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The $58 million Battery Maritime Building restoration is one year away from completion
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For Judy Bernard and Charles Silverman, it's a labor of love. The pair, from the city Economic Development Corporation (EDC) and Tishman Construction respectively, has devoted the past five years to restoring one of Lower Manhattan's brightest examples of Beaux-Arts design, flared with New York's "iron age" construction. And their work is marvelous.
The restoration encompasses the landmarked exterior of the Battery Maritime Building (BMB), located at the foot of Manhattan next door to the recently rebuilt Whitehall Ferry Terminal. Plans for the $58 million project began in the late 1990s, when the BMB's cast-iron façade was held together by layers of drab green paint over crusts of rust.
Now in the final phase of restoration, it is clear why the building earned a spot on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. From its vaulted arches lined with Guastavino tile, to its copper roof, to ornamented structural steel, the BMB embodies the heightened craftsmanship of foundries at the turn of the 20th century and the mastery of decorative function by architectural firm Walker & Morris.
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| The building's original color patterns are being restored |
When the BMB was completed in 1909, ferries were a critical commuter-transport mode linking the outer boroughs and New Jersey to Manhattan. The BMB, a twin to the original Whitehall Terminal before that building was destroyed by fire in 1992, was a hub that connected harbor travelers to the Third and Ninth Avenue elevated subway lines at South Ferry.Its designers were equally focused on practicality and beauty, taking full advantage of the building's majestic location. Its "Great Hall," a 34-feet-tall, 8,500-square-foot waiting area on the second floor, gave commuters loads of natural light from an enormous stained-glass skylight along with stunning views of the harbor through towering window walls. Visitors could also take in fresh air from the roof deck, belvedere, and perimeter veranda before boarding their trains and ferries.
For the renovation, the EDC was determined to restore the building's original splendor, letting the finer elements drive the project. "Obviously they put a lot of thought into all of the details of the building," says Bernard, an EDC assistant vice president and project manager. "And they are spectacular."
| The Battery Maritime Building's three slips are numbered 5, 6, and 7, but where are numbers 1 through 4? The first three are next door, in the Whitehall Ferry Terminal -- which, in its original incarnation, was the "twin" structure of the BMB. Slip 4 was an open-air slip between the two buildings. |
A tour of the century-old structure provides a closer look at the organic shapes cut into steel girders, "decorative" rivet patterns, and original 15 wood-frame doorways along the north-side loggia. But to really understand the building's details, it helps to take a look at its paint job.
When the project got underway in 2001, Bernard says, most people thought the entire building was made of copper-turned-patina, thanks to its monotone green color. But then she and Silverman, Tishman's construction manager for the restoration, began to analyze paint chips down to the base level. There they uncovered its original color scheme, along with vibrant terra cotta tiles and moldings and other minutiae that had been buried beneath coats of paint.
"You couldn't really tell the extent of the damage until you started taking it apart," Bernard says.
The building's structural rehabilitation also revealed significant damage, ultimately driving the price tag up from the EDC's initial $36 million project estimate.
Bernard and Silverman recalled the state of some of the façade's cast-iron elements that had separated from each other. In some places they had been cabled together to prevent them from falling into the harbor.
As many as 1,000 of those same, original iron pieces are back in place today, after having been removed in slabs and shipped to specialist foundries in Alabama and Utah for refurbishment and repair. Once reinstalled, the team applied "Tnemec" paint, a protective, cement-based paint that prevents rust and matches the original, intricate building color pattern.
Most elements of the project are already or nearly complete, including a new exterior-lighting and gutter system, restored stucco panels, both the mansard and flat-area roofs, and fourth-floor veranda.
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| Architects incorporated seafaring details into every part of the BMB |
Now in the final phase of work, which is expected to wrap up in spring 2006, crews are rehabilitating Slip 5 on the building's western side, including its adjacent pilings and original steel and wood gang planks. Still, future tenants will have interior restoration to attend to, including the Great Hall's grand details -- such as the pressed-steel ceiling and huge Corinthian columns stylized with rosettes and fish.
The BMB is already in partial use by the Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation, which uses Slip 7 to ferry visitors to and from the island. A Request for Proposals (RFP) for the building has been issued by the EDC; it requires tenants to accommodate Governors Island ferries as well as "to restore, to the maximum extent possible, the architectural integrity of the structure." But as for the actual function, any industry is welcomed to submit ideas. "We want the market to tell us what it needs," Bernard says.
Silverman adds, "If you do it right -- and we did do it right -- there's a lot of life left in this building."
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