South St Seaport Neighborhood Development

[ZippyTheChimp]

http://www.downtownexpress.com/

Constructing luxury homes in the Seaport’s historic buildings

By Alison Gregor

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Downtown Express photo by Elisabeth Robert

South Street Seaport was once the rakish portal to New York City commerce but never recovered from a 19th-century decline, even with the advent in recent decades of a touristy theme mall.

But a renaissance may be in the offing with efforts by the city and real estate developers to make the historic marine neighborhood more amenable to potential residents.

Several developments are in the works or planned along with large-scale renovation of the East River waterfront and changes to the Seaport itself. The once dynamic but now decaying Seaport is becoming a full-fledged residential neighborhood.

“In 1997, people talked about the people living down here, and there was almost a pioneering mentality to it,” said John Evans, vice president of Sciame Development, one of the Seaport’s developers. “It’s not that way any more. It’s an increasingly stable and residential community.”

According to data from Community Board 1, as of a year ago, about 575 residential units had been added to the 12-block Seaport area since the 2000 census, and at least 95 units were under construction. In the neighboring Financial District, about 5,800 units were created or under construction.

Developers speculated that all of those new residents of Lower Manhattan could either head west or east for their weekend and evening leisure.

Denizens of the Seaport hope they’ll go east.

“Where do these people go to have a cup of coffee?” Evans asked. “To get some peace and quiet? To not be part of the business world?

“These people are going to walk to the Seaport neighborhood and the East River waterfront to the extent that it is an inviting destination.”

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Downtown Express photo by Elisabeth Robert

Developers of 14 properties on Front St. and Peck Slip (L-r): Tony Zunino and Richard S. Berry of Zuberry Development Corp. and Frank Sciame and John Evans of Sciame Development.

Sciame Development aims to make it one. A Seaport denizen, Frank Sciame bought 247 Water St. in 1990, made it his headquarters for many years and then converted it to condominiums. The company’s new headquarters are at 80 South St., another Seaport location that will soon harbor an architecturally unique skyscraper.

Though construction on that tower designed by renowned architect Santiago Calatrava hasn’t yet begun, Sciame Development is close to completing a project called Historic Front Street, which will bring 95 rental units to market and create about 25,000 square feet of retail space by March.

The site was one that passed through at least two developers’ hands over the course of decades but will finally go to market in early March.

Sciame Development, which is working with Zuberry Associates L.L.C. and the Durst Organization, has gone to great lengths to preserve the 18th-century architecture of Front St.

“We made a conscious effort to keep as much of the historic fabric in place and as exposed as possible,” Evans said.

Eleven historic buildings were renovated and three new ones built. The development has many facets that might interest potential buyers.

The exteriors of buildings were maintained and look like they’ve survived two centuries.

“We tried to reflect the reality of the block as one originally built when the South Street Seaport was the center of world commerce and then went through a century of decline,” Evans said. “Buildings were beat up and had a lot of different lives to them, so we chose to grout-inject the façades, rather than tear them down and rebuild.”

The buildings were former warehouses and, as much as possible, the interiors were preserved. The timber framing is exposed, as are masonry walls wherever practical. There are even industrial hoists remaining in some units.

Yet interiors also received an upscale finish befitting luxury apartments, including wood floors, stone counters, marble baths and stainless steel appliances.

“In the interior, we tried to bring out the history in a very refined way,” Evans said.

The three new buildings constructed were not made to look like 18th-century buildings, but were designed to fit into the context of nautical Front St. There are only four penthouses in the entire development.

And the building at Front St. and Peck Slip was designed by architect Richard Cook to give the impression of a ship moored against a warehouse.

That’s because all the streets called “slips” in the Seaport area were once water, and later, inlets where ships could harbor. The original coast of Manhattan lay at Pearl St. but was extended by ambitious Dutch and English settlers.

The Seaman’s Church Institute at 241 Water St., also built by Sciame, has a similar ocean liner design.

Principals in the Historic Front Street project hope this blend of historic preservation and innovative architecture will draw the masses back to New York’s eastern waterfront.

“These are designed to bring the New York community down to the water,” said Richard S. Berry, managing member of Zuberry Associates.

Another reason the project has been closely watched is its “green” design, Berry said. The use of a geothermal heating system on rather small, historic buildings is new. It’s also perfect for historic buildings that would be otherwise marred by cooling and heating towers and other bulky rooftop equipment.

Berry said that unlike the green buildings being built in Battery Park City, which is close to the Hudson River, developers at Historic Front Street had to carve 10 wells about 1,500 feet into the ground to provide enough surface area for cooling and heating. The project is breaking new ground.

“We have our fingers crossed,” Berry said. “It’s just never been done to this extent.”

And that’s not everything that’s green about the project. The Historic Front Street buildings also use photovoltaics, which are solar cells. They will have green roofs in five years, a time restriction mandated by the federal government, which regulates historic buildings.

Those types of limiting rules also guide building size.

“Scale was very important to us,” Evans said.

Building heights in the South Street Seaport Historic District, which stretches from the Brooklyn Bridge to Fulton Street and from South to Pearl Sts., were limited to 120 feet by zoning regulations passed in 2003. That’s a 25 percent increase over the tallest building in the Seaport, which is 91 feet.

Yet the move still irks at least one property owner in the Seaport area, the Milstein family, which owns the historic district’s largest vacant lot at 250 Water St. The family would like to build a 23-story residential tower there.

The Milsteins sued to block the 120-foot zoning rule, but they have not yet decided to appeal a decision issued against them in September.

Evans said Sciame and partners bought the historic Front St. lots with the height restrictions in place, and they have no regrets. The project was financed with $46 million in tax-free Liberty Bonds, a post-9/11 fund that requires the units to be rentals.

Some residents have criticized what they see as the creation of a potentially transient block due to its rental nature, but most have supported the development.

“These units are really designed for people we think will stay around for quite a long time,” Berry said. “They have washer-dryers; they have home-office type uses; they’re multi-bedroom; they’re really meant to be homes.”

Paul Goldstein, district manager of Community Board 1, said residents would have chosen co-ops or condominiums had they the opportunity, but the federal Liberty Bond legislation was prohibitive.

“We would have preferred that the legislation was more flexible,” he said. “That was a mistake, probably, in the drafting of the legislation.”

Units at Historic Front Street range in size from 600 to 1,400 square feet and are mostly one- and two-bedroom apartments. Developers believe one bedroom apartments may cost $2,400 to $3,000 a month, while two bedroom units may pull in $3,500 to $5,500 a month.

“Some of the units have just tremendous outdoor space which is really what sets off the high end,” Evans said. “There’s 500 to 700 square feet of outdoor space for some of these penthouses.”

Even as Sciame and its partners are preparing to sell these apartments, they have questions about the fate of the South Street Seaport. The Fulton Fish Market, a mainstay, will soon vacate the Seaport, leaving the future of two large buildings undetermined. The Rouse Company, which has operated the Seaport since the 1970s, was recently bought out by General Growth Properties, a company that manages malls nationwide.

A rumored collaboration among the city, Rouse and one of Manhattan’s largest developers, The Related Companies, which proposed bringing the Cirque du Soleil to the Seaport, may be dead. Neither Rouse nor General Growth Properties returned phone calls regarding the future of the South Street Seaport.

“There’s a huge chunk of the waterfront that’s going to become available, and that’s very sensitive in terms of whose needs this will meet,” Evans said. “Will it be a tourist need? A residential need? A commercial need? Or perhaps something that blends all three.”

The city appears to be committed to preserving what’s left of a commercial center that thrived starting in the 16th century and continued to fire the imaginations of New Yorkers even a century after its decline in the late 19th century. The revitalization of the Seaport is only one small part of monumental plans to rebuild all of Lower Manhattan since the 9/11 attacks.

Included in that vision are plans to overhaul the East River waterfront, including possibly creating a wading pool among the cobblestones of Peck Slip. Tearing down the biggest obstacle to the river, the F.D.R. drive, has been notably absent from the city’s plan, though some design-minded residents of the Seaport have lobbied for it.

Sciame Development expects to begin construction on the Calatrava “Townhouses in the Sky” project in 2005 at 80 South St., Sciame’s latest headquarters.

The upscale tower, designed by Calatrava, may well be a barometer of just what the real estate market will bear in the South Street Seaport area.

It’s the Seaport’s first attempt at a luxury residence.

“The Calatrava project says, look, Downtown is one of New York’s most dynamic neighborhoods, and because of that, projects like this are justified,” Evans said.

Developers hope to rake in $35 million for each of 10 cube-shaped townhouses stacked in the 835-foot high-rise, which also includes two retail spaces. They hope to capitalize on lovely views and spaces that can be tailored down to the smallest detail to suit any buyer’s tastes.

“We’re not actually selling real estate,” broker Ayesha Kahn said. “When you look at the building, you realize you’re buying a piece of art.”

Not all current residents of the Seaport are thrilled with the changes that are taking place in the neighborhood.

Joe Bradshaw moved into Southbridge Towers, a Mitchell-Lama rental building on the edge of the Seaport, in 1973 after he was released from his tour of duty in Vietnam.

Bradshaw, whose wife is a painter who documents historic New York, said many of his neighbors want to cash in on the skyrocketing appreciation rates on Seaport properties by taking the 1,651-unit co-op private.

But that doesn’t sit well with him.

“A lot of things change, I guess for the better, but you lose a piece of history,” Bradshaw said. “I think the older residents feel a little scared that they may be pushed out.”

Buildings like the proposed tower at 80 South St. alarm residents, Bradshaw said.

“I think people feel like [the Seaport] has become a little too cosmopolitan, a little too mall-ish, a little too suburban,” Bradshaw said. “A lot of them are the Jewish, Italian, Irish older immigrants who grew up in the area, looking out for each others backs, and they feel like a lot of the camaraderie is lost.”

But Bradshaw is also an owner of PJ Kelly’s, a popular pub at 90 Fulton St., so he can’t be too down on plans to rejuvenate Lower Manhattan. He supports a currently unfunded city-Lower Manhatan Deveolopment Corporation initiative to upgrade Fulton St., the primary artery into the Seaport, into a major east-west corridor in Lower Manhattan.

“I think it’s good for the area,” he said.




Downtown Express
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Email: josh@downtownexpress.com

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[Stern]

I like a couple of things mentioned in the article.

I like how 80 South Street is on the fast-track for construction in 2005. I can’t believe this is an attainable reality, it was initially proposed to start in 2006. I like how it has kept a low-profile and how there is no “real” opposition to it other than, it’ll change the neighborhood, duh. I suppose however the residents know what we do, that the tower could’ve been much larger if Sciame combined the air-rights of neighboring buildings that he already owns. Its also the nature of Sciame himself, he’s not Donald Trump, he’s a CUNY graduate whose only ambition is to put a piece of art on the downtown waterfront and restore the skyline. The very nature of the design guarantees either a failure or at the very least breaking even.


I’m also very very happy to learn the proposal for a mall has fallen through at the Fulton Fish Market. This is a sleeper site; surely its size and value is a subject of contention. However I agree with the current notion for the site that it combine retail, residential, and commercial, and be fully functional as mixed use. I’ve never been a fan of the South Street Seaport, it’s touristy and completely wrong for the area, its an attempt at Boston’s Wharf and Quincy Market, both of which I hate. Something that offers something, not everything to the tourist is ideal. For instance I like the free tours offered at the South Street Seaport. However the focus has to be on what’s best for the city, the area is at a unique juxtaposition, and a combination of commercial, residential, and retail would best suit it.

