FROM BROWNFIELD TO ART MUSEUM IN NEW YORK

["cpeo@cpeo.org" <cpeo@cpeo.org>]

Has anyone heard of or seen other articles about this project?

TC



http://ens.lycos.com/ens/aug99/1999L-08-20-09.html
Excerpt from Environmental News Service Summary August 20,1999


FROM BROWNFIELD TO ART MUSEUM IN NEW YORK

A contaminated former industrial site on the east bank of the Hudson River
in New York will be cleaned up for use as an arts center, New York Governor
George Pataki announced Thursday. Dia Center for the Arts will covert the
former Federal Paperboard facility into a museum for contemporary art,
expected to draw 50,000 to 60,000 visitors each year. "This agreement paves
the way for an idled factory to realize a new life as a public art
gallery," Governor Pataki said. "This project uniquely integrates urban
economic revitalization, natural area preservation, and environmental
restoration at a site that is convenient to mass transportation and the
Hudson River." International Paper, which donated the property to Dia, did
an environmental survey and found soil contaminated with metals and
volatile organic compounds. Groundwater is not contaminated. The site is
adjacent to 70 acres of park land, and most of the site is covered with
leafy trees, thick undergrowth, and wetlands. A portion of the property
will be managed as a natural area by Scenic Hudson, a nonprofit
environmental organization dedicated to protecting the Hudson River Valley.
Dia Center for the Arts will clean up the site under the State Department
of Environmental Conservations' (DEC) Voluntary Cleanup Program. About
2,700 tons of contaminated soil will have to be removed. Funding for the
cleanup will come from federal, state, and county programs and from private
donations.