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1958 view of downtown waterfront
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Picture this: You are facing west on West Street in Lower Manhattan. There are dilapidated piers branching off the land on either side of you, and below you see the Hudson River washing up on the pilings and the shore. In 1962, this experience would have been reality. But today, it is remembered by only the few who knew the old waterfront.
Since then, West Street between Chambers and Battery Place has become a border to one of the most renowned examples of urban design and waterfront redevelopment: Battery Park City. The 92-acre neighborhood is home to the World Financial Center, picturesque esplanades, multiple residential towers, ballfields and parks, and one of the country's top public high schools.
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| Neighborhood features green space to envy |
The origin of Battery Park City spans back to the administration of Governor Nelson Rockefeller (1958-73), who was determined to reinforce Lower Manhattan's footing as the world's financial capital as business increasingly moved to midtown. At the beginning of his first term, Rockefeller began planning for the World Trade Center with his brother David (then head of Chase Manhattan Bank) and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
The group envisioned the WTC as an extension of Wall Street, and, along with several design and development consultants, began constructing the WTC's seven buildings in 1966. With excavation for the giant complex digging as deep as 70 feet, massive amounts of landfill were cheaply removed and dumped nearby in the Hudson River.
As the landfill amassed, Rockefeller -- demonstrating an "edifice complex," in the words of famed New Yorker writer Brendan Gill -- was inspired to create a residential community that would support the businesses of the WTC--and become some of the most valuable real estate in the world.
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| Winter Garden is BPC landmark |
"The land [of Battery Park City] was created artificially, which is a Manhattan tradition," said Robert A.M. Stern, senior partner of Robert A.M. Stern Architects. "It brought together in downtown, in the first meaningful way since the late 19th century, people working and living in the same place."
Rockefeller and state legislators help set up the Battery Park City Authority in 1968 to oversee the financing and development of the neighborhood, and in just a year the lease, land-use plans and funding were in place. But snafus began cropping up, including the denial of mortgage insurance for the development and changes in the political landscape. Over nearly a decade, the 92 acres at the southwest tip of Manhattan gradually became an informal public recreation area.
Then, in the late 1970s, Governor Hugh L. Carey jump-started the Battery Park City project. The BPCA board selected Richard Kahan as chairman. Kahan immediately sought a new master development plan for the site, turning to Stanton Eckstut and Alexander Cooper, whose young urban design firm came highly recommended.
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| Footbridge is one link to rest of Lower Manhattan |
"[Battery Park City] was the vision of a whole new town, in town," says Eckstut, now principal of Ehrenkrantz, Eckstut & Kuhn Architects.
"One of the first ideas was how to capitalize on its position on the edge of the City and on the Hudson River, and to lead New York back into recapturing the waterfront," says Laurie D. Olin, of the landscape architecture firm Hanna/Olin Ltd., which helped Cooper/Eckstut design Battery Park City.
Although new in appearance compared with most of downtown's buildings, the neighborhood today seems as much a part of Manhattan as any other area. More than 6,000 residents fill its apartment buildings--only three percent less than the number of residents there before 9/11. Meanwhile, more than 19,000 people work in the four World Financial Center and Mercantile Exchange buildings.
In April 2001, Battery Park City broke ground on the first "green" high-rise apartment building, set to open this summer at 20 River Terrace. The $87 million, 27-story structure will incorporate sustainable and energy-efficient features that minimize pollution, make use of alternative power sources, and earn developers a multi-million-dollar tax credit. And to go a step further, the Battery Park City Authority promises to go "green" for the next seven residential buildings erected in the neighborhood.
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| Battery Park City today |
Aesthetically, designers and architects are quick to note the assimilation of Battery Park City into the general landscape of Lower Manhattan and New York in general. David M. Childs, partner at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, one of the original architectural firms to consult with the Downtown-Lower Manhattan Association (DLMA) on the development of the neighborhood, notes, "These commercial buildings provide great public spaces, not just in the shopping arcades and facilities that are inside the buildings for retail uses--but for the great public spaces. The great hall that is here, the Winter Garden, is one of the best-known public spaces now in New York."
Eckstut says, "To sum up Battery Park City are the statements of people who come and spend time in the public environments and the esplanades, and what they say is, 'It feels like it's always been here.' 'I can't imagine that this is thought of as being new.' 'It's like, New York!'"
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