A new proposal for Pier 17 in the South Street Seaport Historic District will be presented at a LPC Public Hearing on Tuesday the 17th. The Howard Hughes Corporation’s plan would take the basic footprint of the existing Pier 17 and add another 20,000 sq. ft. of floor area by extending further along the pier, filling in all of the open space of the existing gables, sloped roof and outdoor decks to create larger floor plates for big anchor tenants. The plan also adds another layer of various enclosures and coverings to the flat roof to support a proposed 700-seat theater (which would hopefully be treated better than the Algonquin Seaport Theater was) as well as eating and drinking establishments.
While not as drastic as the General Growth Properties proposal we helped defeat in 2008 (remember that plan? really, what could have been worse?), it still poses a serious threat to the historic district. The large glass box seems to have more in common with the glass skyscrapers that surround the historic district than the actual historic district, and, despite claims of transparency, it would actually block more views with its larger roof.
Opened in 1984, the Pier 17 mall was designed by Benjamin Thompson, famous for his leading role in the Festival Marketplace movement which included Faneuil Hall Marketplace in Boston. The mall was built as part of a larger development plan for the district which included the restoration of Schermerhorn Row by Jan Hird Pokorny Associates, the restoration of the Museum Block and construction of the Bogardus Building by Beyer Blinder Belle, and the construction of the Fulton Market building also by Benjamin Thompson. The design was approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1980, and the fourth edition of the AIA Guide to New York calls it “Gigantic, playful, adroitly detailed…An instant urban landmark.”
While the profits have turned out to be less than satisfactory to the owners’ standards, that seems to be a problem of management and programming. A visit on just about any day reveals a place teeming with people and activity. As historian Francis Morrone pointed out in a 2008 article, “Whatever may have gone wrong with the marketplace, it wasn’t the architecture.” Certainly this vast interior space could be reworked for other uses and layouts, but a total do-over is an unnecessary, inappropriate waste.
Pier 17 is the gateway to the historic district from the riverside –visible from the Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Bridge (and the trains that pass over it), Brooklyn Heights Promenade, and the increasing number of people who use the river for boating recreation, commutes and work. It should make a strong reference to the maritime and market past of the South Street Seaport – and its present revival!
What tenant wouldn’t be tempted to use the building as a big billboard? One of HDC’s friends put together a rendering of what this plan could look like with interior signage. Imagine seeing that as part of the downtown vista.
Please voice your support for the preservation of Pier 17 and the South Street Seaport Historic District at Tuesday’s Public Hearing (the time should be posted on LPC’s website late Friday afternoon) or in an email to LPC Chair Robert Tierney (and please [email protected]).