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VOLUME 24, NUMBER 43
OCCUPYING OVER TIER 6, P. 12
express ss THE NEWSPAPER OF LOWER MANHATTAN
MARCH 14 - 20, 2012
P.A.C. has new leader, defined direction
Image courtesy of Howard Hughes
A rendering of the new Pier 17.
Howard Hughes unveils new Pier 17 plan BY ALINE REYNOLDS Pier 17 in the South Street Seaport is in for a major overhaul and Community Board 1 and other neighborhood stakeholders have given the plan a preliminary stamp of approval. Come 2015, the pier, which now houses an indoor shopping mall that dates back to the 1980s, will be transformed into a sleek, indoor-outdoor facility with new shops, restaurants and a rooftop space dedicated to the performing arts. The modernistic design, presented by SHoP Architects and the Howard Hughes Corporation, was greeted with unanimous praise from locals at a joint C.B. 1 Landmarks and Seaport Civic Center Committee meeting last Thursday, March 8. The designers of the building have plans to recycle steel and other materials from the current structure to build a
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (L.E.E.D.) Silver-certified building that will house a network of stores and eateries offering panoramic views of Brooklyn and the East River, according to Gregg Pasquarelli, a principal at SHoP Architects. The new three-story building, poised to be 20,000 square feet larger than the current mall, will be fitted with cobblestone floors, basket-weave ceilings and industrial glass doors that will be lifted up in the summer months and brought down when it’s cold outside. The facility will have space in the middle to commemorate the centuries-old division of Piers 17 and 18, Pasquarelli noted, and the railing separating the pier and the water will allow for ship-mooring. “We thought, what if we just stripped everything off and [made] a pattern of streets… as opposed to a
BY JOHN BAYLES The Performing Arts Center set to be built at the current site of the temporary PATH entrance on Vesey Street has long been only a vision. However new developments, including the hiring of a senior adviser to the P.A.C. Board, suggest the vision is moving closer to becoming a reality. Last week it was announced that Maggie Boepple would assume the role of Senior Adviser to the P.A.C. Board. National Sept. 11 Memorial Foundation President Joe Daniels made the announcement in early March. Daniels said during the search for an adviser Boepple’s name “kept coming up” because of her resume. “This site is so inherently complicated,” said Daniels,
“and we wanted someone with the cultural background and experience in working with city and state agencies.” Boepple was most recently the president of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Prior to her role with the L.M.C.C., Boepple was Senior Adviser to London’s Commissioner of Transport. Before moving to London, she served as New York City’s chief lobbyist within the Ed Koch administration, the first woman to hold such a position, and subsequently became the City’s Director of Intergovernmental Relations where she represented the City’s interests with Federal, State, and local government entities. Boepple’s years in public service also include work with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority as Director of Government
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climate-control shopping center,” said Pasquarelli. “We feel it’s very important to use materials in a natural state and use them in contemporary ways.” Another goal of the architects is to reestablish the Seaport’s tie to the waterfront by, for example, enhancing from street level the pier’s waterfront vista, which is currently obstructed by the box-shaped mall. “One of my biggest criticisms of the current Pier 17 is if you make it all the way down Fulton Street, and you make it across South Street… you see the front door to a three-story mall, and you don’t see the bridge,” said Pasquarelli. “We always felt it was very important to get view corridors through the building to open up, so you immediately have that connection to this incredible site.”
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New Battery Park City hotel. Page 16.