[Derek2k3]

Good news for the area. I wonder what's going to happen on the piers of the unrealized Guggenheim proposal. 80 South Street was always slated to start in 2005 (though I never didn't believe it) and slated for completion late 2006, early 2007.

[Stern]

80 South Street was always slated to start in 2005 (though I never didn't believe it) and slated for completion late 2006, early 2007.

Sciame’s all-time most daring enterprise is the tower. If all goes well, construction could begin as soon as late next year or early 2006 and take two years.

"It will take about 18 months to build and after saying he would start in 2005, Sciame immediately amended that to 2006. “I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself I have enough of that from clients,” he said. "

2005 was the optimistic start-date but depending on how everything came together (design, approval, financing) a 2006 start date was more realistic. I’m glad everything is together and construction can start in a number of months.

[RedFerrari360f1]

The developer of 80 South Street has been very inteligent in his doings compared to those of his fellow, more cumbersome cohorts. This will be a very exciting building to watch going up, not only for its location but presence and over all symbolism. Great article. P.S., I really dont get the feel that the sea port feels, "suburban". Does anyone else share that take?

[TLOZ Link5]

The city appears to be committed to preserving what’s left of a commercial center that thrived starting in the 16th century

Whaaaaa?

[billyblancoNYC]

I don't know why the Liberty Bonds would require rentals. NYC should promote more ownership. Anyway, while the seaport is too touristy, I would love to see Cirque there. It would be a huge draw to all of Lower Manhattan.

[ZippyTheChimp]

An incredible amount of construction activity on Front St between Beekman St and Peck Sllip. It seems like every building, including the street, is being worked on.

Views are south and west from Peck Slip.

[billyblancoNYC]

This is all "one" development, by Sciame (of soon-to-be 80 South St. fame).

[aquasrf2]

I was searching Craig's list and saw a new 51 story luxury high rise taking applications for march 1st occupancy around south street seaport area. I was wondering if anyone knows where this new high rise is located?

[ZippyTheChimp]

2 Gold St

[ZippyTheChimp]

http://www.downtownexpress.com/

Firm dips its toes in Seaport waters

By Ronda Kaysen

South Street Seaport may soon get some serious attention. General Growth Properties, the retail giant that acquired the property last year, has been making the rounds with various city and community officials and may unveil plans for the area as early as this summer.

“General Growth is ecstatic about the prospect of owning the South Street Seaport, they’re very excited about having a presence in Lower Manhattan,” said Michael Piazzola, whom General Growth retained as general manager of the Seaport Marketplace when it took over last November.

When Maryland-based General Growth acquired the Rouse Company last year for $12.6 billion, it also took ownership of the Seaport Marketplace, Pier 17 and first refusal rights to the city-owned Tin Building and Fulton Fish Market stalls, once the Fish Market leaves.

General Growth has remained decidedly tight-lipped about its plans for the area, but recent informal discussions with officials from the Downtown Alliance, Community Board 1 and the Economic Development Corporation indicate that the company plans to focus its attention on the area, which has long been characterized by a noted lack of appeal.

The company recently hired Beyer Blinder Belle, the large architectural and planning firm known for its preservation work, as a design consultant, said Paul Goldstein, C.B. 1’s district manager.

General Growth “thinks some major changes are due and so do we,” Goldstein said. General Growth, says Goldstein, hopes to present concept plans to C.B. 1 by the summer, and has its eyes on the Tin Building and Market stalls. “They are definitely interested in utilizing that space,” Goldstein said.

The Seaport area suffers from a profound lack of neighborhood-appropriate retail, said Goldstein. The prospect of General Growth — the second largest publicly traded retail investment firm in the country with 217 shopping centers nationwide — taking the helm is heartening, he added. “That’s what they do, they run shopping malls,” he said. “There is some feeling to let them do what they do best.”

“General Growth has centers that appeal to every demographic,” said Piazzola, who anticipates a mixture of national and local retailers to fill the area. However, “It is too early to publicly discuss or reveal what those plans or discussions have entailed to date.” Piazzola and Michael McNaughton of General Growth, who is spearheading the Seaport redevelopment project, have met with Downtown leaders and city officials in recent weeks.

Frank Sciame, a prominent Seaport developer, hopes to see a cultural center added to the area. “I’d like to see things that enhance the 24-7 neighborhood and that really make it a New York experience rather than a tourist destination,” he said in a telephone interview. “Something that would be cultural and attract New Yorkers.”

Sciame is currently at work on two residential projects in the area — a luxury condo tower designed by Santiago Calatrava at 80 South St., which is awaiting approval from the state Attorney General’s office this spring, and Historic Front Street, a 95-unit rental project, which includes the restoration of historic buildings and should be complete by May.

General Growth will unveil its plans for the area at the International Council of Shopping Centers international convention in Las Vegas this May, according to Faith Hope Consolo, chairperson of the retail leasing and sales division for Prudential Douglas Elliman.

The area needs a variety of retail, added Consolo. “Now that New Yorkers are much more sophisticated, they need a wonderful cultural experience, a wonderful home furnishings store, a Whole Foods, an IKEA.”

So long as General Growth respects the architectural character of the neighborhood — mainly low-lying historic buildings — Goldstein expects the community to respond favorably to their plans.

“Downtown Alliance is enthusiastic about their plans for the area,” said Tom Nardacci, a spokesperson for the Alliance, of a recent meeting with General Growth and Downtown Alliance president Carl Weisbrod. “We look forward to this moving forward.”

Some of the tenants of Pier 17, one of General Growth’s newly acquired properties, are wary of their landlord’s intentions, however. Several tenants lodged a lawsuit against Rouse shortly before General Growth purchased the company, alleging Rouse engaged in “fraud, breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, bad faith and unfair dealing.” A court date is scheduled for March 31.

“We have heard all this before,” said Mike Flanagan, a co-owner of MacMenamin’s Irish Pub at Pier 17 and a plaintiff in the lawsuit against Rouse. “The good times are always two or three years away.”

A source close to the project that requested anonymity thinks details are less than forthcoming from General Growth specifically because of the ongoing litigation by Pier 17 tenants. Any ideas General Growth fields, said the source, may be stymied by disgruntled tenants.

Consolo sees no reason why the lawsuit would have any effect whatsoever on a company of General Growth’s size and scope. “This lawsuit is nothing to [General Growth.] This is a few disgruntled shopkeepers,” she said. “Whether [the tenants] are justified or not, they’ve had hell to deal with. I don’t blame them” for filing suit.

The tenants’ chief grievance has been a steady decline in traffic to Pier 17 and a slow exodus of retailers from the four-story structure.

General Growth’s measured pace is not a hindrance for everyone, however. The city has its own plans for the seaport area, including a $150 million redevelopment project for the East River waterfront. “In some ways it works to our advantage” that General Growth does not have a plan yet, Michael Samuelian, director of Lower Manhattan special projects, said at a recent C.B. 1 meeting. “If we have a concept already developed, General Growth needs to fold into our concept.”

Ronda@DowntownExpress.com

[pianoman11686]

A Mall in Decline Eyes Fish-Market Space

By WILLIAM NEUMAN

Published: July 3, 2005

THE South Street Seaport has long been perceived as a mall in decline - but fortunes there could begin to change this summer when the neighboring Fulton Fish Market is expected to move to the Bronx, creating an opportunity for the shopping center's owner to expand and revive the Seaport.

The mall's owner, General Growth Properties, a large real estate investment trust, has told the city that it plans to exercise an option in its lease to take over portions of the fish market, including the Tin Building on Pier 17, which has landmark status, and several brick fish market stalls on South Street, city officials and a mall executive say.

In preparation, the company has hired the architecture firm of Beyer Blinder Belle to come up with a plan for an expanded and possibly reconfigured Seaport, according to Michael Piazzola, vice president and general manager of Seaport Marketplace, the company that operates the mall for General Growth. Beyer Blinder Belle has been asked to find ways that the new properties can be incorporated into the current complex, which includes a series of shops and restaurants along Fulton and Front Streets and a three-tier mall on Pier 17, in the East River.

"They're basically on a fact-finding mission to understand what the development potential of the site is, what the as-of-right looks like and what the potential is over and above what the zoning allows today," Mr. Piazzola said.

General Growth has also met with members of Community Board 1, which covers Lower Manhattan, and the city's Economic Development Corporation, to discuss possible Seaport changes. "There's this desire for more than just retail," Mr. Piazzola said. Possible uses include restaurants, cultural venues and housing, he said.

The company has six months after the fish market departs to exercise its lease option. The market, which has been on South Street for more than 180 years, is scheduled to move to a new facility in Hunts Point in the Bronx this summer, although the move has already been postponed several times.

The Chicago-based General Growth took over the Seaport last November, when it acquired the Rouse Company, which created the mall. The Seaport was developed in 1983 on property leased from the city.

Some ideas for an expanded Seaport had already been explored by Rouse, which last year was on the verge of a deal with the Related Companies and the city to knock down the Pier 17 mall and replace it with a theater for Cirque du Soleil, the Montreal-based avant-garde circus. General Growth opted not to follow through with that deal when it bought Rouse.

The Rouse plan, however, is a focus of a lawsuit filed against the mall operator by a group of Pier 17 merchants last fall in state Supreme Court in Manhattan seeking $80 million in damages. General Growth has inherited the lawsuit, in which the tenants charge that Rouse overbilled them for a variety of charges, misappropriated funds meant to promote the Seaport and sought to drive away tenants to clear the way for its planned redevelopment.

The tenants who filed the suit say they were never informed of the talks between Rouse, Related and the city, which included provisions to buy them out or have the state condemn their leases. General Growth has pursued eviction proceedings against several merchants involved in the lawsuit, claiming that they have fallen behind on payments or that their leases had expired.

David Keating, a General Growth spokesman, refused to discuss the suit or the company's redevelopment plans. Lawyers for the company have asked a judge to dismiss portions of the lawsuit and say the charges are unfounded.

Gerry Nally, who owns the Seaport Watch Company in the Pier 17 mall, is a prime mover behind the lawsuit. He says that his sales dropped 37 percent from 2000 through 2004. In that period, he says, promotional events at the mall became less frequent or declined in quality and stores offering less-upscale products were added at the mall.

The Seaport, covering 260,000 square feet, is really two malls in one. Merchants on the terra firma portion of the mall, on and around Fulton Street, have not joined the lawsuit and apparently have not had the same problems. Complaints are concentrated on Pier 17, which has always had a greater challenge attracting customers because it is more out of the way.

Merchants on the pier also say escalators installed in 2000 routinely break down. And they complain that General Growth has continued a pattern, first established by Rouse, of renting out many stores on short-term leases for far below what the more established merchants are paying. Mr. Nally estimated that about half of the pier's tenants are on short-term leases. These short-term tenants include T-shirt shops, a bonsai shop and a poster gallery.

Mr. Piazzola said General Growth "has a very aggressive specialty leasing division" that has a standing relationship with small retailers that may take temporary space in several malls at one time, or move from mall to mall as space becomes available. "That drives a lot of revenue for the company, and by its very nature specialty leasing deals are short term," he said.

