, Toronto's Lateral Office, London-based Seeding Office, and Scandinavian firm White Arkitekter. "We don't have a choice. We have to conquer this challenge if we want to ensure the viability of our waterfront community," said HPD Commissioner Mathew Wambua. "We are eagerly anticipating the final presentation of your visions [addressing finalists]." Plans to develop this site have been brewing for several years. In 2007, HPD and developers—the Bluestone Group, L+M Development, and Triangle Equities—were in talks to build a mixed-income development, but held off when the economic crisis hit. The four finalists will be awarded $30,000 to continue to fine-tune and develop their ideas. The proposal deadline for the second phase of the competition will be on October 7th. In addition to the four finalists, there were six honorable mentions, which included: Michael Cowdy from Sydney-based firm McGregor Coxall; John Ellis from San Francisco and Seatte-based firm Mithun; Iljoong Kim from New York-based firm ijKim Architect; Giuseppe Lignano from New York-based Lot-EK; Pablo Oriol from FRPO Rodriquez & Oriol in Madrid; and Zhang Quian Christopher from Los Angeles and Honk Kong-based eLandScript.

Hurricane Sandy not only caused considerable damage to the Rockaways, but it also exposed the vulnerability of New York City’s waterfront communities to future storms and changing weather patterns. Today, the American Institute of Architects New York, along with NYC Department of Housing Preservation & Development, L+M Development Partners, Bluestone Organization, Triangle Equities, and Enterprise Community Partners, announced a new design competition for "resilient and sustainable development in the Rockaways." The group called on architects to come up with different strategies for how cities can build more thoughtfully in areas prone to flooding. Following the June 14th deadline for submissions, a jury will preside over the proposals. The jury will announce four finalists in July—each of which will receive a stipend of $30,000 to continue to hone their ideas. The winner will be revealed on the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Sandy, and will be granted an additional $30,000 for their work. The Rockaways have been the focus of a number of competitions, including MoMA PS 1's EXPO 1: NEW YORK, that asked artists, designers, and architects to submit 3-minute videos that provide ideas for making the Rockaways more sustainable.

Rockaway Beach, the waterfront community severely battered by Hurricane Sandy, is now the site of MoMA PS1's geodesic dome, a temporary cultural center offering lectures, exhibits, performances, and community events. PS1 kicked off the opening of the VW Dome 2 last Friday with a performance by singer Patti Smith, a fellow Rockaways resident. The museum will collaborate with local organizations in Queens to provide a range of programming over the next few months. The VW Dome 2 is part of a larger upcoming exhibit, EXPO 1: NEW YORK, that will present a variety of ideas and strategies to create a more sustainable waterfront. Last month, MoMA PS1 called on artists, architects, and designers to submit 3-minute video proposals that address relevant issues such as shoreline protections, community engagement, and climate change. The 25 winning submissions will be on view within the next month. Of course, this discussion would be incomplete and shortsighted without the feedback from the local community. Kevin Boyle, editor of The Wave, and Ideas Wanted-columnist Rick Horan have set up a video camera inside the VW Dome 2 and invited residents to participate in a conversation about the recovery efforts and needs of the Rockaways. The first Open Camera Session took place on Saturday, but locals will have another opportunity to offer their input tonight between 6:30 and 8:30 PM. The VW Dome 2 is located at the southern end of the parking lot between Beach 94th and Beach 95th Streets.