Paws to Consider: HRPT Dock Plans Previewed
Upscale Amenities, Long Planned For, Emerge in Troubled Times
by Dianne Renzulli
photo by Robert Simko
Aerial view of Piers 25 and 26 in the foreground
Pier 26, the Hudson River dock between North Moore and Hubert Streets, is the focal point of the latest phase in the Tribeca segment of the Hudson River Park's massive, years-long reconstruction project. Last week, the Hudson River Park Trust (HRPT), the agency that manages both the park (which stretches from 59th Street to Battery Park City) and its reconstruction, gave the Waterfront Committee of Community Board 1 (CB1) a preview of Pier 26 and the surrounding area.
Pier 26 is the planned home of a community boathouse, waterside café, and estuarium -- though the funding for this aquatic education center has not yet been secured. (No plans have been announced for the vacant western end of the pier, the estuarium's intended home.) Work on the $6.7 million boathouse and restaurant structure is currently under way, and the current schedule calls for this section to open in the spring of 2013. A search for a restaurant tenant (which will start with a request for proposals) is slated to begin in early 2012.
The upland area adjacent to Pier 26 will feature an oval dog run, also scheduled to open in 2013. Work on this new section of the Park is scheduled to begin in the spring of 2012, pending approval from the HRPT's board in January. The HRPT design presented at last week's CB1 meeting shows separate areas for large and small dogs, a dog-sized drinking fountain, umbrellas to provide shade, and a water feature near the base of Pier 26 that dogs can activate by hopping on a bollard, similar to those used at the children's playground on Pier 25 (the adjacent pier that reopened in 2010 with a miniature golf course, sand volleyball courts, and an artificial turf playing field, among other amenities). In addition to the dog run, the new, onshore section of the Park will include two curving lawns, landscaped bike and walking paths, and a large gathering space between Pier 25 and Pier 26. Plans for this section also call for historic ships to be moored between the piers.
Some members of CB1's Waterfront Committee raised concerns at last week's meeting about devoting so much money to Downtown's four-legged residents in an economic climate that has cut services for their two-legged caregivers. (The dog run itself is budgeted at $400,000, while the total cost for larger project of which it is a part -- including landscaping around the boathouse and restaurant area -- is budgeted at $6.5 million. The overall price tag for the Tribeca segment of the Park -- which encompasses the waterfront between Chambers and Houston Streets -- is $100 million.)
Waterfront Committee chair Bob Townley said in a subsequent e-mail, "I think in relation to all capital costs in New York City, $6.5 million is not out of line. It is on the water which makes it an expensive project. Hopefully it lasts 75 years -- but it is an expensive piece."
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I guess nothing's too grand for the little section of park that abuts so many of New York's wealthiest residents. And canines who eat out of designer dog bowls need a sufficiently posh dog-run, so $400,000 for a fenced in patch of space is just fine.
Meanwhile the HRP Trust complains they just don't have the money to do work farther north, and need to tax all the property owners along the waterfront via a BID to get enough cash to move ahead. This business of this City is nuts.
Money stays where money goes.
At least they have not been building any moats and guard towers....yet.
Work begun on Pier 26.
So do we know what that^ is? The restaurant or boathouse?
That went up fast. Last Friday it was just a concrete pad.
From the drawings, it's the restaurant. I hope so; we need it.
As bad as we need an estuarium?
I mean, the word sounds cool and all, but aquatic education center? I just wish I knew what exactly that will be, and is it worth it.
In the mean time I wonder if they'll let people out on the pier, structurally sound with new railings, while they're busy securing funds for who knows how long (doubt it). More than anything I want that pier open, even if it's just a lawn and/or some tables and chairs over the duration (of probably years) while we wait for whatever this thing is.
There was an estuarial study center on that pier for the past 25 years. Totally funky, but it was there. No doubt what's being built is going to be wildly excessive in design and execution. Ultimately, will it really be a better teaching tool than what was there before?
Call me nostalgic, but sometimes it makes me yearn for the portable b-b-q's and rotting piers of the past. (Of course the new breed of Tribecans wouldn't stand for that.)
No, you would need portable braziers, not BBQ's.
It was The River Project, in a concrete building with a barn door on pier 26. Started in the mid '80s by Cathy Drew and a handful of volunteers as a marine field station, with aquariums. You could walk right in and say hello, which I did several times with my kids.
I wouldn't describe it as funky; it was very professional, a bare-bones look at how research is done at the source.
Over the years, they partnered with researchers from area universities, the Museum of Natural history, the EPA. The name estuarium may have come from one of the organizations, the Harbor Estuary Program.
They are (temporarily?) at pier 40. They run an internship program, and I think have applied to operate the new facility on pier 26. It seems a no-brainer that they would be chosen; but since no decision has been made, and no funding for what should be a simple building, I think the whole thing will get overblown. [see: dog-run with interactive features. I think dogs just want to interact with other dogs].
I wouldn't be surprised if there's a fee to visit.
There's no funding to complete the pier west of the building now going up, so it'll probably be closed off. Not a big deal for me; pier 25 is OK for now. More important to finish the uplands, and get rid of that detour on the bikeway.
"Totally Funky" does not (to my mind) adequately describe the conditions. 'Absolutely totally funky AND gritty' is a more apt description; but, that term can be either high praise or disparagement - depending on who you are talking to about the place.Originally Posted by lofter1
As a former volunteer on the pier (two years) I am familiar enough with the place to have a healthy appreciation for both sides of the story.
I moved into the area in the mid-eighties, and the funny (or sad) thing is here we are more than thirty years later: and still building, still debating, and still waiting.
Yea, just give a few nice benches, a shade structure and a patch of sod: and call it a day. HeHe
Request for Proposals will be issued by HRPT in April for a 200 seat restaurant on Pier 26.
Will have a rooftop terrace.
Elevator?
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