tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6116573201600174062.post3306299955860876243..comments2013-09-27T07:09:18.427-04:00Comments on Preserve Our Wrecks, Kingston: Great day at Great Lakes Underwater...Kingstondiveprohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18389305647964825168noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6116573201600174062.post-67734532489158030352009-03-24T18:13:00.000-04:002009-03-24T18:13:00.000-04:00Sad day underwater at the Morton Street Wharf, acc...Sad day underwater at the Morton Street Wharf, access will soon disappear with the underwater dock at risk in the future as well.<BR/><BR/>Presented last night at a public forum in Kingston was the proposed Queens Performing Arts Centre at the Morton Street Wharf off of King Street. Long a neighborhood and community park for the launch of kayaks, swimmers, windsurfers, and scuba divers both east and west of the Stella Buck Building, this area has been offloaded by the city to Queens and will be no longer part of the public waterfront. Shore side access is set to disappear permanently. This site now has shoreline parking and direct access to the lake with an entry nothing like the break walls, boulders, and barricades found elsewhere. It would be a shame if more attention is not brought to the loss of this site by this blog.<BR/><BR/>Presented by the prime architects Snohetta at the public forum last night for public input, lacking were any details of the shoreline design certainly underway (more than likely by the local engineering firm responsible for most of shoreline alterations the last few decades in the Kingston area; HCCL) in a probable parallel process. Snohetta prides itself on integrating with the landscape but is absolving itself of the responsibility to enshrine and improve access cloaked in the guise of the separate approval process required with the conservation authority and the federal government. Queens has stated a desire to allow access to the waterfront, most likely it seems now that will include only the tweed clad and bespectacled by day and the crystal in hand evening gown set by night and not the dive clubs and others of the past. <BR/><BR/>Imagine shoreline boulders like those in front of the Time sculpture and parking set well back from the water’s edge and Queens Campus Security to complete the picture. There are some rumors of plans that show a dock over the underwater Morton Street Wharf. It would be a shame if the City of Kingston, Queens, and Snohetta eliminate the convenient and unique access to this historic underwater site.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com