Building a Park Above a Blazing Hot Pit Is As Complicated As It Sounds

It can get as hot as 150 arcdegree . There ’s no arable filth to plump for life . And urine ? Water is complicated . This is n’t humankind ’s quest to terraform an exoplanet . It ’s New York ’s plan to build a park above a string yard .

Hudson Yards , a $ 20 billion development underway in Manhattan this year , is destined to become the turgid individual development in US history . As we write last twelvemonth , most of the new vicinity is being builtabove an assailable pit that ’s home to a working rail yard , which has necessitated the construction of a gigantic steel foundation to support several skyscrapers and other buildings that must “ blow ” over the pit .

It ’s an improbably excessive and interesting project , a prime case of Manhattan ’s luxury tangible acres gravy . And while we ’ve heard quite a bit about the residential towers and commercial building being build , it would n’t be complete without a Mungo Park . That seemingly dim-witted amenity has proven more difficult than throw down some greensward and set up a swing set . The developer behind the project , Related Companies and Oxford Properties Group , have shared a few details about the construction of the green space , which sounds so difficult and expensive to build that it may as well be on Mars .

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For case , the K gets hot . Very hot : A “ scorching 150 degrees Fahrenheit , make soil conditions too spicy for tree diagram endurance . ” Then there ’s the soil emergence , which is complicated since the park will rest on a steel foundation . As the landscape architect behind the project bluffly put it toThe New York Times a few week ago , “ we have no soil . ” Not to mention natural drainage .

The developer explicate how they project to deal with these issuing with a ready to hand computer graphic . Let ’s lead off from the bottom up : First , below the actual priming coat level , you ’ve got Amtrak and New Jersey Transit tunnel . Then you ’ve become the above - priming coat train cubic yard , which is currently used to store Long Island Rail Road trains make a motion to and from the metropolis every Clarence Day . caisson punched into the rock around the tracks support the steel structure that holds up Hudson Yards , thanks to a bridge deck - similar series of blade truss that are currently being constructed .

That ’s where thing get interesting . In the plenum blank between the brand beam of light and the soil below the car park , the developer is install 15 gigantic fans—”commonly used in commercial special K engines”—to circulate air and cool down the space :

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It ’ll also install a all-inclusive mat of tubes circulating cooling liquids to keep the soil and root cool enough to support life-time , a organization not unlike a radiant heating or cooling arrangement installed below a place ’s floorboards .

The soil itself , even if it outride cool , is a big challenge too — plants course put down ascendent feet into the soil , but they wo n’t have the hazard at this park , since there ’s only way for about 18 inch of grime or four feet where tree are imbed . The developer say they ’re working on a special “ a specially engineer ‘ soil sandwich ’ of guts , gravel and concrete slab will protect the roots while allowing them to expand . ” Meanwhile , a 60,000 gallon rain collection organization imbed in the plenum will catch and recirculate water to the roots .

It ’s a stack of technology for what will be a belittled park , but that ’s sort of the composition of Hudson Yards itself . As we ’ve said before , it ’s the latest example of how ever - rise belongings value in New York have breathe in radical technological solutions to creating more state . In the 1600s , it was expound the city ’s footprint byinfilling the Hudson . In the 2010s , it ’s building new land over the existing metropolis .

Photo: Jae C. Hong