By Design - Winter 2014

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From 1948 to 1970, the Ferry
Point site at the foot of the
Whitestone Bridge in the Bronx,
New York operated as a landfill.
But in 2008, New York City Mayor
Michael Bloomberg initiated the
design and build of a public golf
course on the site.
“Any golf course designed atop a
landfill has special challenges. These
include additional infrastructure,
landfill closure requirements, permit
approvals, methane venting and
monitoring, extreme differential
settlement control measures,
massive erosion control,
wetlands creation, and
water quantity and
quality,” explains
John Sanford,
ASGCA, who
has considerable
experience in
landfill projects
and was the project
manager on this
Jack Nicklaus
Signature Golf
Course, with Jim Lipe,
ASGCA the senior
design associate.
“To meet this challenge and create
landforms that emulate a links course,
two million cubic yards of fill was
imported over a four-year period,” said
Sanford. “Union contractors and ‘Big
Apple’ bureaucracy made the design
and construction process extremely
complicated.” A mandate to use
city water put a premium on water
conservation, and excavation was
minimized to reduce the impacts of
removing unearthed municipal solid
waste from the site.
With just 70 acres of irrigated area,
water consumption was minimized, as
was the use of fertilizers and pesticides.
Over a third of the runoff is recirculated
back to the irrigation pond through the
drainage system and reused
on the golf course. The
balance is delivered to a
series of detention basins
designed with micro
pools and wetland
plantings to trap and
biologically filter
sediments, nutrients
and chemicals.
“An integral part of
building this golf course was
‘closing’ the landfill,” says
Sanford. “Venting systems
were designed to alleviate
the buildup of methane
gases and avoid internal
combustion.”
Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point
will open to the public in 2015, and
Sanford believes “will become the
model for environmental stewardship
in the landfill reclamation industry.”
TRUMP GOLF LINKS AT FERRY POINT
Location:
Bronx, New York
Architect:
Jack Nicklaus, ASGCA Fellow
Jim Lipe, ASGCA
John Sanford, ASGCA
Nicklaus Design/Sanford Golf Design
Project summary:
A former landfill in New York City
was transformed to an Irish links-
style golf course that demonstrates
a high level of environmental
stewardship.
Partners:
Toro Irrigation