Asked if maintaining short-term leaseholders at Pier 17 was part of a larger strategy, he said, "At the end of the day we've hired an architect, we're planning on repositioning the project in the marketplace and the landlord has every right to maintain its flexibility with regard to its occupancy."

Meanwhile, retail brokers said the Seaport is off the radar screen of high-end retailers seeking space in Manhattan. "Brokers go to other areas where the retailers want to go," said Benjamin Fox, executive vice president of Newmark Retail. He pointed to heavy competition for shoppers from areas like Times Square and said the Seaport must find a way to distinguish itself.

Matthew Ostrower, an analyst with Morgan Stanley who specializes in the retail sector, said General Growth is the second largest retail REIT in the country. "Redeveloping mall assets is their bread and butter: buying a 'B' mall and trying to turn it into an 'A' mall, buying a 'C' mall and trying to turn it in to a 'B' mall," he said.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2005/07/03/realestate/03sqft.xl.jpg

Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

[hey19932]

does anyone have any recent pics of "historic front street"?

[ZippyTheChimp]

Progress on Front St.

http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/4091/frontst016nk.th.jpg (http://img189.imageshack.us/my.php?image=frontst016nk.jpg) http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/4115/frontst027eo.th.jpg (http://img189.imageshack.us/my.php?image=frontst027eo.jpg)

Beekman St
http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/5288/frontst035jx.th.jpg (http://img189.imageshack.us/my.php?image=frontst035jx.jpg) http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/637/frontst047wa.th.jpg (http://img189.imageshack.us/my.php?image=frontst047wa.jpg) http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/2227/frontst052tp.th.jpg (http://img189.imageshack.us/my.php?image=frontst052tp.jpg)


http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/7049/frontst060vs.th.jpg (http://img189.imageshack.us/my.php?image=frontst060vs.jpg) http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/1207/frontst077ec.th.jpg (http://img189.imageshack.us/my.php?image=frontst077ec.jpg) http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/3685/frontst082eh.th.jpg (http://img189.imageshack.us/my.php?image=frontst082eh.jpg) http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/6118/frontst094sw.th.jpg (http://img189.imageshack.us/my.php?image=frontst094sw.jpg) http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/2463/frontst101tb.th.jpg (http://img189.imageshack.us/my.php?image=frontst101tb.jpg)

[ZippyTheChimp]

Peck Slip
http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/9909/frontst112rj.th.jpg (http://img189.imageshack.us/my.php?image=frontst112rj.jpg) http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/9723/frontst123oj.th.jpg (http://img189.imageshack.us/my.php?image=frontst123oj.jpg) http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/5535/frontst137zx.th.jpg (http://img189.imageshack.us/my.php?image=frontst137zx.jpg)


Front St from Fulton St
http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/5898/frontst141nk.th.jpg (http://img189.imageshack.us/my.php?image=frontst141nk.jpg)

[lofter1]

This area is really spiffing up.

Some renderings for Peck Slip included in the East River Waterfront Development plan:

http://www.lowermanhattan.info/construction/gallery/photos/PECK_CLOSEUP_02.jpg

Description: Peck Slip: A plaza with a pool will be built where water from the East River once flowed into this slip. In the winter, the pool could be transformed into a skating rink. A small planted seating area will replace the existing parking lot.

http://www.lowermanhattan.info/construction/gallery/photos/PECK_OVERVIEW_01.jpg

[londonlawyer]

Foster's proposal sucks. I hate reflecting pools. How about a fountain? How about simple tree-lined streets?

[ablarc]

Now how exactly are these boomerang frames with vines an improvement? Would you call them sympathetic to their surroundings?

Could you call them clutter?

Could londonlawyer call them crap?

Is everything new an improvement? Even well-intentioned stuff like this? Or is there such a thing as too much kindness?

http://www.lowermanhattan.info/construction/gallery/photos/PECK_CLOSEUP_02.jpg

[ZippyTheChimp]

The Peck Slip plaza is horrible. Maybe a cue should be taken from the renovated Front St, where the treeless street better connects to a time when the area was a bustling shipping center - the point of a historic district, right?


http://www.downtownexpress.com (http://www.downtownexpress.com/)
Living with the fishes, and a feeling of history

http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_121/fulton.gif
Downtown Express photos by Elisabeth Robert

The one-block-long Historic Front Street high-end rental redevelopment project lines both sides of Front St. between Beekman St. and Peck Slip.



By Ronda Kaysen

The first residents of a new South Street Seaport development unpacked their boxes this July, marking the beginning of a new era for one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods.

Historic Front Street, a 17-building development on a cobblestone swath of Front St. between Beekman St. and Peck Slip, began leasing the first 57 rent-stabilized apartments this summer (45 have been rented so far) and will begin leasing the remaining units in this 96-unit complex this autumn.

The one-block-long strip that dates back to the late 18th century lay mostly vacant for close to 30 years, with several structures on the block reduced to empty lots. The buildings that remained had long since fallen into disrepair, their facades shrouded in black netting and their interiors dilapidated, although some of the lower floors were occupied by fish merchants until just before the structures were purchased.

In June 2003, Yarrow LLC, a partnership of Sciame Development, Zuberry Development Corporation and the Durst Organization, purchased the city-owned property, bringing years of failed attempts to revive the district to a close.

With an infusion of $46.3 million in Liberty Bonds — bonds created in the wake of 9/11 to revive Downtown —Yarrow enlisted architect Richard Cook of Cook + Fox for the $50 million project to restore the 11 surviving structures, integrating modern architecture with the historic remnants and building three new buildings to fill the empty lots. Working within the constraints of a 120-foot height limit imposed by the city, the new low-rise development harks back to a time when the area was dominated by the fishing industry.

“It’s important that a city has a connection with it’s past,” said Craig Dykers, a partner at Snohetta, the Norwegian architectural firm entrusted with building a cultural center at the new World Trade Center.

Dykers was among the first tenants to move into the Front St. development, snatching up a one-bedroom apartment in one of the older buildings. “It was interesting to me that there was a part of town that was being rescued from the wrecking ball,” he said, adding that his other home, in Oslo, Norway, is also in the city’s fish market area.

With 38 different floor plans, many of the units in the older, landmark buildings have exposed brick, wood beamed ceilings — the wood, harvested from the Adirondacks and Catskills, dates back 500 years — and original cast-iron support beams. (“I sometimes feel there are some ghosts in here,” said Dykers of his apartment.)

The new buildings evoke a maritime theme with porthole windows and seafaring design. Each building is named in a nod to the area’s past — Barwick’s Barway, Mott Dry Goods, Shotwell Arches — with Moby Dick inscriptions incorporated into the facade. The original cobblestone street has been re-laid and the streetlamps are being replaced with bishop’s crook-style light fixtures.

The ground floor includes 13 retail spaces, ranging in size from 550 square feet to 2,200 square feet, which might entice retailers interested in appealing to a residential clientele. The South Street Seaport area has long been criticized for an abundance of shops geared exclusively to tourists with the cobblestone promenade peppered with national chains. “I prefer the local shops of which there’s quite a few in Lower Manhattan,” said Dykers. “In this particular case it would be nice if there were more of those kinds of shops.”

Restoring the past, however, comes with a hefty price tag. The units are rather small — they range in size from 600 square feet to 1,400 square feet, and one-bedrooms start at $2,600 a month. Two-bedrooms range from $4,100 to $5,500 a month, and two-bedroom penthouses cost as much as $8,500 a month. (A Western European nation’s delegation to the United Nations recently claimed two of the penthouses.) Of the 95 units, only five have been set aside for moderate-income tenants.

Liberty Bonds for residential use are relegated to rental apartments, so it was never an option for the buildings to be co-ops or condos.

For the tenants who fell in love with the historic character of the buildings, the cost was a worthwhile trade off. “This was the nicest place I looked at, but absolutely the most expensive,” said Lori Vincent, a new Front St. resident. Vincent, who works for Imago Relationships International, a nonprofit organization on Maiden Lane, is spending $2,800 a month for her one-bedroom apartment, $800 more a month than she intended to spend. Her unit, on the lower end of the price scale, does not enjoy the East River and Brooklyn Bridge views that higher-end apartments enjoy, and as one of the newer units, it lacks the exposed brick and wood beams. “I’m hoping that by next year I’ll be able to move into those nice apartments across the hall,” she mused.

Terry Harlow wandered into Historic Front Street’s rental office the day it opened and immediately “fell in love” with one of the studio apartments. A resident of nearby Southbridge Towers for the past 12 years, Harlow and her husband, Robert Schoen, were accustomed to paying $700 a month for a one-bedroom apartment with a terrace in the subsidized Mitchell-Lama complex. Switching to market-rate rent was a shock for the self-employed learning consultant.

“I’m an interesting example of what it’s like to look for market rate,” Harlow told Downtown Express, sitting on her new home’s shared rooftop deck on a recent breezy August afternoon. Despite the jump in price, Harlow signed a two-year lease and is thrilled to have found a new apartment a stone’s throw away from her old one. Southbridge, where her husband still lives, is visible from her new rooftop. The Brooklyn Bridge and the East River are visible, too. “I just love Downtown,” she said. “I couldn’t imagine living in any other neighborhood.”

Her new neighbors are not what Harlow expected — to her delight. “It’s not like when you go to John St. and everybody’s apartment is paid for by mommy and daddy,” she said, referring to young college graduates in the financial industry who often rent high-end apartments near Wall St.

“We thought we’d get a lot of shares,” said Brian Edwards, Yarrow’s director of leasing, referring to college graduates who often double-up in small apartments. To his surprise, 90 percent of the units have been rented to couples. The remaining 10 percent have been rented to singles. “We have been blown away by that,” he said.

Soon, the neighborhood will take another dramatic turn: the Fulton Fish Market, which has been selling fish to the city’s purveyors for 170 years, will relocate to a new facility in the South Bronx. Although the end of the fish market might revive a neighborhood dominated by tourism, many of the new residents are already pining for what will soon become history. “The fish market is the heart and soul of this neighborhood. It’s living history,” said Harlow.

On second thought, she added, “It’ll be nice not to ride my bike in fish guts.”

The end of the fish market also brings new growth. The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation set aside $150 million this spring to redesign the East River waterfront, including an overhaul of the neglected area beneath the F.D.R. Drive and the addition of a reflecting pool in the middle of Peck Slip, the street to the east of the Front St. development. And General Growth Properties, the real estate investment trust that owns the Seaport Mall, indicated earlier this summer that it intends to exercise the option in its lease to take over several brick fish market stalls on South St. and the Tin Building, a landmark structure on Pier 17. Although the company has yet to unveil its plans for the properties, its interest in the area beckons the beginning of a new era.

Vincent is looking forward to the coming months — when the tourists dwindle in the winter months and the fish market will pack up for good. “It’s very enchanting there’s so much history that I haven’t even touched yet,” she said. “When it quiets down, that’s when you’ll start feeling the history.”

Downtown Express is published by
Community Media LLC.
Downtown Express | 487 Greenwich St., Suite 6A | New York, NY 10013

Phone: 212.242.6162 | Fax: 212.229.2970
Email: news@downtownexpress.com (news@downtownexpress.com)

[llynch]

I am a broker downtown and I have to say the apartments at the old fish market are truly beautiful. I did a walk through the other day with an on-site and many of them have beams that date back to the 1800's, they have alot of character but are being gut renovated so there is a mix of a little old and alot new.

