Five FiDi Intersections to Get Historic Makeovers
The City’s Department of Design and Construction (DDC) is seeking permission from another municipal agency, the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC), to expand sidewalks and install curb extensions at five intersections in the Financial District. This approval is necessary because each of the intersections falls within an area popularly known as the Wall Street Historic District, but officially designated as the Street Plan of New Amsterdam and Colonial New York.
A triangle bordered roughly by Wall Street (on the north), Pearl Street (on the east), and a line formed by extending Broadway into Whitehall Street (on the west), this area surrounding the New York Stock Exchange is the sole example anywhere in the five boroughs of the streets themselves (and in particular, their irregular layout) being designated as a historic – and legally protected – landmark.
The sidewalk expansions are planned for the corners of Rector Street and Broadway, Wall Street and Broadway, Hanover Square and Pearl Street, Bridge Street and Whitehall Street, and Beaver Street and Broadway. At several of these intersections, painted curb extensions were installed several years ago, but these were always considered temporary measures because their visual presentation is incongruous with the layout and materials of the historic granite curbs found throughout the Financial District.
In order to maintain the historic character of the existing streets, DDC will model designs for these five intersections on a project implemented several years ago along Broad Street between Wall Street and Exchange Place, at the front doors of the New York Stock Exchange, which carved out newly created pedestrian areas from the street and raised them to the level of the adjacent sidewalk while preserving the curb lines to maintain their visual alignment. That initiative, designed and sponsored by the Downtown Alliance, was approved by the LPC in 2020.