ArchPaper & City of New Rochelle quietly updated the Armory competition website due to the vigilance and pressure of New Rochelle Citizens, after they were exposed for a complete lack of transparency for a public competition to re-design a public asset.
Since the news broke that United Veterans of New Rochelle / Save our Armory Committee and Shop Architects were eliminated from the Armory re-design competition many of us have written emails, blogged and contacted our elected representatives, along with the “person in charge” of the competition Professor William Menking of Pratt institute and founder of ArchPaper. We sought answers to many concerning questions and vagaries surrounding the entire competition process.
It appears as though this has prompted a reaction in an attempt at damage control and FINALLY the names of the jurors and 6 “basic principles” as criteria have been released (better late than never ??).
The Jurors are:
James Fleming
Bennie Giles
Abby Hamlin
David Kapell
Greg Merchant
Signe Neilsen
Robert Rogers
Chris Selin
The “basic” criteria (for a complex multi-million dollar renovation project) was:
1)Encourage redevelopment of this unique property and highlight its distinctive waterfront features and the structural elements of its significant buildings.
2)Activate a currently underutilized site for the benefit of the public’s enjoyment.
3)Complement and enhance the ongoing revitalization of the New Rochelle shoreline.
4)Honor the site’s heritage.
5)Exhibit architectural excellence.
6)Provide development feasibility.
This information comes almost 2 weeks AFTER they selected the 12 as of yet unknown “firms” that won the first phase of the competition, and 2 months after the competition was announced. The fact that these firms and their designs are unknown as they move to phase 2 is a major problem.
This Friday on August 23rd they are scheduled to take a tour of the Armory so citizens are encouraged to keep an eye out for them to see who these mystery designers are.
It should be noted that not one of the Democratic council members, nor Mayor Bramson, nor development commissioner Luiz Aragon, nor professor William Menking have responded to any emails on the subject. Mind you we pay all their salaries with the exception of Mr. Menking…well maybe…
There has been no response or acknowledgment as of yet to my FOIL request to City Clerk Benny Giles. With all due respect to Mr. Giles and his service to our country, this is a HUGE conflict of interest as he was cited as the veteran on the jury but he works for the city government.
Mr. Giles placement on the appointed jury appears to be an attempt to stop any real information from getting out to the public since all requests for information must go through him.
The changes with the information about the jurors and criteria were added to the about section of the Waterfront Gateway Design Competition website in an attempt to sneak them through without the public noticing they were never there to begin with. As the Screen shots below will show (Click on thumbnail to enlarge).
As of August 16th: 57 Days After Competition was announced. 1 Week after Phase 1 winners?? “announced”.
As of the August 21st: 61 Days After competition begins. 12 Days after Phase 1 winners?? chosen.
There still remain many unanswered questions like:
1) How was Professor Menking hired / appointed to lead the competition? Is he being paid? where did he come from?
2) Now that we know who the jurors are, how were they appointed? why is the newly published list of “jurors” different from the original list that Council members received in July? Why were substitutions made? Who made the substitutions?
3) Where are all the designs that were submitted? what were their grades? How did they compare to each other? How were the winners and losers decided? Vote? Consensus?
4) Why weren’t members of the public invited to observe the jury deliberations. Why was it done in secret?
5) Why did it take so long to update the website with information that should have been there day 1. Why weren’t the winning designs added to the site? Why was the update hidden and there is nothing new on the home page of the competition?
Please feel free to email the following elected representatives and city employees with these questions and tell them how you feel about being played for idiots,how you feel about secret competitions, with secret firms , and secret deliberations away from the public eye. They say that the winning designs were selected by a blind selection process, but the only ones who have been blinded in this process is the public!!
By the way the winner of this “competition” will receive $5,000 as a “prize”, probably paid by you from your taxes, unless mayor Bramson plans to give them some of his Forest City campaign contributions!
Noam Bramson: NBramson@ci.new-rochelle.ny.us,
Noam Bramson: nbramson@optonline.net,
Barry Fertel: bfertel@newrochelleny.com,
Ivar Hyden: Ivar@ivarhyden.org,
Ivar Hyden: ivarhyden@backstreetgallery.com,
Ivar Hyden: ivarhyden@verizon.net,
Jared Rice: jared@jaredrice.org,
Shari Rackman: rackmandistrict6@aol.com,
Luiz Aragon: laragon@newrochelleny.com,
William Menking: wmenking@archpaper.com,
William Menking: wmenking@pratt.edu
William Menking’s phone at Pratt (718) 399-4340.
