Monday, August 28, 2017

Renderings and Reality

Hudson's Downtown Revitalization Initiative contains a rendering of the Second Street stairs re-imagined. Seeing it reminded me of just how creative and conceptual renderings like this can be.
People familiar with the stairs from Allen Street to Cross Street and those who remember when, before the guardrail was installed at the top in 2012, a septuagenarian hurdled his car down the grassy hill and crashed into the abandoned Kaz warehouse below, are probably doubtful of the feasibility of converting those stairs into the gracious and gentle integrated ramp and stairs envisioned here.
The rendering in the DRI application is reminiscent of a similar integrated ramp and stairs proposed in 2015 for Promenade Hill, which, when designing a ramp became a serious undertaking, was determined to be completely impracticable.
Of course, the most notorious example of renderings that underestimate the steepness of an incline is the rendering for the ramp on Columbia Street, an element of the PARC linear park. 

 Here's the rendering:
Here's the reality:
COPYRIGHT 2017 CAROLE OSTERINK
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6 comments:

  1. ObserverAugust 29, 2017 at 8:21 AM

    Ramblings:

    The Americans with Disabilities Act, as regulated, has slope and grading requirements that must be met.

    Can you imagine this imagined staircase in February covered in ice and snow with no railings? Can you say lawsuit?

    The stairs are as grandiose as those I've seen in the entrance hall of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg. Ridiculous.

    All this money spent on stairs no one uses, well, except for me, which I do use from time to time, especially when I am in a capricious mood.

    Boondoggle.

    ReplyDelete
  2. VincentAugust 29, 2017 at 8:41 AM

    "The rendering in the DRI application is reminiscent of a similar integrated ramp and stairs proposed in 2015 for Promenade Hill, which, when designing a ramp became a serious undertaking, was determined to be completely impracticable."

    I still don't understand this "logic."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Carole OsterinkAugust 29, 2017 at 11:58 AM

      I would respond to this, Vince, if I knew what "logic" eludes you.

      Delete
    2. VincentAugust 29, 2017 at 4:26 PM

      That the stairs are determined to be completely impracticable Carole.

      Delete
    3. Carole OsterinkAugust 29, 2017 at 7:07 PM

      That integrated stair and ramp design was presented to the Common Council as a possibility in 2015, but it wasn't a possibility, which is something we discovered when the landscape architect hired to design the ramp for Promenade Hill started working. The concept had two major flaws: no handrails was one of them, but the bigger problem was that there was no way that something of this design could get someone in a wheelchair from one level to the next in the space available. There are ADA restrictions about the pitch of a ramp, and that requires an enormous distance. That's why the PARC ramp ended up having to have so many switchbacks. That is also why the design for the Promenade Hill ramp had to be a slowly sloping ramp along the north side of the park.

      Delete
  3. MarkAugust 29, 2017 at 4:44 PM

    Let's hope if this is built that the designers and the inspection department pays more attention to the actual ADA regulations than at PARC.

    http://currentmatters.markorton.com/2015/08/accessibility-in-new-linear-park-in-hudson/

    Mark Orton

    ReplyDelete

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