Rob Fellows has been chosen as one of sixteen experts to serve on a visual quality panel for the new Tappan Zee Bridge, aimed at improving the aesthetics of the new bridge and hearing community input about its appearance, the state Thruway Authority announced today.
The panel will provide guidance to the contractors for the project, Tappan Zee Constructors, who have already released preliminary designs. The panel will consist of one chairperson appointed by the Thruway Authority, a visual quality manager from the design-build team and one from the Thruway Authority. It will also have 13 public representatives. Construction is expected to get underway this year for the roughly $4 billion bridge over the Hudson River between Westchester and Rockland counties.
“Along with expanding mass transit, a central goal of this project is to give the people of Westchester and Rockland Counties, as well as the entire Hudson Valley, a bridge they can be proud of,” said Thruway Authority Chairman Howard Milstein in a statement. “The Visual Quality Panel will give the public a direct line to the design team. Their recommendations will help us make informed decisions about what options on the bridge are best for the surrounding communities.”
The 16 members of the panel are:
· Robert Fellows, Rockland Center for the Arts
· Brian Conybeare, VQP Chair, Special Advisor to Governor Cuomo, Thruway Authority
· Darrell E. Waters, Design-Build Team Visual Quality Manager, Tappan Zee Constructors
· Heather Sporn, Thruway Authority Visual Quality Manager, NYS Dept. of Transportation
· David Aukland, Tarrytown Planning Board
· Suzanne Barclay, Town of Orangetown
· John Bonafide, Division for Historic Preservation, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation
· Ed Burroughs, Westchester County Planning Commissioner
· Jerry Faiella, Executive Director of Historic Hudson River Towns, former New Castle Town Administrator
· Barbara Hess, Hess Architects
· Andrew Klemmer, President of Paratus Group and Scarsdale resident
· Richard Kohlhausen, Rockland County Community College Board, Capitol Risk Management
· Elma Reingold, Irving Resident, Assistant Principal of the High School of Art and Design, NYC
· Alison Spear, Ennead Architects
· Thomas Vanderbeek, Rockland County Planning Commissioner
· Victoria Weisel, MS, LMSW, Irving Neighborhood Association