[lofter1]

llynch: Any photos? ;)

[j0cy0223]

I am a broker downtown and I have to say the apartments at the old fish market are truly beautiful. I did a walk through the other day with an on-site and many of them have beams that date back to the 1800's, they have alot of character but are being gut renovated so there is a mix of a little old and alot new.

Agreed with what llynch said... but I don't have any pictures. :(

[ZippyTheChimp]

New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com

It's a new life for South St.

BY LORE CROGHAN
DAILY NEWS BUSINESS WRITER
Sunday, January 8th, 2006

For 183 years, South Street smelled like fish. Now that the Fulton Fish Market has moved to Hunts Point in the Bronx, real estate mavens smell opportunity.

Historic buildings — some nearly two centuries old — are changing hands for restoration as single-family homes or small multi-unit apartment properties.

A privately owned fishmonger's building at 108 South St. was sold for a princely sum of about $480 per square foot. The new owner is expected to convert the four-story loft building — which has weeds sprouting out of its brick facade — to residential use.

"This is a neighborhood to watch," said Peter DeCheser of Massey Knakal Realty Services, the sale broker along with his cousin Michael DeCheser.

The Seaport area is a hotbed of real estate activity despite uncertainty about the fate of city-owned buildings along South Street that housed many of the fish businesses.

The firm that operates the South Street Seaport shopping mall, General Growth Properties, intends to exercise an option to lease the buildings. It hasn't told the city yet what its redevelopment plans are — for the fish market buildings or the Seaport itself.

"With the fish market gone, there's a whole new sense of ‘What can happen here?'" said John Evans, vice president of real estate at Sciame Development.

His firm has just done a big redevelopment called Historic Front Street, which has attracted the attention of real estate investors.

The development, funded with $46.3 million in Liberty Bonds, involves properties on both sides of Front St., from Peck Slip to Beekman St.

Sciame and partner Zuberry Associates have restored 11 long-decaying landmark buildings and constructed three new buildings on empty lots, creating 95 rental apartments and 15 storefronts. The properties, constructed between 1798 and 1825, had been city-owned since 1970.

Tenants started moving in last July — and have filled 80 apartments. Leasing consultant Brian Edwards hopes to rent the last 15 flats by the middle of next month.

The apartments have people-pleasing features like brick walls, exposed wood beams and washers and dryers in every unit — and command hefty rents. One-bedrooms are $2,600 to $4,000 per month, two-bedrooms are $4,100 to $5,300, and penthouses run as high as $8,000, Edwards said.

Other neighborhood properties that are in play are drawing lots of interest from prospective buyers, including Seaport Mews, a 27-unit rental-apartment building at 264 Water St. Whoever buys it will probably convert the apartments to condos, said the building's marketer, Peter DeCheser.

Development in the neighborhood must be low-rise and small-scale — it's a landmark district with tight zoning restrictions. The one exception is another Sciame project planned just outside the boundaries of the historic district, at 80 South St. — a dramatic 835-foot tower designed by celebrity architect Santiago Calatrava, with 10 condos priced $29 million to $59 million apiece.

Because the apartments are so expensive, Sciame is pre-selling some of them before getting financing. Evans hopes to start demolition at the site this spring.

In the meantime, plenty of smaller stuff is percolating in the neighborhood — which is already starting to change the area's offerings for new residents.

This week, contractor and artist Randy Polumbo will open a new restaurant called Dodo at 45 Peck Slip. His sister Rachel Zacks will bake the cookies, and a jazz trio will perform on Saturdays.

Polumbo lives in the upper floors of the 1810-vintage building, which he bought and meticulously renovated as a single-family home.

He first settled into the neighborhood a decade ago, when he restored old buildings at 268 Water St. to house his construction firm, 3-D Laboratory.

And an interior-design expert is branching into the wine business in a former fishmonger's space.

Marco Pasanella — author of "Living in Style Without Losing Your Mind" — is setting up a wine shop called Pasanella and Son at 115 South St., a building he bought.

Pasanella lives in one apartment upstairs, and rents out two others. He decided to open a shop of his own instead of finding someone else to occupy the storefront.

"You can hope you get the right tenant," he explained. "Or you start something yourself that sets the tone for the neighborhood."

[antinimby]

God I hope they don't turn South Street Seaport into another boring residential neighborhood. NY can't afford to keep losing these type of "destination" areas of interest.

[ZippyTheChimp]

I'm gaining more respect for Sciame as a developer. He has done a fine job on Front St. I'd like to see it continued at the large parking lot to the west.

The Seaport has been a destination for decades - and a failure, because New Yorkers avoid it. Maybe the neigborhood changes - the Drawing Center at the fish market will turn the area around.

[londonlawyer]

I'm gaining more respect for Sciame as a developer. He has done a fine job on Front St. I'd like to see it continued at the large parking lot to the west.

The Seaport has been a destination for decades - and a failure, because New Yorkers avoid it. Maybe the neigborhood changes - the Drawing Center at the fish market will turn the area around.

Are you referring to the huge parking lot on Water Street or to the smaller one near Sciame's h.q.? I would like to see the small one made into a park. I've always been curious about the huge ones which the Milsteins own and don't develop. I know there's been community opposition about large towers, but instead of keeping it empty, the could build a lot of really nice four story town houses situated around green squares. These buildings could evoke the 18th century character of the area and such a project would make a fortune.

[ZippyTheChimp]

The big Milstein lot.

It's within the historic district boundary, so there is no chance of towers on the site. I don't know why the Milsteins don't just unload it.

I wouldn't mind seeing what you described.

[londonlawyer]

The big Milstein lot.

It's within the historic district boundary, so there is no chance of towers on the site. I don't know why the Milsteins don't just unload it.

I wouldn't mind seeing what you described.

I know that large towers won't be built there, though I don't understand why since large towers exist across the street from it. Nonetheless, townhouses would be really nice. It's amazing that Milstein sits on this lot and the one in Times Square as if he were a hen waiting for eggs to hatch.

[ZippyTheChimp]

Gotham Gazette - http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/waterfront/20060227/18/1770

Making The Old Fulton Fish Market Into Something New

by Pat Arnow
27 Feb 2006

Until last fall, whenever I bicycled through the Fulton Fish Market in the early mornings, the street was filled with hundreds of burly workers, beeping forklifts, and crate after crate of seafood, enough seafood to supply the entire city. There was a slimy layer of water and grime over the whole street. I'd go slow to keep fish slime from spraying my pants and to avoid slipping in potholes or skidding on bits of palettes and boxes and other debris that filled the street.

Then, in November, after 180 years on Fulton Street, the "Fulton fish market" moved to Hunts Point in the Bronx. Now, Fulton Street has become clean and peaceful, though still potholed.
It is also largely desolate, especially on weekdays. Losing the fish market and 600 jobs that went with it meant losing the only large, thriving enterprise in the neighborhood. I am surely not the only one to miss the fish slime.

Yes, a certain majesty remains, thanks to the South Street Seaport Museum's half-dozen historic ships docked at Pier 16. But right now, only one area in the neighborhood looks stable -– the cobblestoned pedestrian streets at the foot of Fulton Street, which make up the core of the landmarked district, and house both the galleries of the South Street Seaport Museum (in its recently renovated building on Schermerhorn Row) and such shops as The Gap, J. Crew, and The Body Shop. But even here business is slow: It may well be a sign of desperation that even long-time workers in the area are happy to see the popularity of "The Bodies," a gruesome exhibition of cadavers displaying muscles and internal organs that have been replaced with polymer, because, freak show that it is, it nevertheless draws people into the Fulton Market Building.

Worse is Pier 17, the South Street Seaport shopping and dining complex, which was built in 1983 to energize the neighborhood, but never lived up to expectations. After the World Trade Center fell less than a mile away, it became comatose. Most of the businesses are surviving on month-to-month leases; there are empty storefronts.

All this is about to change. The entire neighborhood –- including but not limited to the area where the shabby fish stalls stood -– will soon be transformed. What it will become, though, is just starting to unfold.

A Center For Art?

The Drawing Center, an exhibition space currently in Soho, hopes to take over the site of one fish market building.

The Drawing Center jumped at the possibility of the Fulton Fish Market site after they had to abandon plans to move to the World Trade Center complex.

They've looked at tearing down the building as part of the redevelopment of the whole area, which will be "very upgraded," says George Negroponte, president of The Drawing Center, in an e-mail. The building is one of the few in the area not protected by landmark status, so they have plenty of choices. "It is far too early for us to envision what we might do on the site," says Negroponte. "For instance, one consideration we've discussed lately is preserving some or all of the existing building. But in all fairness, we are just playing with ideas."

He is optimistic. "The discussions have been very favorable so far because everyone supports The Drawing Center having the site," says Negroponte.

However, they have not yet talked with the developers about what's going on next door at Pier 17 or the other fish market buildings.

A Big Mall?

What happens there is up to General Growth, a company that runs more than 200 shopping malls around the country. The company holds options on the leases for two other city-owned fish market buildings that are part of the district that has been landmarked since 1977. At present it seems to be interested in high-end retail to fill the stalls on both sides of the street.

General Growth can tear down the sparsely visited three-story mall on Pier 17, which is not part of the landmarked district, and build something new. What it would be, they are not saying; they promise to unveil ideas in coming months. "We're looking at everything that would be of service to the neighborhood including retail, dining, entertainment, hotels," says Michael Piazzola, the company’s general manager for the project.

Whether General Growth is capable of a successful transformation is another question. Most of the malls listed in their holdings on their website are simply malls. Properties include the Staten Island Mall and the Paramus Park in New Jersey. When General Growth acquired Rouse in November 2004, they gained more high-end, mixed-use developments and tourist-centered malls including Faneuil Hall in Boston, Riverwalk in New Orleans—and South Street Seaport.

There is hope for graceful redevelopment. General Growth has commissioned plans from the architecture firm of Beyer Blinder Belle, the company that refurbished Grand Central Terminal so beautifully.

A New Hip And Ritzy Neighborhood?

While developers are snapping up the area, the renovation of the neighborhood, akin to what happened in the Meatpacking District, is not a slam dunk. The FDR Drive runs overhead along the river next to South Street. It casts a formidable shadow and creates a visual and psychic divide between the riverfront and the city.

Still, unlike residents in other areas of the city, it seems unlikely that the community would put up much resistance to expensive development, judging from the views of Victor Papa, who serves on Community Board 1 and is president of the Two Bridges Neighborhood Council: With the real estate rising so drastically, “only the fancy and sophisticated can come down here."

A builder, Sciame Development, already has created expensive new and renovated apartments along Front Street. Their best-known and most spectacular project will the building at 80 South Street, a residential tower of cantilevered cubes designed by Santiago Calatrava, who also designed the bird-on-the-wing transportation hub planned for the World Trade Center site. Apartments will start at $29 million.

Housing? Manufacturing? Memorial? Parks And Ships?

No one is speaking of other alternatives for the area, either affordable housing or manufacturing. A big-box store such as Home Depot or Target, which had been considered, seems to be off the table. "It'll never happen. It's not sophisticated enough," says Papa of the community board. What may happen – or what he would like to see happen -- is some kind of tribute to the thousands of immigrants and children of immigrants who kept the fish market running in all weather for nearly two centuries.

