January 4, 2007
Pier 40: Overhaul or Just Upgrade It?
Development along the Hudson isn't letting up anytime soon. Now that Hudson River Park construction is well underway (and completed in some parts), proposals are being floated for refurbishing the hulking 14-acre Pier 40 terminal.
The Villager has a thorough, if skewed, examination of the dualing Pier 40 visions. One, a joint venture of The Related Companies, Cirque du Soleil and the Tribeca Film Festival, calls for a Lincoln Center-style performing arts center. The other, put forth by Urban Dove, a local nonprofit, and CampGroup (run by Benerofe Properties), is a mix of sports facilities and academic complexes for nearby high schools and colleges.
In September, the Hudson River Park Trust, the city-state authority that runs the five-mile waterfront park, issued a Request For Proposals (RFP). According to The Villager, the Trust needs to generate more revenue (in addition to the $5 million it receives annually from the parking facility), so the park can run itself. The RFP specifically indicated that big-box stores would not be considered for the site.
The first proposal, known as Pier 40 PAC, has a price tag of $626 million (more than the park itself) and, according to the RFP submission, “will become a premier destination spot for evening activity in Downtown Manhattan.”
It includes a heavy Cirque du Soleil presence, including an 84,000 square-foot theater, a 10,000 square-foot restaurant, a 30,000 square-foot club and a 9,000 square-foot shop. It also includes a 60,000 square-foot movie theater run by the Tribeca Film Festival, two 45,000 square-foot halls, one for live performances and one for special events. There’s even a proposed "Beach Club" and a 50-slip marina.
Here’s the kicker: the 400,000 square-foot courtyard would be filled in and the athletic fields there would be rebuilt on a 227,000 square-foot roof space on the northern edge. Hello, wind!
The other proposal, the People’s Pier, pushes for an athletic and educational facility that, according to the RFP submission, “belongs to the residents of the city that surrounds it.” The existing sports fields would stay in the courtyard – and there would be 33 percent more open space than required. The Hudson River Park Act mandates that 50 percent of the pier’s footprint be set aside for public open space.
People’s Pier would preserve the 300,000 square feet of recreational space that already exists and 85,000 square feet of artificial-turf fields would be added to the rooftop. There would be eight “multi-use courts” (basketball?), swimming pools (two indoor and one outdoor), approximately 2,000 more parking spaces, 100,000 square-feet of facilities for CampGround (which will be running a summer camp), a 75,000 square-foot high-school complex, a similarly-sized college complex and a facility for Urban Dove’s Net gain program, which provides basketball courts to students who don’t have courts at school.
Pier Park & Playground Association President Tobi Bergman, a supporter of the People’s Pier proposal, said the Pier 40 PAC plan will transform the Village into Times Square and Broadway.
The Villager doesn’t feature any quotes from Pier 40 PAC supporters, unsurprisingly. But it does note that the election of Spitzer means there will be a new Hudson River Park Trust chairperson and five new trustees.
Expect Jane Jacobs-style handwringing if the Pier 40 PAC plan moves forward.
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I've got a really off-the-wall idea - explore the possibilities of using Pier 40 as a pier!
Commercial shipping was driven out of Manhattan due to the advent of containerization and intermodal transportation and other factors. Pier 40 probably would not be suitable for container handling. Even so, there might be some types of cargo (Ro-Ro maybe?) which it could handle.
1) Is it possible that you do you may not remember Jane Jacobs accurately? As my hazy, faded, aged memories recall, she was a fighter not a hand ringer. City officials seeing Ms. Jacobs wring her hands would run away.
2)From where comes the unexamined assumption that commercial revenues should pay for the park?
Perhaps tax revenue should pay for the park and commercial revenue from ads on police cars should pay for the cops.
I like Pier 40 how it is, an escape to green for soccer players in the city... Don't take that away.
Whenever I see an article about a Pier I wonder what street it's off of. And it seems that the street is never mentioned. I've lived here most of my life but I really don't know what pier is off what street.
Pier 40 is just off Houston Street. And 'handwringing?' Definitely a poor word choice. She wasn't a handwringer at all.
The Pier 40 PAC rendering looks amazing! The other one looks like another completely monotonous bit of urban lifelessness.
I think they should definitely move away from athletic usage for that space. It's obviously underutilized in that purpose now. I'm sorry soccer lovers everywhere will lose the space but they are very limited in number and can simply move up West Street to the fields at the end of 23rd st. They should look to the other HRP piers as an example. Every one of them that is an open space is wildly popular as a summertime refuge and filled every day and evening of the summer. If they do need to generate commercial revenue why not go with a modified version of the PAC and instead of putting athletic fields on the roof make a park a la the Highline? Every New Yorker could enjoy that no matter how athletically inclined they may be.