Battery Park City

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Battery Park City is a 90-acre (36.5 hectare) planned community at the southwestern tip of Manhattan in New York City. The land upon which it stands was reclaimed from the Hudson river using 1.2 million cubic yards (917,000 cubic meters) of dirt and rocks excavated during the construction of the World Trade Center and certain other construction projects. The neighborhood, which is the site of the World Financial Center along with numerous housing, commercial and retail buildings, is named for adjacent Battery Park.

Battery Park City is owned and managed by the Battery Park City Authority, a public corporation that is not controlled by New York City. Excess revenues from the area are contributed to other housing efforts, typically low-income projects in the Bronx and Harlem.

Geography

Battery Park City is bounded on the east by West Street, which insulates the area from the Financial District of downtown Manhattan. To the east, north and south, the area is surrounded by the tidal estuary of the Hudson River.

The development consists of roughly five major sections. Travelling north to south, the first neighborhood, aptly referred to by the BPCA as the "North Residential Neighborhood", consists largely of park, a few residential buildings, and a large hotel.

Immediately to the south lies the World Financial Center area, a complex of several commercial buildings occupied by tenants including American Express and Dow Jones & Company. The area of the Financial Center also includes a steel-and-glass greenhouse known as the Winter Garden and a large yacht harbor.

South of the World Financial Center lies the majority of Battery Park City's residential areas, in three sections: "Gateway Plaza", the "Rector Place Residential Neighborhood" and the "Battery Place Residential Neighborhood". These neighborhoods contain most of the area's residential buildings, along with park space and various types of supporting businesses (supermarkets, restaurants, movie theatres.) Construction of residential buildings began north of the World Financial Center in the late 1990s.

History

By the late 1950s, the once prosperous port area of downtown Manhattan was occupied by a number of dilapidated shipping piers, casualties of the rise of air transport. The initial proposal to reclaim this area through landfill was offered in the early 1960s by private firms and supported by the Mayor. This plan became complicated when Governor Nelson Rockefeller announced his desire to redevelop a part of the area as a separate project. The various groups reached a compromise, and in 1966 the governor unveiled the proposal for what would become Battery Park City. The creation of architect Wallace K. Harrison, the proposal called for a 'comprehensive community' consisting of housing, social infrastructure and light industry. In 1968, the New York State Legislature created the Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) to oversee development.

For the next several years, the BPCA made slow progress. In 1969, it unveiled a master plan for the area, and in 1972 issued $200 million in bonds to fund construction efforts. By 1976 the landfill was completed; in many cases, the pre-existing piers were simply buried.

Construction efforts ground to a halt for nearly two years beginning in 1977, as a result of city-wide financial hardships. In 1979, the title to the landfill was transferred from the city to the BPCA, which financially restructured itself and created a new, more limited master plan.

Construction began on the first residential building in 1980, followed in 1981 with the start of construction on the World Financial Center, which saw its first tenants in 1985. Throughout the 1980s, the BPCA oversaw a great deal of construction, including the entire Rector Place neighborhood and the river Esplanade. In the early 1990s, Battery Park City became the new home of the Stuyvesant High School. By the turn of the century, Battery Park City was mostly completed, with the exception of some ongoing construction on West Street.

The 2001 World Trade Center Attack had a major impact on Battery Park City. More than two thirds of the area's residents fled after the adjacent Trade Center towers collapsed. Gateway Plaza, the largest of the residential buildings, was punctured by airplane parts, and the Winter Garden was severely damaged. Environmental concerns regarding dust from the Trade Center have also been a continuing source of worry. Since the attacks, much of the damage has been repaired; reduced rents and government subsidies have gone a long way to restoring residential occupancy. Despite this, the area still has a long way to go before it will be fully restored to pre-attack levels.

