The BroadsheetDAILY ~ 3/8/21 ~ They Plan to Unpave the Parking Lot, and Put Up a Paradise ~ The East Side Competes with the Hudson as Downtown’s Go-To Waterfront Destination

They Plan to Unpave the Parking Lot, and Put Up a Paradise

The East Side Competes with the Hudson as Downtown’s Go-To Waterfront Destination

Above: A rendering of the children’s playground planned for Pier 42 by the landscape architecture firm of Mathews Nielsen, which also contributed to the designs of Pier 25 and Pier 55, in the Hudson River Park. Below: Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer (right) at the groundbreaking ceremony for construction of the park on Pier 42, with City Council member Carlina Rivera (left) and James Patchett president of the City’s Economic Development Corporation (center).

Although the Hudson River Park has emerged in recent years as a focus of Lower Manhattan community life, it may soon have a rival. Planning and development for an East River waterfront park are roughly a decade behind the political dialog and physical construction surrounding the West Side’s network of piers and esplanades, but are nonetheless gathering momentum. A case in point is the impetus to create a grand public space at Pier 42, an eight-acre stretch of abandoned warehouses and parking lots between Montgomery and Jackson Streets on the Lower East Side, located roughly midway between the Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges.

On Thursday, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer presided over a groundbreaking ceremony at Pier 42, marking the start of construction for the second phase of a decade-long project to transform the facility into park, complete with a playground, restrooms, and picnic area, along with a bike path, soccer field, basketball and tennis courts, adult fitness equipment, and picnic tables, all surrounded by shoreline access and waterfront views.

“Today we mark the beginning of Pier 42 upland park and pier’s construction, and the transformation of this site into a recreational amenity for the community,” said Ms. Brewer. “This tranquil landscape will bring much-needed waterfront space to enjoy for the people who live in this neighborhood and is a terrific addition to the Manhattan Greenway.”

Pier 42 is currently the most glaring broken thread in the tapestry of riverside parks that gird Lower Manhattan, but is seen by community activists and urban planners as a site with almost unlimited potential. Built in 1967 as a newsprint terminal, Pier 42 later served as an import station for Dole bananas. By the time it closed in 1987, it was the last working cargo pier in Manhattan.

The first phase of the transformation of the dock, which is now complete, focused on the abatement of hazardous materials and the removal of a vacant shed from the pier’s deck, along with preservation of five structural steel bays.

This schematic illustrates the location of Pier 42 on the East River waterfront, between the Manhattan and Williamsburg Bridges.

The two upcoming stages in the work (now both in progress) involve the creation of public access and recreational amenities on Pier 42’s deck. This work, which began Thursday, is slated for completion in the summer of 2022. At the same time, separate work will continue on repairing the pier’s bulkhead, along with construction of a permanent upland park—including an entry garden, walking paths, and additional landscaping. The segment of the project is scheduled for completion in 2023.

The overall design is being created by the highly regarded firm of Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects, whose work will be familiar to Lower Manhattan residents from projects within the Hudson River Park, such as Pier 25 and Little Island Park (located on Pier 55, and now nearing completion).

The Lower East Side’s ongoing waterfront renaissance was most recently highlighted in April, 2019, when the nearby Pier 35 was transformed into the “Eco-Park”—a 28,000-square-foot facility that includes lawns, dunes, and a sloped concrete “urban beach,” designed to replicate the natural breeding habitat of mussels. This tableau is dominated by corrugated metal screen, 35 feet tall and 300 feet long, which provides a striking visual centerpiece for the park, while also cloaking from view a nearby Department of Sanitation storage facility, and serving as an arbor on which vines will grow in the years ahead. The screen additionally guides both the eyes and the footsteps of park visitors, tracing a graceful arc as it leans forward and stretches toward the water, where it becomes a shade barrier that also supports swings—creating an enclosure that resembles a porch, overlooking the river and framing views of the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges. Before its current incarnation, Pier 35’s last significant use was as a mooring spot for a prison barge, part of a short-lived penal experiment launched in the early 1990s by the administration of then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

All of these projects are part of a larger vision, called the East River Blueway, which supporters hope will create an unbroken string of parks stretching along the waterfront from the Battery up to East 38th Street, while also incorporating flood protection and resiliency measures.

Matthew Fenton

Letter

To the editor,

To place a monument in Battery Park City is yet another example of a Manhattan prejudice as the only city borough that matters.