There is also hope for a more vibrant area because the city, with $150 million of post-9/11 Lower Manhattan Development Corporation money, plans to make the riverfront more accessible with new buildings, lighting and promenades under the FDR. Pier 15 next to the historic ships will be rebuilt. That could provide a park-like pier, as the city has built on the Hudson River side. Richard Stepler, who directs special exhibitions at the South Street Seaport Museum, hopes for a place to dock two schooners that there is no room for now. Carter Craft of the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance dreams of water transportation that would bring people to and from Brooklyn, Governors Island and other parts of the city. Plans include making Peck Slip and Burling Slip into wide graceful esplanades. Projects should be complete in three to five years.

Turning A Question Mark Into An Exclamation Point

Carter Craft sees an opportunity. "There's a combination of old and new I find exciting. It's got great bones." Right now, though, he sees a diffuseness there, "sort of shopping, sort of historic, sort of things to see. You need to evoke ‘Seaport exclamation point!’ Now it's kind of ‘Seaport question mark?’”

Piazzola of General Growth sees three groups that together should make the area thrive:

* Residents of Lower Manhattan earn an average household income of $103,000.
* Tourists flock to the Battery, Wall Street, and the World Trade Center site and could be drawn to South Street.
* And there are 300,000 workers a day who commute to the area.

There are practical considerations, such as public transportation and parking. The nearest subway stop is Fulton St., several unattractive blocks away. Downtown Alliance runs a shuttle bus from South Street Seaport to Battery Park City . There are some 3,000 parking spaces in the area.

No clear timeline has yet been set for the commercial transformation of The Fulton Fish Market or South Street Seaport shopping center on Pier 17. For now, the fish stalls are closed. The trucks, forklifts and burly workers no longer fill the streets, and strong odors no longer permeate the air. What's in the air now is change.

Gotham Gazette - http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/waterfront/20060227/18/1770

[lofter1]

Drawing Center shows its Seaport design

http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_151/seaport.gif

By Ronda Kaysen and Jefferson Siegel
Downtown Express

http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_151/drawingcentershowsits.html

The Drawing Center unveiled schematic drawings of a new museum it hopes to build in the South Street Seaport at a Community Board 1 meeting Wednesday night. The 29-year-old museum has plans to build a two-story, 25,000 sq. ft. museum on a site currently occupied by the New Market Building in the Seaport.

Designs of the two-story structure include a rippled, maritime rooftop and slatted windows. The ground floor is set back, creating a large open space outside. The first floor of the building would likely include extensive public space, such as a café, bookstore, educational programs and a public reception area.


http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_151/seaport1.gif


“I think it was great,” Harold Reed, chairperson of C.B. 1’s Arts and Entertainment Committee, told Downtown Express. “The community-at-large would welcome the Drawing Center… It would be a great addition to the area.”

The future of the entire area is still in question. The Fulton Fish Market left the neighborhood earlier this year and General Growth, the company that owns the development rights for many of the properties, has yet to unveil its plans for the area. “We do not have developed plans for this site,” Drawing Center executive director George Negroponte told board members. “Getting all the players coordinated and choreographed is the main hurtle at this point.”

The New Market building, located on the edge of Pier 17, is a city-owned property and would be demolished to make way for the new Drawing Center.

The project will cost as much as $45 million and be partially funded by a $10 million grant from the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. The 29-year-old, Soho-based museum originally intended to move into the Snohetta building, a cultural center planned to be built next to the World Trade Center memorial. But last summer, after some victims’ family members criticized the museum’s content, the museum withdrew from the redevelopment. It has been looking for a site for a new museum ever since.

Downtown Express is published by Community Media LLC.

[NYatKNIGHT]

Looks very nice, and it's an obvious asthetic improvement, but I'm still not sold on how else it will do anything for the neighborhood - besides finally removing the fish smell, which still lingers. Also, the rendering lacks the FDR slicing through the view.

[ablarc]

Looks very nice, and it's an obvious asthetic improvement, but I'm still not sold on how else it will do anything for the neighborhood - besides finally removing the fish smell, which still lingers.
I guess it depends on your view of aesthetics. For me this area lost its charm along with the fish market; I even thought the fish smell was an asset.

South Street Seaport is an outpost of suburban MidAmerica. Its very ordinariness is causing its present fiscal woes; not even suburbanites think it's very interesting, it seems. I can't see how this uninspiringly-presented building can reverse the slide.

[tmg]

I have no idea what they're really planning, but here's my best guess.

The Drawing Center is not intended for tourists, although it will have exhibits. I thought it was also supposed to have workshops, classes, etc. As such, it will be an activity generator for that area.

At the same time, the city hopes to make Fulton St. into a corridor for creative arts organizations. If this plan is realized, then the Drawing Center could be an eastern anchor for the corridor.

Is anybody following these plans more closely who can comment on this?

[ablarc]

The Drawing Center is not intended for tourists, although it will have exhibits.
When I lived in New York I morphed into touristhood each weekend; going to an exhibit is being a tourist pretty much by definition, regardless where you're coming from.

The fishmongers weren't tourists; they were working.

I thought it was also supposed to have workshops, classes, etc. As such, it will be an activity generator for that area.
That's a little more like the fishmongers.

[lofter1]

going to an exhibit is being a tourist pretty much by definition, regardless where you're coming from.
Huh?

That is kind of like saying, "Going to the [pick one: library, theatre, concert, lecture] is being a tourist"

[ablarc]

That is kind of like saying, "Going to the [pick one: library, theatre, concert, lecture] is being a tourist"
That's right, but I'd leave the library out of your list; my library trips are mostly for work or to bring home books, which sort of resembles shopping. Theatre, concert, lecture: that's being a tourist in my book; that's why they're included in guidebooks. One of the great things about living in a city like New York is that you can be a tourist every day if you wish and never get bored. You can't do that in Charlotte.

I guess I'm using the word tourist to mean "someone who seeks entertainment from his surroundings." Most people at galleries aren't there for work.

It differs from unloading fish.

[lofter1]

I see the library experience much the same as theatre, museums, galleries, concerts, etc.: I go to fill my brain.

Not drudgery ... but not simple entertainment, either.

[antinimby]

South Street Seaport is an outpost of suburban MidAmerica. Its very ordinariness is causing its present fiscal woes; not even suburbanites think it's very interesting, it seems. I can't see how this uninspiringly-presented building can reverse the slide.But this one can...well, might have anyway, but we'll never know.:(

http://www.corrosion-doctors.org/Landmarks/images/Gug-NYC.jpg

[ablarc]

That would have made all the difference. What a shame.

[estryker]

It is a pity that the renderings are so low resolution - would love to see the plans.

I can't see anything suburban at all about South Street Seaport. It is neither there in the history nor in the architecture. What a ridiculous statement. A place is not "suburban" or "middle american" simply because it happens to draw tourists and (at the present, at least), seemingly mostly tourists. I suppose you would call Rockefeller Center "suburban" and "middle american" as well?

Anyways . . . It was a shame that the Drawing Center was bumped out of the Snohetta building at the WTC - but, then, I was never convinced it was the right place for them to begin with. That site is much to bound up with politics for any art museum to be able to comfortably work there. I can't think of a more exciting place to locate a drawing museum than on the waterfront in a historic district - with a vista! I think their presence will do wonders for the area and east side waterfront redevelopment generally . . .

. . . pity we can't just bury the FDR . . .

[czsz]

I suppose you would call Rockefeller Center "suburban" and "middle american" as well?

It certainly feels that way. Long lines of people from the Midwest trying to get into a studio, or a show, or something, or taking photos of each other next to the rink. It's not New York to me.

[estryker]

Ok - I see what you are saying . . . and I agree, the tourist hot spots are usually completely unbearable in NY.

I just could never be one to set aside what are some of the city's most unique, historic, and architecturally significant spaces . . . at the end of the day, they might be flooded with tourists, but they still are uniquely New York. Perhaps we should just push all the fat middle american tourists into the river at South St and reclaim the area . . . :p

[czsz]

Well honestly...South Street Seaport never really embodied the "essence" of New York to me in any way. It feels much more like Boston. And it's self-contained in any case. The fact that it's flooded with tourists never bothered me. That they spill over onto every sidewalk in Midtown though is quite aggravating.

[ablarc]

I see the library experience much the same as theatre, museums, galleries, concerts, etc.: I go to fill my brain.

Not drudgery ... but not simple entertainment, either.
Don't be so serious, lofter. :) Every time you go out to report on buildings under construction you're being a tourist. ;) We're all tourists in the Universe. :D

[vc10]

I was down by the South St Seaport on Saturday and noticed that the largish block bordered by Water St, Peck Slip, Pearl St and Beekman St is completely empty (other than a large surface parking lot).

Who owns this huge site, and are there any plans to put anything here? Now that the fish market is gone, this area is prime for development.

Notwithstanding the fact that the Seaport and its tourists are close (which I agree is a downer) or the fact that the area feels more like Boston than NYC (and it does), there's no question the area has, in places, real charm, with cobblestones, narrow streets and old brick buildings.

[kliq6]

Milstein owns it

[antinimby]

http://www.downtownexpress.com/inside_dt_logo.gif (http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_162/downtownersturneye.html)

Downtowners turn eye to Peck Slip, waterfront plans

By Ronda Kaysen


While most New Yorkers hunger for a grassy, green oasis for respite, Seaport residents are the rare exception. They have no interest in changing a triangular, cobblestone swath of their neighborhood into a green, flowery park. Instead, they hope to see Peck Slip become a stony piazza that will hark back to the seafaring days of the neighborhood’s watery past.

“This is absolutely a unique space in New York City,” said Battery Park City resident Jordan Gruzen at a recent Community Board 1 Seaport and Civic Center Committee meeting. “There are places in Rome that have a wonderful sense as an urban place. Rather than refer to it as a park, I suggest we refer to it as a plaza or a piazza.”

Nearly 70 residents turned out to the June 13 meeting to hear a city Dept. of Parks and Recreation presentation about the future of the three-block long slip, which is now a wide, formless street used mainly as an ad hoc parking lot.

The slip, which runs through Water, Front and South Sts., has had the attention of the city for several years. The Dept. of Transportation has been at work on a plan to replace and restore broken cobblestones and fix the sidewalks. The slip is also part of a $150 million plan, funded by the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., to renovate the East River Waterfront.

“What we’re thinking of right now is an open space, a place that people can use, that brings with it certain things—benches, lighting, security,” Lawrence Mauro, a project manager for the Parks Dept., told board members at the public meeting. “It doesn’t necessarily mean a green lawn in the center with trees and flowers.”

The Parks Dept. recently selected the architectural firm Quennell Rothschild and artist George Trakas to design the park. Rothschild has designed several city parks, including the East River esplanade and the master plan for the Hudson River Park.

D.O.T. is considering closing off Front St. to increase public space at the park, a suggestion that received mixed support from the public. “We need to think long and hard about closing streets on a permanent basis,” said C.B. 1 member Paul Hovitz.

Mauro expects D.O.T. and Parks to meet later this month to further discuss the park’s future and make another presentation to the community board next month. “We’re going to sit down with D.O.T. and start a cooperative design process,” Mauro said.

Residents voiced concerns about just how cooperative an inter-agency design and construction process would actually be, voicing fears of “the New York two-step”—a city habit of fixing a street only to have another agency tear it up a few months later. “One [agency] doesn’t know what the other one is doing,” said Seaport resident Scott Rubman.

