Panel Discussion: May 7th 3-4:30pm in the Johnson Theater, Theater for the New City, 155 First Ave., New York NY 10003(212)254-1109
Moderator:
Mark Vacarro, NYC Parks Manager
with the New York City Department of Parks where he has recently assumed responsibility for Community Boards 6 and 8, which span from East 14th Street to East 96th Street, as well as the East River Esplanade which extends to 125th Street.. One of his previous districts, Community Board 9, which included West Harlem, Central Harlem and Manhattanville, was awarded the “Greenest District Award” by the Parks Department under Mr.. Vaccaro’s stewardship. As a landscape designer, Mr. Vaccaro has been central to the development of NYC’s new Pier/Recycling Facility in Sunset Park Brooklyn. This project has already earned an award from the Public Design Commission. Mr. Vaccaro worked as an environmental consultant in the Northeast, Mountain States and Florida. He is the former chair of the Citywide Recycling Board (CRAB) and a former member of the Solid Waste Advisory Board (SWAB). Over the years he has held positions with the New York Botanical Garden, Queens Botanical Garden and Staten Island Botanical Garden. He is a longtime community gardener and practicing horticulturalist in his home community, the Lower East Side.
Panelists:
Richard Moses RA
is a preservation architect working for a private New York City architecture/engineering firm that specializes in historic preservation / exterior restoration in the New York metropolitan area. He has helped plan and execute the restoration of numerous residential, institutional and commercial New York City landmarks, National Historic Landmarks, and buildings listed in State and National Registers of Historic Places. Previously he served for several years as Architect at the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission. He serves on Manhattan Community Board #6’s Parks and Landmarks Committee and is on the Board of Directors of the Historic Districts Council. In 2007 he helped found the Lower East Side Preservation Initiative, a preservation group that advocates for landmark protection for the historically intact areas of the East Village / Lower East Side, where he serves on the Steering Committee.
Magali Regis AIA, Leed AP
-was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, attended middle and high school in Rome, Italy then moved to New York where she studied architecture at Pratt Institute. A world traveler, the cosmopolitan character of New York suited her so she decided to stay and make New York her home. She has been practicing architecture for the past 25 years, working at a variety of firms both large and small, as well as her own small private practice. Her experience includes historic preservation, adaptive reuse, civic buildings, public schools and colleges, high-end residential, retail, hotels and corporate interiors. She is also a community gardener and garden activist, working for the past 15 years to preserve New York’s communal green spaces from looming development. She is also a photographer and a dancer
Kerri Culhane
consults on natural resources conservation and cultural resources preservation projects with a particular interest in cultural landscape studies, including the urban landscape. Since 2002, she has worked with Two Bridges Neighborhood Council to document to history of neighborhoods of the Lower East Side, focusing on architecture as a framework for exploring the social history of the community. In December 2010, she and Two Bridges received the New York State Preservation Award for Outstanding National Register nomination for the Chinatown & Little Italy Historic District. She is currently writing the forthcoming Bowery National Register Historic District nomination, sponsored by Two Bridges Neighborhood Council and Bowery Alliance of Neighbors. After receiving a B.A. in Humanities from SUNY’s Purchase College, she earned a Master of Arts in Architectural History and Historic Preservation from Virginia Commonwealth University; and a Master of Arts in Sustainable Landscape Planning and Design from the Conway School.
Warren Riznychok
received his Masters Degree in Environmental Engineering in 1982 from Manhattan College’s Graduate School of Environmental Engineering. He also was an Adjunct Professor in Manhattan’s Graduate School of Environmental Engineering where he taught Unit Operations of Water and Wastewater Treatment and often lectured on groundwater remediation technologies.
Mr. Riznychok’s professional experience includes work for the Westchester County Health Department, IBM & Malcolm Pirnie Inc. a private Environmental Consulting firm. As a laboratory analyst for Westchester County he was principally responsible for air pollution monitoring throughout the County. For IBM he worked at IBM’s Thomas J Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, NY where he provided laboratory and consulting services on industrial waste recycling, sanitary wastewater treatment and ultrapure water treatment and supply. He also provided internal consulting services to other IBM locations nationwide. As a consultant he provided technical and professional services to NY City Department of Environmental Protection (NYCDEP), US Environmental Protection agency (USEPA), US Department of Defense (USDOD), US Asia International Development (USAID) and various other municipal governments and industry.
For NYCDEP he provided professional and technical consulting services regarding NY City’s drinking water supply, wastewater treatment and hazardous waste remediation. For USEPA he conducted or was involved in over 200 site assessments which included groundwater investigations, on-site observations and recommendations to the extent of contamination. He was also an invited guest speaker where he lectured nationwide for USEPA’s, “Contaminated Sediment Series”. For USDOD he also conducted groundwater and site investigations. His work for DOD included treatability studies on wastewater treatment at Ft. Dix and McGuire Air Force bases to protect the NJ Pine Barrons. He also developed pre-treatment processes for industrial military operations to meet local and state regulatory discharge requirements. He also lectured nationwide for the US Department of Navy on groundwater remediation technologies.
For USAID Mr. Riznychok worked with foreign governments to develop regulatory standards aimed at protecting human life and the countries natural resources as well as area wide planning strategies for development of country-wide treatment and disposal alternatives for wastewater and solid waste disposal. His work for other municipal governments and industry were of a similar nature.
He is the recipient of the Kenneth Allen Memorial Award for his research, “Air Stripping of Contaminated Compounds from Sanitary and Industrial Effluents”.
