Category: General

Tuesday Links is not Client 9

What the Future Stewart Express Might Look Like

Virgin Wing
I’ve discussed the Port Authority’s new Hudson tunnel project for Stewart International Airport before but there is a new, if fluffy, article in the WSJ, Sending Fliers Up the River To Ease Traffic:

Stewart Airport, an abandoned Air Force base 60 miles up the Hudson River from Manhattan, is being transformed into a fourth airport for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, New York’s airport operator.
…
Chicago proposed creating a third airport in Peotone, Ill., but airlines fought the proposal vehemently. Los Angeles has pumped lots of money into Palmdale, Calif., hoping to make it a reliever for the congested LA Basin, but so far only United Airlines is offering limited, subsidized service.
The idea has worked elsewhere. London’s satellite airports in the countryside have been growing rapidly, driven largely by discounters easyJet and Ryanair. Boston is ringed by several competing airports with commercial service, from big operations at Providence, R.I., and Manchester, N.H., which have become major destinations for Southwest Airlines and others, to fledgling development at Worcester, Mass., and former military bases in Portsmouth, N.H., and Bedford, Mass. Skybus now flies to Portsmouth, formerly Pease Air Force Base about 44 miles from Boston.

What is missing in this cheerleading is investigating why exactly the the airports noted above work. The difference between successful reliever airports, moderately successful reliever airports and unsuccessful reliever airports has everything to do with transportation. London’s Gatwick, Stansted and Luton airports are all successful because they have direct rail links to Central London which takes 30 minutes (Gatwick) to 45 minutes (Luton & Stansted). Additionally, for anyone who has repeatedly flown in and out of London’s Heathrow airport, the chance at flying to a different airport and take a similarly long train to centre London is greatly appealing.1 The Boston airports, Providence, Manchester & Portsmouth all have direct bus connections with Boston’s South Station with an under-hour trip.
For Stewart to become a fully-functioning reliever airport, two things must happen: the three New York airports, La Guardia JFK & Newark must continue their slide into chaos and delay, thus making the trip to Stewart palatable; or, a dedicated single-seat (and quick – a trip of no more then 45 minutes) train service from Stewart-to-Penn Station must be built. Both have costs: time and lost revenue for the airlines, and the cost of connecting Stewart with Penn Station.

Gatwick Express photo by Les Chatfield

Here is how it could be done:
It currently takes 1 hour 33 minutes from Salisbury Mills/Cornwall, the closest Metro-North station, to NY Penn Station with a change at Secaucus Junction.2 The future Stewart Express, would not only need to connect from Salisbury Mills/Cornwall. Suffice to say, this travel time would be trimmed by the Access to the Region’s Core tunnel project, but one problem which will hamper this line is the existing two track right of way. This will need to be upgraded to a minimum three track, but realistically, four track ROW in order to safely operate the Stewart Express to and from Penn Station. An additional staging/repair yard would need to be located somewhere in the system for the additional Stewart Express trains. This is all predicated on being able to purchase, or use the State’s power of eminent domain, to acquire the additional ROW to access Stewart and appropriating the capital expenditure required to build and upgrade the line.
Stewart Express map

ROW of the mythical Stewart Express

All of this adds up to a very long-term project, which in today’s political climate doesn’t have a great deal of chance without a strong support throughout all levels of government.

  1. I deeply love waiting in the cattle pen-like security line, or the three different security checks LHR presents current travellers &#8617
  2. Current riders travel 69 minutes on a local train from Salisbury Mills/Cornwall to Secaucus Junction, wait approximately 10 minutes and then take a NJ Transit train an additional 15 minute NY Penn Station. See complete timetable (pdf) &#8617

Fashion as Architecture

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The Metropolitan Museum of Art has an interesting fashion exhibition installed called, I kid you not, blog.mode: addressing fashion. The tenuous connection to blogs comes in the form of daily postings discussing the individual collection items. The installation itself does not break any new ground, but the assemblage of the unique pieces is interesting in light of the continued commingling of fashion and architecture. Gottfried Semper’s Four Elements of Architecture postulates weaving as one of four basic elements of the Primitive Hut1 (Hearth, Roof, Mound and Fence) where the Fence was composed of woven mats or cloths, not stone. Semper, according to Kenneth Frampton proposes that the woven knot is the oldest tectonic form of the joint.2 So architects have been looking to fashion at least since 1851, with many today dabbling in fashion (Gehry, Karim Rashid).
The question I still have is, do fashion designers drape form better then architects; if so, why? Comments open.

  • Fashion as Architecture
  • Fashion as Architecture
  • Fashion as Architecture
  • Fashion as Architecture
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(left-to-right): Unknown, Unknown, Naomi’s Nemesis by Vivienne Westwood, Dot Boots by Manolo Blahnik & Damien Hirst
    Footnotes

  1. Published 1851, Semper’s work was a response to the many and varied hypotheses published postulating what the one “true” source of architecture was. Charles Darwin’s publication of the theory of natural selection is a contemporary work which undoubtedly fueled the research into primitive forms. Also contemporary to this work was the “discover” that the Greeks used Polychrome throughout their temples, throwing many hundreds of years of certainty into chaos. &#8617
  2. See Weaving as an Analogy for Architectural Design which points us to Studies in Tectonic Culture; The Poetics of Construction in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Architecture by Kenneth Frampton. &#8617