“We’re doing what we can,” Mauro responded. “It hurts me just as much as it hurts anyone else when someone comes in and tears things up on a project that I’ve done. It hurts a lot.”

Peck Slip has a long maritime history, and at Tuesday’s meeting, residents harked back to its seafaring history. A watery slip used by boats to dock until 1810, Peck Slip once offered George Washington and his troops protection as they fled from the Battle of Brooklyn. More recently, it was used as a fish market parking lot until the Fulton Fish Market relocated to the Bronx late last year.

In March, the Seaport Community Coalition and business owners held a symposium, Seaport Speaks, to discuss the future of the Seaport. A plan to transform Peck Slip into a piazza came out of that discussion.

The Seaport Community Coalition also decided it wanted to create a Local Development Corporation, under the auspices of the Economic Development Corporation, to keep tabs on the $150 million East River Waterfront redevelopment, which encompasses an area from Battery Park to East River Park, touching the eastern edge of several neighborhoods, including Seaport, Chinatown, the Financial District and the Lower East Side.

“We believed [the L.D.C.] should be its own entity to really create a vision, a plan, to really carry out the entire mission” of the East River Waterfront redevelopment, said Madelyn Wils, chairperson of the Governance Committee for Seaport Speaks, at a Civic Alliance panel discussion on Monday night about the East River Waterfront.

Wils, who is a member of the L.M.D.C.’s board of directors, chaired C.B. 1 when the city was developing its East River Waterfront plan. “The L.D.C. will program the East River Waterfront. It will be the entire entity that will create a life for the waterfront,” she said.

The waterfront redevelopment plan, developed by the E.D.C. and the Dept. of City Planning, includes ideas for a beachfront, pavilions beneath the F.D.R. Drive and a revived plaza in front of the historic Battery Maritime building.

Ultimately, the Downtown Alliance, a business improvement district that borders the waterfront, “will have to take over some of the maintenance” of the waterfront, Wils, an Alliance board member, said. The Alliance currently maintains parks in its district.

Maintaining a revived East River Waterfront would cost $5 million a year, Wils said. “We hope to get our heads around [the upkeep costs] this summer,” E.D.C. panelist Kelley told the audience.

Wils suggested using the proceeds from city-run parking lots and siphoning tax dollars generated at the Seaport mall to fund the East River park, a system that would require legislation in Albany. “Sydney has built underwater parking,” she said of a recent tour of the Australian city’s waterfront. “This is really where they get most of their revenue from—it may be something we ought to be looking at.”

Volume 19 • Issue 5 | June 16 - 22, 2006

[ZippyTheChimp]

Warning: blatant self-promotion ahead.

I said it last year:
The Peck Slip plaza is horrible. Maybe a cue should be taken from the renovated Front St, where the treeless street better connects to a time when the area was a bustling shipping center - the point of a historic district, right?

[lofter1]

The idea of an open "piazza" is much better than what is proposed.

(This open space also happens to be an excellent spot to catch the 4th of July fireworks over the East River -- easy in / easy out -- with none of the 'trapped" feeling that you can experience up on the elevated FDR Drive.)

[TonyO]

NY Sun

On the Waterfront: South Street Seaport, Treasure for the City, Is Suddenly in Play

BY ROBERTA WEISBROD - Special to the Sun
June 26, 2006
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/35040

South Street Seaport, the area of Manhattan shoreline just south of the Brooklyn Bridge, is in play, and what happens over the next few months will set its future for decades.

The opportunity is a result of two shifts in real estate: A year ago, General Growth Properties, a major publicly traded REIT that owns or operates 200 shopping malls nationwide, acquired the Rouse Co., including the South Street Seaport properties that it developed - Pier 17 and four other assemblages - a total of 385,000 square feet of retail space.

And a half year ago, the city relocated the 180-year-old Fulton Fish market to the Bronx, leaving behind an estimated 140,000 square feet of vacant selling space. GGP intends to exercise its option to acquire the city-owned landmarked "Tin Building" as well as a block of privately owned market stalls that were also vacated.

A spokeswoman for GGP, Cheri Fein of Rubenstein Associates, said the developer plans "to service the growing residential population as well as the people that work there."

The city's Economic Development Corporation will now have to decide how to develop its remaining parcel, the non-landmarked "New Market Building."

The city's planning commissioner, Amanda Burden, is effusive about the possibilities. "South Street Seaport is unique in New York City. It's unique among all American cities," she said. "The wonderful scale, the texture, with access to the water and a view of the Brooklyn Bridge."

It's a treasure for the city, she said - "and an important amenity for the financial district - their respite and recreation."

The seaport is where 200 years ago New York became a great global city through innovations in technology, financing, and business models, the latter best exemplified by the initiation of the world's first scheduled cargo shipping line, leaving on time, and half empty, in a January snowstorm.

The City is developing three plans for downtown, all involving South Street Seaport. All three of them have good prospects for being accomplished.

The Mayor's Harbor District links Brooklyn Bridge Park, Governor's Island, the Battery-Statue of Liberty, and the South Street Seaport by water - with the Seaport an obvious embarcadero for ferries.

In addition, the city's planning department and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation have created the Fulton Street Revitalization Plan, an upgraded corridor from the Hudson River to the East River, encompassing the new World Trade Center and the new Calatrava Transit Hub, and culminating with a park at the old Burling Slip in the South Street Seaport.

Most ambitious of all is city planning's East River Waterfront Esplanade and Piers Project, with $150 million of LMDC funds earmarked to create a two-mile walkway-bikeway along the entire tip of Manhattan. Innovations include enlivening the dreary underside of the FDR Drive with lighting, traffic-muting cladding, and pavilions for community, culture, and commerce. At the South Street Seaport section, the dismantled Pier 15 will be rebuilt as a public open space, to be used for historic vessel tie-ups.

Peck Slip, where huge oceangoing sailing vessels once pulled in for unloading is now a cluttered parking lot. But under the city's plan it will become a great plaza. The north side of Pier 17, now neglected, but breathtaking in its sweep of the East River, will become a small boat marina.

Civic groups have been actively engaged in shaping the course of the South Street Seaport. SeaportSpeaks, an energetic group composed of residents, architects, preservationists, developers, builders, cultural leaders, residents, and government officials, convened a one-day charrette, a workshop to develop ideas. The charrette's 70 participants agreed that the Ssaport's scale, texture, sense of history and maritime connection have to be preserved and promoted to attract unique, appropriate retail.

"With the removal of the Fulton Fish Market, cultural institutions and venues become the living, working link to the Seaport's rich narrative," said the co-chair of SeaportSpeaks, Lee Gruzen. "They should be the honey to attract New Yorkers to come, stay and return again and again."

The charrette's conclusions are available on the group's Web site, seaportspeaks.org. They include ideas like "Attract the finest restaurateurs-seafood first - as better quality restaurants will be an attraction." And "Put the SEA back into the SEAport." And create a "real neighborhood" with groceries, food, and shopping, so that residents of the neighborhood "don't have to leave."

The main issues are maintaining the momentum and creating an entity to coordinate agencies, lobby for funds, guide development, oversee spending, and assure businesses get the services they need. Right now the civic groups are thrashing out governance options, whether a Local Development Corporation, an Economic Development Corporation Task Force, or other public private structure, to sustain the enterprise and keep alive at the seaport the spirit and energy that were there when it began.

[kliq6]

this area would be a great place to building a low-rise biotech hub to expand the cities reach in this area, away from constructing these facilities just on hospital/college ground.

[lofter1]

Tent of mirrors to open at the Seaport

http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_168/hall.gif
An idea of what the Spiegeltent, bound for the South Street Seaport,
will look like once it opens August 3

Downtown Express (http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_168/tenofmirrorstoopen.html)
By Nicole Davis

Imagine the feel of the film “Moulin Rouge” inside a tent filled with mirrors, where cabaret acts, musicians, and comedians change by the hour, and you’ll come close to envisioning Spiegeltent. The 7,700 square foot performance space will take up digs Downtown, at Pier 17, near the former site of the Fulton Fish Market, from Thursday, August 3 through October 1.

Only a handful of these so-called “mirror tents” — Spiegel is German for mirror — are left in the world. They first appeared in the 1920s and ’30s as temporary dance halls in Belgium, and many today serve as dinner theater venues in cities like San Francisco. (One is currently in the Catskills.)

The Spiegeltent bound for Lower Manhattan is approximately 86 years old. As of Monday, the 35,000 pieces that comprise it were stuck in Elizabeth, NJ, where they were still being inspected by U.S. Customs. The organizers don’t expect the hold up will delay the tent’s opening. According to Ross Mollison, one of three producers of the temporary venue, set-up should be a breeze. “We’ve hired five Belgian experts who know this tent like it’s a member of their family,” he said.

Once erected, Spiegeltent will house a wooden parquet floor, brass bar, stained glass windows, velvet booths and hundreds of mirrors. It can hold 400 people.

“It’s like a Moulin Rouge environment,” said Mollison. “[Once inside], you feel like you’ve stepped back in time.” Over 80 performers are scheduled to appear, from the Brazilian Girls to Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping. But the showcase event is Absinthe, a cabaret-vaudeville “variety show on acid” that premiered at a Spiegeltent at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

It was the Edinburgh Spiegeltent, in fact, that inspired producers Mollison, PS 122 artistic director Vallejo Gantner, and Thomas Kreigsmann, to reproduce the same diverse lineup here. “The last beautiful concert halls in New York are the Carnegie Halls,” said Kreigsmann, who helped curate the 2003 Fresh Terrain performance festival in Austin.

A space like Carnegie would never host such diverse talent as punk legend Nina Hagen and New Orleans’ Preservation Hall Jazz Band, however, so the producers imported a theater that could. “This is a classic, internationally renowned venue, so [we found] artists who could really embrace that. The idea was to have an eclectic mix to match the eclectic nature of tent.”

Adrienne Truscott, one half of the vaudeville-burlesque troupe, the Wau Wau Sisters, agrees. “There are not many clubs left in New York City that are beautiful and available to the alty-cabaret set,” she said. Truscott and her Wau Wau sister Tayna Gagné performed at the Spiegeltent in Edinburgh in 2002. “It was super exciting to perform in a venue that was sort of a character in itself,” said Truscott, adding that the tent “lends itself to all the imagination and romance of cabaret acts.”

For Reverend Billy, the brocaded big top will double as a sort of revival tent for his Church of Stop Shopping. The political activist and his choir, the Stop Shopping singers, specialize in campaigns like “retail intervention,” in which they stage sermons against modern-day devils like Wal-Mart and Victoria’s Secret, whose corporate practices jeopardize the environment and our communities. Throughout August and September at Spiegeltent, they will perform their “war on tourism,” begun in the wake of 9/11.

“All 35 of us are all New Yorkers, and we have been upset by the way our tragedy has been used around the world, and how the event has been used to create a touristic suburbanizing of our own city.” He includes the Seaport as a prime example of a shopping district run amok, but so far, he’s reserving any harsh judgment against Spiegeltent.

“The leadership and I are really intrigued by the European-style circus tent. It’s a new one for us,” he said.