	Esplanade at Rector Place. (Photo by: Olin Partnership, Ltd.)
	The esplanade in 2001 with mature trees and plantings. (Photo by: StanRies.com)
	Winter on the esplanade. (Photo by: StanRies.com)

Battery Park City

1. Plan of regional context

2. Landscape Character

Context:

Battery Park City was originally lanfill from the World Trade Centre, located directly adjacent to the site, and fill was also dredged from the bottom of the Lower Bay. In 1968 the New York State Legislature established the Battery Park City Authority and plans for a new harbour were set forth in 1969. Cooper, Eckstut Associates revised the orignal plan in 1979 which included 92 acres of a residential and commercial community. The newly proposed 1979 Master Plan was one ""that sought to capitalize on the riverfront as an amenity, to tie the new development into the city's gridded street system, and to accommodate a riverfront esplanade, squares, parks and plazas. In the spirit of the times, contextualism and historic precedent suggested models both for the plan itself and for the design criteria that would mandate the character of individual development parcels. In extending the pattern of lower Manhattan's blocks along a spine of two major north/south avenues, care was taken to concentrate high-rise commercial development in the area of the World Trade Center, now connected by pedestrian bridges to the four towers of BPC's World Financial Center."" The new Manhattan Harbour city consists of 14,000 units condominimum housing. The World Financial Centre is located directly across from the World Trade Centre with residential communities to the North and South linked by a 1.2 mile 70 foot wide esplanade. Two types of walkways exist, an inner one that is formed by rows of trees and beds of shrubberyk, grasses, or flowers, while the lower one is broader and guides the visitor along the river's edge.The periphery is lined with benches and a low iron-rail fence as well as lamposts. Public parks, plazas and riverfront esplanade make up 30-40 per cent of the site.

Battery Park City extends along East River from Burling Slip to Peck Slip. A pedestrian area was established to replace streets providing relief from the adjacent Financial District. The city is a tourist attraction that complements the popular observatory deck, restaurants and shops of the World Trade Centre. Each of the large blocks were divided into smaller blocks to maintain the concept of the Manhattan city grid system. This allowed for developers to work with a smaller site and thus increased their interest economically and socially. Guidelines were derived from traditional New York city standards with respect to the area's master plan and in terms of general requirements for individual buildings.

The revised plan of 1979 returns to the historic grid pattern, which has been the form of street development for Manhattan since 1811. As well as, the use of all that is desirable about New York as a place for living. This includes the ""city""s system of streets and blocks, its prevalent building forms, its density, its mixed land use and its efficient transportation systems. This is to integrate building forms of Battery Park City organically with existing structures. Through the extension of streets there is less of a sense of isolation. The rotated orientation of the street grid is to enhance the visual quality of the main avenues so as to focus on the harbour. The main avenues primarily consist of Shopping, school and social pedestrian activities, where two different design features have been implemented. On one side of the avenues an arcade that provides for all weather situations with a 40 foot wide linear park running directly parallel.

Locating the Commercial Centre opposite the World Trade Centre provides for easy access to the Lower Manhattan subway systems. Access to the subway stations and PATH in the World Trade Centre is the upmost importance since it is estimated that 9231 of all work trips will are made by public transportation.

The street system is organized as a series of loops, each of which serves a specific part of the site. The loops utilize the grid of the streets, but through the use of one way streets they avoid creating conditions that would encourage vehicular traffic to pass through the residential neighbour- hoods.

""Finally, that the streets of Battery Park City are extensions of older ones is visible only in plan. From an experiential point of view, West Street constitutes a barrier between the two zones that's as effective as a concrete wall. For the visitor, the process of entering Battery Park City reinforces how unrelated and seemingly detached it is from the rest of Manhattan. One arrives either as a motorist from West Street and therefore many lanes of traffic away form the ""context,"" or as a pedestrian who must choose between risking his or her life by crossing West Street directly or not taking a street at all but scutling in on an airport-like elevated walkway.""

Characteristics:

South Cove is located at the the southern most point of Battery Park City and is the termination point of the esplanade.""South Cove bears the stamp of Miss""s earlier explorations of the way that the experience of a natural landscape may be taransformed and intensified by framing, screening or carefully plotted movement through space."" Its design is intended to give visual and physical acess to the waterfront that was previously blocked by industrial development. This 3 acre public park was developed through the idea of an interplay of forms and to create profoundly evocative environs.

