Winners of 'Build a Better Burb' contest

AgISLAND

TEAM: Parsons Brinckerhoff: Amy Ford-Wagner, Tom Jost, Ebony Sterling, Philip Jonat, Emily Hull, Will Wagenlander, Meg Cederoth, Melanie George, David Greenblatt, and Melissa Targett.

The proposal envisions relocating some 9 million square feet of office parks along the Rt. 110 corridor in Farmingdale around a reopened Republic LIRR station, creating "a new livable community of residential, retail, entertainment and community users . . . ," and replacing the office parks with organic farms. It creates, Jost said, a "new economy." The community would be connected by the AgTRAIN, which would transport household and commercial garbage to a waste facility to be converted to steam, the energy from which would be distributed to packaging facilities and greenhouses.

LEVITTOWN: Increasing Density and Opportunity through the Accessory Dwellings

TEAM: Ryall Porter Sheridan Architects: Meri Tepper, Ted Porter, Ted Sheridan, John Buckley; Parsons The New School for Design: William R. Morrish.

Allowing accessory apartments in backyards in Levittown "gives residents options to offer accommodation to extended family or to earn additional income through renting," said Meri Tepper. "The idea isn't a new idea by any means. It's been occurring throughout the country in various downtowns and suburban neighborhoods." She added, "The challenge, of course, is that zoning [in Levittown] doesn't allow this at all . . . It's really needed to bring a whole new level of affordable housing."

LONG DIVISION

TEAM: Columbia University's Network Architecture Lab: Kazys Varnelis, Leigha Dennis, Momo Araki, Alexis Burson, Kyle Hovenkotter; Park design firm: William Prince.

The team's projects, large and small, are focused on maintaining Long Island's aquifer, which Prince said is vulnerable to the adverse effects of large-scale development. "We looked at ways to reduce current development and focus it" on already-dense areas. The "West gets more dense and the East is less dense." They propose to concentrate development in places in Hempstead Town such as Hemsptead Village, Garden City, Uniondale and Levittown, and in Babylon and Islip towns. The team proposes to "use longterm planning strategies to depopulate areas that are located over part of the aquifer, parts of the inland Eastern section," said Vernelis.

SUBHUB Transit System

TEAM: DUB Studios: Michael Piper, Frank Ruchala, Natalya Kashper, Gabriel Sandoval and Jeff Geiringer.

The project proposes to free up for development downtown space otherwise used for parking by re-engineering the transit system to let people walk to bus stops and take buses to train stations. Piper noted funding problems for Nassau bus system was a concern. Ruchala added that their plan incorporates new revenue sources by using bus transportation to move mail and goods throughout the Island: "You get the financing for different services combined into one vehicle."

LIRR: Long Island Radically Rezoned

TEAM: Tobias Holler and Katelyn Mulry, New York Institute of Technology; Ana Serra of Buro Happold; Sven Peters of Atelier Sven Peters.

The People's Choice winner includes a range of huge ideas they call a "holistic strategy" - from "flattening out" the Island's many layers of government, which they call an impediment to implementing good ideas, to a "50-year plan to bring Long Island on a path of self-sufficiency," Holler said. Included in the plan: making sure all food for Long Island is grown here, making development "carbon neutral" and having people stop relying on their cars exclusively.

Building C-Burbia

Team: City College of New York, School of Architecture, Landscape Architecture Program: Denise Hoffman Brandt, Alexa Helsell, Bronwyn Gropp

The proposal calls for the creation of "Carbon Sink Landscapes" to help reduce global warming through widescale plantings. Plants naturally absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide through respiration, and store it in their biomass. In C-Burbia, swathes of plantings would extend throughout the suburban landscape: along streets and roads, in unused or underutilized lots, on parking lots and on rooftops, in public spaces and commercial spaces, and in protected Pine Barren and coastal habitats. To reduce sprawl and free up land for plantings, policies would encourage rail transport over cars, and denser multifamily housing. High maintenance lawns requiring chemicals would disappear.

Upcycling 2.0

TEAM: Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation: Ryan Lovett, John Simons, Patrick Cobb.

The student winner calls for incremental renewal, improvisational redevelopment, vertical integration and land use diversity by networks. The students envisioned a flexible funding mechanism for multiuse development in suburbia, in which partnerships or associations of developers, local officials and dues-paying residents would buy parcels and create rental units, stores, offices and cafes in retrofitted single homes, in strip malls and big box retailing, and in larger new developments. The income flowing to the association would fund public benefits and amenities, including parks and greenbelts. The denser, mixed uses and affordable rentals inserted into suburban communities would come with community input and oversight.