Performances inside Spiegeltent will begin at 10 AM on weekends, with family-friendly acts earlier in the day and adult shows starting in the evening and lasting into the wee hours, when the chairs will be cleared to make way for DJs and a dance floor. (Shows will start at 4 PM on weekdays.) Tickets will generally run from $10 to $35. Heartland Brewery will provide food and drink in an outdoor beer garden, complete with cabanas and day beds.

The New York Spiegeltent producers predict that the two-month-long performance festival will become an annual event. They’ve rented the tent this year, but are talking about buying or building their own Spiegeltent in the future. They even see it as an opportunity for performers to try out new material, as many do during the New York Fringe Fest.

“Some of the shows could spin out to off-off Broadway,” said Mollison. Comedian Steve Truffaut’s Lenny Bruce show, for instance, is one that the producers guarantee will become a larger production in the future.

Not every performer knows what to expect. “I knew nothing about it,” said violinist Daniel Bernard Romain, of the experimental group DBR and The Mission. “But when I saw the tent [online], that was the first thing that drew me in.” The circus-like space isn’t the most unusual venue that DBR has played. “I’ve performed on mountain tops, on cruise ships... once on the top of the Empire State Building. So it’s not the strangest venue, but it’s definitely one of the more interesting.”

© 2006 Community Media, LLC

[ZippyTheChimp]

Seaport firm, residents like food market to replace Fish Market

By Jefferson Siegel

Small greenmarkets and the occasional supermarket dot the Lower Manhattan landscape. But, as Downtown’s residential renaissance continues apace, there is a growing need for more than just the basic staples of nutrition. Last week a presentation at Community Board 1’s Seaport/Civic Center Committee meeting may portend an abundance of fresh comestibles for Downtown residents in the near future.

A new organization, the non-profit New Amsterdam Public Market Association, offered a preview of their intention to create a year-round, indoor, agrarian public market somewhere in the Seaport area.

Not exactly a greenmarket, the public market takes its lead from such endeavors as Seattle’s Pike Place Market, where purveyors, or middlemen, seeks out the best in locally grown and produced food.

In the first formal discussion of their project, the market’s proponents, Robert LaValva and Jill Slater, told board members of their vision for an indoor market that would operate all year. Reading from the mission statement, LaValva envisions a market “where authentic butchers, fish and cheese mongers, grocers and other purveyors sell food that is produced sustainably and humanely by our region’s Farmers and artisans.”

LaValva offered that as people become more knowlegeable about what they consume, the demand increases for food that is produced without depleting natural resources and is free of toxic chemicals. Artisinal food, food produced by non-industrial methods, has also become popular, he added.

“We think of the Seaport area as a perfect location for this new market,” Slater, who lives in the area, told the board. She cited the availability of mass transit.

Board interest increased when C.B. 1 district manager Paul Goldstein recalled a 2002 resolution poposing a similiar venture. At the time it was looked upon favorably, he said. “I think really what it boils down to is whether there’s a marriage, a match potential with General Growth,” the Seaport’s operator.

Janell Vaughan, the senior general manager of the Seaport mall for General Growth, sat listening and taking notes until Goldstein asked if General Growth was receptive to the proposal. “Absolutely,” Vaughan said without hesitation, “the spaces that we have on the table at the moment are the [Fulton] Fish Market stalls in the Fulton Market building.” After 184 years, when the Fish Market closed in June of 2005, its denizens moved to a modern facility at Hunt’s Point in the Bronx. The market spaces have sat empty since then.

After concerns about parking, ease of access and the impact on current Seaport tenants were aired, the committee passed a resolution urging negotiations between the New Amsterdam Public Market Association and General Growth. Goldstein noted that calling for and passing a resolution indicated the board’s interest in the proposal and would hopefully lead to a successful negotiation between the two parties.


Downtown Express is published by
Community Media LLC.

[ablarc]

Been watching South Street Seaport's evolution for ages. Now solidly ensconced as New York's Quincy Market (i.e. a mall for tourists), it's too bad all those handsome old buildings are participants in a theme park. The fish market kept things real at certain hours till recently; hope its replacement is for locals and has some teeth.

Rays of hope I encountered on my recent visit were the Body exhibit (mind-boggling, and both art and science) and Absinthe in the Spiegeltent: Cirque du Soleil meets cabaret. Solidly entertaining and much too short.

What both these features have in common is that they're not family-friendly. I regard that as a good sign; maybe the Seaport will eventually evolve away from its touristy roots. Needs a club scene and a stop on the Second Avenue Line at Water Street and Fulton.

[lofter1]

... create a year-round, indoor, agrarian public market somewhere in the Seaport area.

“We think of the Seaport area as a perfect location for this new market,” Slater, who lives in the area, told the board.

She cited the availability of mass transit.

HUH???

Maybe a bus ... but otherwise it's a fairly long walk to the subway.

[pianoman11686]

Downtown Express (http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_179/cb1backscobblestones.html)

Volume 19 • Issue 22 | October 13 - 19, 2006

C.B. 1 backs cobblestones, green space for Peck Slip

By Skye H. McFarlane

In a heated debate Wednesday night over the future of Peck Slip, compromise won out. Community Board 1’s Seaport Committee resolved to split the difference between the two most popular concepts for the space — piazza and parkland.

Though no design has been finalized for the plaza outside the old Fulton Fish Market, the committee passed a resolution stating that any plan for the space must “incorporate a historic harbor design with landscaped areas with plantings as well as seating areas….”

Proponents of making the area an open cobblestone piazza, specifically members of the Seaport Community Coalition, stressed the area’s identity as a historic district and the touristic appeal of an uncluttered space surrounded by bustling sidewalk cafes. The park supporters, including many Seaport residents, highlighted the need for green space in the neighborhood and expressed fears that an open plaza would attract noisy street fairs by day and loitering youths by night.

“Whatever takes place there has an impact on a historic district,” said Kit White of the Seaport Community Coalition. “It doesn’t just belong to the people who live there, it belongs to everyone…It was an open, working, urban space and it should be left open as a reminder of the past.”

Jake McCabe of the Seaport Parents Association countered that as the old industrial areas become increasingly residential, local families find themselves starved for play space.

“We want to keep the history and bow to that aesthetically, but we are really interested in having green space that is usable,” McCabe said.

Coalition members also argued that as an industrial space, Peck Slip has been paved with cobblestones for over a century and that the stones give the plaza texture and character.

“I love that you use the word ‘texture,’ because people are falling all over those cobblestones,” responded Don Walsh, referring to the general state of disrepair that has emerged as Peck Slip awaits redevelopment.

Walsh, a landscape architect and Water St. resident, pointed out that historically, before Peck Slip was an industrial plaza, it was a boat slip. History, he said, was fluid and could be molded to accommodate the needs of the community — namely, wider sidewalks, through traffic and green space. After the meeting, Seaport Committee chairperson John Fratta agreed, saying he didn’t think that the Coalition members had listened enough to other Seaport residents before making their proposal.

As to traffic, the committee spurned the Coalition’s request to block the area to cars, siding instead with a city Department of Transportation recommendation to allow through traffic and on-street parking on the sidewalk side of the street (away from the center space).

The city’s Parks Department, which will oversee the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation-funded redevelopment of Peck Slip, said that Parks designers plan to take their cue from the Seaport Committee’s resolution.

“We will take into consideration the requests the community has made in this resolution and attempt to incorporate as many of the elements as possible into the design of Peck Slip,” a Parks Department spokesperson said.

Skye@DowntownExpress.com

© 2006 Community Media, LLC

[ablarc]

^ A case where compromise makes sense.

[pianoman11686]

A 'Reinvented' Playground for Seaport

By Andrea Appleton
POSTED DEC. 29, 2007

Many city playgrounds tend to be pretty standard issue. The colors are primary, the equipment predictable, and the layout more or less generic. For parents, proximity usually trumps innovation when it comes to places for their kids to play.

A new playground proposed for Burling Slip in the South Street Seaport is anything but that. The design, a pro bono project of David Rockwell and the Rockwell Group, is a significant departure from the usual model.

Meant to evoke a ship, the playground will feature sand and water, as well as a full-time cadre of “play workers,” there to foment fun and ensure safety.

http://www.tribecatrib.com/photos/news/jan07/Burling-large_page.jpg

“We want to reinvent the playground,” said project consultant Barry Richards.

Last month Richards presented the project to Community Board 1’s Seaport/Civic Center Committee, with Lawrence Mauro, the project manager for the city’s Parks Department. The full board later unanimously passed a resolution approving the design.

http://www.tribecatrib.com/photos/news/jan07/Burling-small.jpg

If all goes according to plan, a cobblestone-paved plaza will replace what is currently a parking lot. A multi-level “boat,” with a wooden deck will be in the center. An amphitheater, a crow’s nest, a sandpit, and a small waterway are some of the fixed elements on board, and “loose parts,” such as carts, balls, and buckets also will be available.

Historical elements are fundamental to the design, according to Richards.

“There are all these local textures we’ve tried to incorporate,” he said. “The wood on the piers, ropes, burlap bags, water.”Until it was paved over in 1835, the site was a boat slip.

“Play workers” are also central to the plan. Their chief duty would be to organize and supervise play. During the warmer months, as many as four might be on duty at once.

It’s one of the most unusual playground projects the city has taken on, according to Mauro.

“We’re breaking the mold here,” he said. “This breaks all our normal rules.”

The city would provide routine maintenance, but the playground’s unusual features will require additional funding. The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation gave $2 million to the project, and a not-for-profit organization has been set up to raise additional funds.

While the design has met with local approval, the real hurdle will be the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Burling Slip is part of the South Street Seaport Historic District, and as such, the commission can veto any design it deems historically inappropriate. A hearing will take place on Jan. 9.

Even if the commission approves, local kids won’t be sailing the Slip’s high seas anytime soon. Construction is slated to begin this fall, and will take nearly a year to complete.

Copyright 2007 The Tribeca Trib.

[lofter1]

New York Tries to Think Outside the Sandbox

http://graphics10.nytimes.com/images/2007/01/10/nyregion/10play.xlarge1.jpg
Kinnaresh Mistry and the Rockwell Group
A parking lot at John Street near South Street Seaport would be turned into a playground
where children could play with foam blocks, cardboard tubes and burlap bags.
It would also have pulleys and climbing nets.

nytimes.com (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/10/nyregion/10play.html?hp&ex=1168491600&en=ba7d81b3c5cf04ff&ei=5094&partner=homepage)
By DIANE CARDWELL
January 10, 2007

New York City, with its rich history of public playgrounds, is on the verge of a bold experiment in the way children play, one that could accelerate the trend away from monkey bars, swings and seesaws used by generations of city children.

In an unusual public-private partnership, the city is developing a playground near the South Street Seaport that will have trained “play workers” on hand to help children interact with features of the new playground: water, ramps, sand and specially designed objects meant to spur the imagination.

The concept is not just another accouterment for Manhattan’s pampered toddler set. Rather, city officials say, it reflects the latest thinking about child-rearing. They hope the new playground concept will be replicated across the five boroughs and that it will serve as an inspiration for other cities.

“This is a very exciting idea in its physical presentation and its potential to change the way we think of playgrounds,” said the city’s parks commissioner, Adrian Benepe, adding that it could “once again put New York City on the cutting edge of playground design and development.”

Based on child-development theories that children need to engage in social and fantasy play rather than just build physical skills, the project was conceived and is being designed at no charge by David Rockwell, famous for creating adult play spaces like he restaurants Nobu and Café Gray and the Mohegan Sun casino and resort.