This is a very informative
This is a very informative video that exposes Bramson’s true motives behind Echo Bay. Pay careful attention to the language being used and note how it is virtually identical to Bramson’s rhetoric. We are being scammed……..
http://youtu.be/kmzdrwKmUN0
So, they will announce the
So, they will announce the winner in December. Why are the adjoining parcels of land included in the competition? I thought the city yard property was already take by Forest City> Something tells me the armory is poised for a major change that benefits Forest City. I wouldn’t trust one member of that jury or the Bramson administration. They are snakes.
Money talks
Do you think it’s just a coincidence that the 4 jurors chosen by City Council (oops!….Noam) are all contributors to Noam’s campaign???
What a surprise!!!!!!!!!!!!
BREAKING UPDATE!!! we got them scrambling!!
Upon closer inspection of the Websites homepage by citizen investigators it was revealed that there were slight but important changes made to cover up the lack of transparency!
The first major edit:
August 9 Announcement of 12 Phase I Winners” was changed to “August 9 Announcement of 12 Phase I Winners to Participants”.
Mr. Menking is covering up for Bramson and his accomplices on city council for the fact that they were supposed to announce phase 1 winners to the public (one would assume). now that was changed to participants only.
it gets better!! there is an addition of 3 new phase 2 dates that now include a public exhibition of the 4 phase 2 semi finalists. October 9th has been changed from announcement of 4 semi finalists to 4 semi finalists selected!
Here are the screenshot thumbnails thanks to Google Cache!! (click on image to enlarge)
Aug 12, 2013 05:03:41 GMT
Current as of August 21st
Update on Competition
Great job, Moises! Keep on it…..maybe we’ll find out the names of the 12 Phase 1 winners.
Just a smoke screen of transparency!
The information is very rarely if ever announced. It is just posted to the City of New Rochelle Web Site on a Friday afternoon, this following a rally of complaints about the process. The City of New Rochelle can now say that it was posted and the public had access to the information. Same canned response. I have complained about these tactics for some time now.
I received this e-mail notice from The Department of Development on Friday afternoon at 4:30 PM.
New Newsflash Waterfront Gateway Design Competition Proceeds to Phase II
Posted on: August 16, 2013 New Rochelle City Web Site:
http://www.newrochelleny.com/civicalerts.aspx?AID=630
Waterfront Gateway Design Competition Proceeds to Phase II
Waterfront Gateway Design Competition Proceeds to Phase II
This past June the City of New Rochelle in partnership with The Architect’s Newspaper launched a creative and innovative design competition to re-imagine the City’s waterfront in the area of Echo Bay. This three-part competition focuses on the development of a 2.92 acre plot located at the edge of the downtown on Route 1. Adjacent to residential neighborhoods, the site is located on an important promontory overlooking Long Island Sound’s Echo Bay and is currently home to a former naval armory.
The interest in the design competition generated 28 transformative design submissions which were then reviewed and analyzed by a volunteer jury through a blind process without identification of the applicant or architect. The volunteer voting jury is comprised of industry professionals, local residents, and a representative of the veteran community: Robert Rogers, Abby Hamlin, Dave Kapell, Signe Nielsen, James Fleming, Chris Selin, Gregory Merchant, and Bennie Giles.
Each proposal was reviewed and judged based on six basic principles:
1. Encourage redevelopment of this unique property and highlight its distinctive waterfront features and the structural elements of its significant buildings;
2. Activate a currently underutilized site for the benefit of the public’s enjoyment;
3. Complement and enhance the ongoing revitalization of the New Rochelle shoreline;
4. Honor the site’s heritage;
5. Exhibit architectural excellence; and
6. Provide development feasibility.
The Phase 1 jury process has now concluded with the invitation to the top twelve transformative proposals to move into the next phase of the competition. The competition will now move into the Phase II portion which will focus on the selection of developer partners in order implement each of these innovative visions. It is expected that four (4) semi-finalist winners will be announced by October 15th and will be invited to participate in a public exhibit of the work to the community.
“We are delighted with the interest and level of participation this competition has generated,” said Development Commissioner Luiz Aragon. “It is a statement of the importance of our City in the true mosaic that is New York State. New Rochelle is at the right place at the right time.”
Detailed information about the competition can be found at http://www.newrochellecompetition.archpaper.com.
The winner will be announced in December.
It is time for the New Rochelle City Council to step up and hold everyone accountable. They must start doing the same amongst themselves. This is not Monopoly. It is the Game of Life and they are playing with our money for real!