Without question “the inevitable monument to New Yorkers who have perished as a result of the pandemic” should be situated in the neighborhoods that have suffered the most during this horrible year.

There are certainly venues in other boroughs under the control of the Governor (if that is the compelling reason) which would be much more suitable and located in underserved neighborhoods.

Just to name a couple that immediately come to mind: in Brooklyn, East River State Park or Shirley Chisholm State Park, and in the Bronx, Roberto Clemente State Park.

Louis Kleinman

Today’s Downtown Calendar

Monday March 8

6PM

Community Board 1

Land Use, Zoning & Economic Development Committee

Live Remote Meeting – https://live.mcb1.nyc

AGENDA

1) FY 2022 New York State Executive Budget Article 7 PART L: “Repurposing Underutilized Commercial Space for Housing” – Presentation by Andra Stanley, Housing Committee Director and Counsel and Lizzie Lee, Community Liaison, Office of Senator Kavanagh & Discussion.

2) Planning Together: A New Comprehensive Planning Framework for New York City – Discussion & Resolution

A Satiety of Cenotaphs

Attempting to Prevent a Monumental Mistake

Community Board 1 is trying to preclude the possibility that the inevitable monument to New Yorkers who have perished as a result of the pandemic coronavirus might be situated in Battery Park City.

This is not an idle concern. Governor Andrew Cuomo has recently ordered the construction of two similar memorials within the community: the Mother Cabrini Memorial (which opened last October, and is located overlooking South Cove) and another to commemorate Puerto Rican victims of 2017’s Hurricane Maria (which is now under construction at Chambers Street and River Terrace).

Mr. Cuomo appears to have settled on Battery Park City for his recent spurt of memorial building, at least in part, because it is one of the few areas of New York City that, as chief executive of the State government, he controls directly.

Make more music! Make more art!

For 30 years, the Church Street School for Music and Art has been helping downtowners do just that. On March 10, from 7:30pm to 8:30pm, the Church Street School is hosting The Event, Virtual, its annual fundraiser.

Last year’s partygoers fondly remember the 2020 Event as the last social function many attended before pandemic reality hit. This year, The Event takes place online, offering brilliant musical performances, special guest appearances, and auctions with live bidding. Attendees are invited to then cap the night off at a Zoom after-party.

Tickets and sponsorships are available at multiple price points, including a discounted ticket for families currently enrolled at Church Street School and school alums. View auction items here; get ticket details here.

Above, in a photograph taken before the pandemic, Lisa Ecklund-Flores, executive director of the Church Street School, stands at the school’s White Street front door and welcomes families inside.

CLASSIFIEDS & PERSONALS

Swaps & Trades, Respectable Employment, Lost and Found

To place a listing, contact editor@ebroadsheet.com

A Guide To Lower Manhattan’s 2021 Light Installations

Winter is a little brighter in Lower Manhattan, where you can bask in a whole bunch of colorful light installations this season.

There are two Downtown Alliance-sponsored public art projects on loan from Amsterdam’s Light Art Collection at the public plaza adjacent to 85 Broad.

The sculpture “C/C,” designed by Singapore-based artist Angela Chong, is a bench for seating that transforms into a colorful LED light show at night.

“Talking Heads,” designed by Hungarian artist Viktor Vicsek, is made up of two massive heads dotted with 4,000 LED lights that change to reveal different facial expressions in conversation.

Another Alliance sponsored installation is Ziggy. At the public plaza at 200 Water Street, this interactive piece by design studio Hou de Sous uses cords tied to a steel structure illuminated by colorful lights to create exciting views of the surrounding landscape. You can enter the installation from all angles, and sit on the several “gateways” that serve as benches. At night, Ziggy’s lights add an inviting extra pop of brightness.

Head up Water Street to the Seaport and find “Electric Dandelions,” created by artist Abram Santa Cruz and LA-based art collective Liquid PXL and presented by The Howard Hughes Corporation. In daylight, the ten 28-foot steel-and-acrylic structures look like dandelion flowers; at night, LED lights turn the structures into colorful, rhythmic animations.

(sponsored content)

Downtown Depreciates

Reports Show That Lower Manhattan Properties Are Dwindling in Value

A range of reports indicates that the Downtown real estate market has imploded in the wake of the recession brought on by the pandemic coronavirus. The Downtown Alliance’s “2020 Lower Manhattan Real Estate Year in Review” documents that office leasing fell by almost 70 percent from 2019 levels, to deeper troughs than those that followed the 2008/2009 financial crisis, while local office vacancies spiked to 20-year highs.