Although the space is to be open to the public, the play workers, a concept already popular in Europe, are being financed by Mr. Rockwell, who is raising $2 million privately to cover the costs.

The American playground of swing sets and steel monkey bars has already been evolving with more imaginative features in recent years. But behaviorists and others say planners could go even further to reflect more refined ideas about nurturing children, especially those younger than 12.

“Very little time is spent by kids in playgrounds if they have a choice,” said Roger Hart, who has been consulting with the Rockwell Group and the city in developing the playground. He is also a director of the Children’s Environments Research Group at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. “They limit the repertoire of play to children’s physical activity,” instead of encouraging the kind of social, sensory, interactive and individual fantasy play that children need, Mr. Hart said.

Once upon a time, parents took their children to city playgrounds to push them endlessly in swings or watch them hang from monkey bars (since removed; too dangerous) or let them struggle with the rudiments of sharing shovels in a sandbox. And both parent and child felt they were doing pretty well.

The new playground, however, aims to do better: Developers of the Lower Manhattan project envision groups of children collaborating, for instance, loading containers with sand, hoisting them up with pulleys and then lowering them down to wagons waiting to be wheeled off to another part of the park.

What may sound like a training ground for tiny construction workers actually holds huge developmental benefits, backers say. “You have a level of interaction that you would never have with fixed parts,” Mr. Hart said.

The project would transform a parking lot at Burling Slip in the South Street Seaport Historic District, an area that has few playgrounds and is increasingly attractive to residents with children. The plan has already won the support of city and state elected officials and community leaders.

Although it still needs approval from the Landmarks Preservation Commission, that appears likely to be granted, paving the way for completion sometime next year. At a hearing yesterday, several commissioners spoke in its favor, and the chairman, Robert B. Tierney, said he thought there was a “broad consensus for approval.”

The idea has the support of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. Parks officials are devising plans to supply those who already work in other playgrounds with the loose objects, which range from foam blocks and cardboard tubes to spindles and burlap bags, and train them to encourage children to play with them. And in a classic Bloombergian touch, the city hopes that if the idea catches on elsewhere, it could market the playground products.

Mr. Rockwell, the designer, acknowledged that there were plenty of great play spaces in the city, and he and his team designed their playground as a complement to those that already exist. Still, he said, watching his children, 4 and 7, play inspired him to create something based more on the imagination.

“Play is not optional for kids; play is how children learn to build community, how they learn to work with other people, it’s how they learn to kind of engage their sense of creativity,” Mr. Rockwell said. “We thought it was a really open field to explore.”

Mr. Rockwell has already developed a relationship with the city, helping to design a viewing platform over ground zero, a project for which he also helped raise private financing. After another partnership to develop theatrical spaces downtown fell through, Mr. Rockwell, who lives in Lower Manhattan, realized there was an immediate need for a playground.

Commissioner Benepe, it turned out, was an advocate for rethinking the city’s playgrounds, and there was money available from both the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and the Economic Development Corporation as part of larger efforts to redevelop the area.

Whether the playground experiment proves successful, and can be replicated, is an open question, educators and parents say.

Cathleen Wiggins, director of the Leadership in the Arts program at the Bank Street College of Education and the mother of a 6-year-old, was receptive to the open-ended play materials but worried that the city could wind up with something that could not be maintained because of budget constraints. And she said that traditional playgrounds had their selling points, adding that children “are creative and imaginative beings and given just about any material they are going to bring to it their notions of the world and their growing understanding of it.”

The modern American playground has its roots in the late 19th century, when settlement houses in New York worked to create spaces for children to play, Mr. Benepe said.

According to Susan G. Solomon, who wrote the book “American Playgrounds,” which traces their evolution, playground design in the 1950s and ’60s was borrowed from post-war Europe with the concept of the adventure playground. That idea was based on the fact that children most enjoyed building their own playthings and manipulating their own environment.

But, Ms. Solomon, who is also consulting on the new playground, said that in the ’70s, concerns over injury and liability took over, and high-ticket architects largely abandoned playground design.

Now, Ms. Solomon said, the United States has fallen far behind Europe and Japan. In Great Britain, for instance, play is a government priority, with organizations dedicated to research, training and oversight of play workers and the development of play programs.

What the Rockwell Group has proposed for Lower Manhattan is a figure-eight-shape landscape, with sloping wooden ramps for running that connect a zone of sand to a zone of water. A structure would house the loose parts, including foam blocks, small boats and collections of tubing, elbows and gaskets for construction projects, all to be maintained and overseen by the play workers.

The design also calls for a system of pulleys and ropes for children to lift and transport objects, as well as a climbing net and shading sails that relate to the area’s maritime history and setting.

“We’re creating as many opportunities as we can for collaborative play — thinking of imagination as important a muscle as running,” Mr. Rockwell said, as well as places that children can be in and manipulate as they wish, with the loose objects encouraging them “to understand that they can control their own environment.”

Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

[ablarc]

Sure is ugly; barely better than a parking lot.

Seems especially inappropriate for its setting.

[ZippyTheChimp]

Opinion:

The Good Old-Fashioned Playground

New York City planners, blessed with a patch of prime real estate, an infusion of private funding and the participation of a hot architect, have hatched a plan to endow Lower Manhattan with a play space that will feature no swings, slides or monkey bars (“too dangerous,” as a New York Times story put it). Instead, this “bold experiment” in child-development-theory-made-real will have low wooden ramps, “zones” of sand and water, and enchanting, innovative playthings like foam blocks and gaskets.

The idea is to spur creativity. “Very little time is spent by kids in playgrounds if they have a choice,” said Roger Hart, a director of the Children’s Environments Research Group at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and a consultant on the playground project. Apparently, the kinds of playgrounds that generations of children have enjoyed are sadly inadequate. “They limit the repertoire of play to children’s physical activity,” Hart told the Times, which noted that the new park will encourage “the kind of social, sensory, interactive and individual fantasy play that children need.”

The fact that engaging correctly in all this fantastic creativity will require the intervention of paid adult “play workers” doesn’t seem to bother anyone. But it bothers me.

It’s not that I’m anti-creativity. I’d much rather see kids safely learn to relate to red foam squares than crack their heads open on old-fashioned concrete. But I’d also like to see public funding spent on activities that actually serve the common good. And I happen to think that an adult-mediated, cerebrally challenging outdoor space is the last thing that city kids need.

(The whole “monkey bar” danger issue is actually kind of interesting: Metal “monkey bars,” also known to those of my generation as “jungle gyms,” really were pretty dangerous and rarely exist in playgrounds anymore, Donna Thompson, executive director of the National Program for Playground Safety, told me. “If boys fell on them, they could become sopranos,” she said. What we now refer to as “monkey bars” are officially called “horizontal ladders.” They can be made safe with decent surface padding and age-appropriate sizing.)

In an age of epidemic childhood obesity, in an era when kids are no longer able to roam free, in a borough where children don’t have backyards or easy access to bike trails (assuming they’d be allowed to use them), in a time when school recess is becoming a rare commodity, it seems to me that what children need are more, not fewer, old-fashioned playgrounds: places where they can swing and climb and jump and slide. In an age of constant parental supervision and hyper-scheduling, it seems to me that adults need to stay well on the sidelines when kids play, and not ham it up among them, making grown-up intervention the main event.

Educators aplenty these days warn of the dangers of too little child-only play: kids are coming into school lacking social skills, they say. They’re growing up self-centered and proving too dependent upon adult-initiated structure to be able to launch into, say, a playground pick-up game.

One of my daughters used to see an O.T. (occupational therapist, for those of you not up on the lingo; and no – if you’re so very out of it that you have to pose this question – the profession is not just about workplace injuries; O.T.’s now provide a whole range of services to buff up muscularly and otherwise deficient kids). She told me that the fact that children are no longer playing traditional playground games is having physical repercussions. Things like jacks, hopscotch, jump-rope and swings used to build eye-hand coordination, balance, timing and abdominal strength. Organized sports like soccer build gross-motor skills and teamwork, but don’t do much for a whole range of fine-motor skills. All that’s good for business, she said, but bad for her clients, a fair number of whom, she told me, would best be “treated” by a steady diet of old-fashioned play.

Sacrificing the true purpose of kids’ outdoor space – physical play – for the alleged purpose of enhancing creative cognition shows a real ignorance of the way children operate. As any parent knows, kids play the way they’re wired to play. If they’re creative types, they will turn a climbing structure into a castle. If they’re athletic, they’ll swing on any horizontal object within reach. The best way to hinder all that activity is to “facilitate” it with adult input. What adults ought to be doing is sitting back and setting priorities. Because that’s one thing our kids can’t do for themselves.

Judith Warner's most recent book, "Perfect Madness: Motherhood in the Age of Anxiety," a New York Times best-seller, was published in February 2005.

[ZippyTheChimp]

Parks Dept. says slip up at Burling is temporary

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The Parks Dept. plan for Burling Slip has been rejected by the Art Commission.

By Brooke Edwards

Plans for the much-publicized new playground at Burling Slip were slowed but not halted after the city Art Commission proposed modifications to its design.

The playground’s design team — made up of a partnership between the Parks Department and the Rockwell Group architectural design firm — presented their plans during a public hearing on Jan. 9.

While most who attended the hearing agree that the feedback was generally positive, the majority of the members of the Art Commission — along with other groups present, including the Historic Districts Council and the community group SeaportSpeaks — expressed concern over two of the playground’s elements: the height of one piece of equipment and the obtrusiveness of the chain link fence that would enclose the park.

“The project was tabled so that we can continue our work with the Art Commission to make some modifications,” wrote Ashe Reardon, spokesperson for the Parks Department, in an email on Wednesday. “This is common practice and not unusual whatsoever.”

He said the Art Commission will not be able to halt the project if it rejects the modifications. “In actuality, the Art Commission is an advisory panel that the Parks Department partners with but they have no approval over this project,” Reardon wrote.
Officials with the commission did not respond to requests for comment.

The design team was understandably defensive after rumors began circulating on the Web that the Art Commission had rejected the plans altogether.

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Downtown Express photo by Jefferson Siegel

Burling Slip

Curbed.com, quoting a tipster, reported that the plan “was killed by the City Art Commission… It’s dead.”

Lee Gruzen, co-chairperson for SeaportSpeaks, attended the Art Commission hearing and said she thought the park would be approved soon. “The plan is really moving in the right direction. It just needs some enrichment, some continuity.”

Gruzen said the main concern from her group is for the slip to still feel like a slip, remaining as open to the water as possible. That is why they were concerned over the height of one element.

However, Gruzen said, “The Rockwell Group and the Parks Department have been fabulous about meeting and judging the needs of the public.” She is confident that they will continue to do so with these minor concerns.

The construction of a playground at Burling Slip, which is currently a parking lot, is part of a $38 million plan to redevelop the neighborhood around Fulton St., including the historic Seaport district. The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation gave $2 million to develop and maintain the playground. Soon after, the Rockwell Group — led by celebrated architect David Rockwell — took on designing the playground as a pro-bono project, and is raising private funds to meet anticipated costs.

Named “Imagination Playground” by the Rockwell Group, the park made the front page of the New York Times last Wednesday and has sparked several follow-up articles due to its unique design and “play workers,” w