Main goals of the space:

Sense of place--The Hudson River--the water, direct view of the Statue of Liberty and the danger of the transition between earth and water

Concept: To never feel truly separate from the water, a vague definition of spaces with barriers lingering on a fine line. A strong concern with the visitors perception and participation within the space and for them to be aware of the use of the river.

1982, city of New York passed a law ""Percent for Art"" allowing for one per cent of the total budget of every construction operation to include works of art. Public Art works in Battery Park City were a collaboration of artists, architects and landscape architects. Each differing in range and linked together by an esplanade which was designed by Cooper Eckstut Association (who worked on South Cove with Mary Miss and Susan Child) with Hanna/Olin. ""The magic quality of this work lies in the absolute articiality and uselessness in practical terms of each singlw detail and of the whole, the sole aim being to create a pleasant timeless atmosphere. Curved wooden jetties, too obviously the work of craftsmen, false mooring posts, blue boat lamps, simulated natural costal vegetation bounded by an irregular composition of rocks (indiviually selected by Mary Miss in Maine), All contribute to the light and gentle effect, without becoming cliches. For the circular metal metal platform extending over the water Mary Miss was inspired by the Statue of Liberty. Walking above the water, one sees what Battery Park City really is filled water, a construction on piles.""

Stanton Eckstut stated ""at a certain point it was no longer clear who was the architect and who was the artist."" He helped maintain a harmony of scale and style with the surrounding area and while Susan Child was a guide for the character of the park and her knowledge of the ecology of coves. Initially it was a tug-of-war between the designers but they eventually learned how to co-exist. South Cove is now considered the most successful of the Fine Arts Program for the builders and people alike.

It serves many communities throughout the day: joggers and bikers, the children and adults from the immediate neighborhood of Tribeca, Wall Street employees and Battery Park City residents. It is popular amongst New Yorkers of all social classes and couples will go there to be alone in the evening. The people of Manhattan now have access to the shoreline through an elegant and spiritual place. Transition from one part to the next is unobtrusive and it is un-noticible that this place was once a landfill site.

The installation is of a japanese character and flavour--from the colours to the choice and placement of materials. Rocks seem randomly placed but were in fact carefully situated by a crane operator directed by Mary Miss. These irregularly shaped stones separate the garden from larger, formal walkways by curving along the river and out on to the dock.

List of Books

Breen, Ann, & Rigby, ""Waterfronts Cities Reclaim Their Edge"", New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994

Koolhass, Rem. Delirous New York, A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan. New York Oxford University Press 1978

Mackay, A. Donald.8888888888. Harper & Row, Publishers New York

Manhattan Architecture pg.206 & 96

Manhattan Waterbound

(17th century Dutch Beginnings)

Articles on Battery Park City

Architectural Record. Battery Park City: A new Residential skyline for downtown New York. December 1983, pp.28-29

Domus. Public Art A Battery Park City, N.Y., 1982/90. Gennaio 1991. pp.78-84 Interiors, Interiors Platform 148:16+ F""89

Progressive Architecture,88888888. July 1983 Progressive Architecture, Building the New City, 69:86-93 Mr ""88 Progressive Architecture, West Side Waterfront, 69:21+ My ""88 Progressive Architecture, On the Waterfront: Art/Architecture 69:24-5 S ""88 Progressive Architecture, Waterfront Neighborhood, 71:120-1 Ja ""90

Progressive Architecture, Battery Park's grand design. December 1983. pp.25

Articles on Mary Miss and South Cove

888888Studio Visit. Space Sculptor. January 1993. pp.40-43

88888888The Jewel of Battery Park, A Japanese Garden on Stilts. pp.169-172

8888888Climbing Parnassus. Mary Miss (1944- ). pp.477-479

Landscape Architecture, Battery Park City;Celebrating the River and the City, 79;51-7 my ""89 Landscape Architecture, South Cove, Battery Park City, 79:71 N '89

3. Battery Park City landfill shoreline	4. Continuation of esplanade
5. Water/Land transition points	6. Directional views/Multi views
7. Site character
9. Marry Miss's contributions to Battery Park City

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