Perhaps the most radical undoing, however, was on the residential front. “According to our research, an estimated 40 percent of the local population left amid the pandemic,” To read more…

Great Scott

Comptroller Renews Calls for BPCA to Commit Funds to NYCHA Upgrades

New York City Comptroller and mayoral candidate Scott Stringer is proposing to divert more than $400 million in excess revenue from the Battery Park City Authority to the cash-strapped New York City Housing Authority.

In a 27-point policy outline, “Housing Is a Right, Not a Privilege,” released on Thursday, Mr. Stringer proposes to, “reroute hundreds of millions from the Battery Park City Authority to NYCHA,” arguing that, “NYCHA’s needs are enormous, and it will take sustained commitment at every level of government to address them. To read more…

Wall Street’s Secret Santa:

“It was love right away”

Rest in Peace, Arturo Di Modica

Arturo Di Modica’s Charging Bull stands poised at the foot of Broadway, seemingly sizing up the Canyon of Heroes as a potential urban Pamplona. He feels so perfectly sited, it’s surprising to learn that he began his New York life somewhere else. The Bull holds a few other surprises too.

   On December 15, 1989, downtown New York woke up to find an 18-foot, 7,000-pound present below the 60-foot Christmas tree in front of the New York Stock Exchange. Unwrapped and without a card, no one knew who sent it—or how it got there. To read more

9/11 Victim Compensation Fund Report

More Survivors than Responders Now are Submitting Claims

The September 11th Victim Compensation Fund (VCF) has released its annual report for 2020, which documents some significant developments.

Over the course of its ten years of operation thus far, the VCF has awarded $7.76 billion to more than 34,400 individuals who have suffered death or personal injury as a result of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and their aftermath. The vast majority of these injuries take the form of illness caused by exposure to toxic materials that were released by the destruction of the World Trade Center.

Breakfast time for the Blue Jay  (Cyanocitta cristata)

TODAY IN HISTORY

March 8

A 1921 photo of the NYSE building, and the George Washington statue at Federal Hall

1817 – The New York Stock Exchange is founded.

1920 – The Arab Kingdom of Syria, the first modern Arab state to come into existence, is established.

1936 – Daytona Beach and Road Course holds its first oval stock car race.

1965 – Thirty-five hundred United States Marines are the first American land combat forces committed during the Vietnam War.

1979 – Philips demonstrates the compact disc publicly for the first time.

1983 – Cold War: While addressing a convention of Evangelicals, President Ronald Reagan labels the Soviet Union an “evil empire”.

2014 – Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, carrying a total of 239 people, disappears en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

Births

1712 – John Fothergill, English physician and botanist (d. 1780)

1714 – Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, German pianist and composer (d. 1788)

1841 – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., colonel, lawyer, and jurist (d. 1935)

1924 – Anthony Caro, English sculptor and illustrator (d. 2013)

1945 – Micky Dolenz, American singer-songwriter, drummer, and actor

Deaths

819 – Li Shidao, Chinese warlord

1723 – Christopher Wren, architect, designed St. Paul’s cathedral (b. 1632)

1874 – Millard Fillmore, American lawyer and politician, 13th President of the United States (b. 1800)

1889 – John Ericsson, Swedish-American engineer, designed the USS Monitor (b. 1803)

1917 – Ferdinand von Zeppelin, German general and businessman, founded the Zeppelin Company (b. 1838)

1930 – William Howard Taft, American lawyer, jurist, and politician, 27th President of the United States (b. 1857)

1973 – Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, American keyboard player and songwriter (b. 1945)

2016 – George Martin, English composer, conductor, and producer (b. 1926)

1618 – Johannes Kepler discovers the third law of planetary motion.

1736 – Nader Shah, founder of the Afsharid dynasty, is crowned Shah of Iran.

1775 – An anonymous writer, thought by some to be Thomas Paine, publishes “African Slavery in America”, the first article in the American colonies calling for the emancipation of slaves and the abolition of slavery.

1782 – Gnadenhutten massacre: The Gnadenhutten massacre, also known as the Moravian massacre, was the killing of 96 Christian Lenape (Delaware) by colonial American militia from Pennsylvania on March 8, 1782 at the Moravian missionary village of Gnadenhutten, Ohio during the American Revolutionary War. another sad story of brutality against the Native Americans. To read more, click here

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