by: Murrye Bernard Assoc. AIA LEED AP
Event: Five Principles for Greenwich South: A New Model for Lower Manhattan
Location: Center for Architecture, 10.30.09
Introduction: Chris Reynolds, AIA, LEED — Alliance for Downtown New York
Speakers: Elizabeth H. Berger — President, Alliance for Downtown New York; Stephen Cassell, AIA — Principal, Architecture Research Office; Neil Kittredge, AIA — Partner, Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners; Paul Lewis, AIA — Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis;
Panel Respondents: Rick Bell, FAIA — Executive Director, AIANY, Greenwich South Study Committee; Eric Anderson — Anderson Equities, Greenwich South Study Committee; Jordan Gruzen, FAIA — Principal. Gruzen Samton Architects & Co-Chair, New York New Visions
Moderator: Ernest Hutton, FAICP, Assoc. AIA — Co-Chair, New York New Visions & AIANY Planning and Urban Design Committee, Hutton Associates
Organizer: AIANY Planning and Urban Design Committee
Sponsors: AIANY; New York New Visions
Courtesy AIANY
The 41-acre swath of land south of the World Trade Center between Broadway and West Street has been the victim of a “300-year cycle of alienation,” according to Elizabeth Berger, president of the Alliance for Downtown New York. Since the 1960s, many entities, including the NYC Department of City Planning, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, and New York New Visions, have completed studies attempting to tie this area into the fabric of lower Manhattan. Now, the Downtown Alliance has assembled a “dream-team” of 10 designers to contribute their visions for “Greenwich South,” including: Architecture Research Office (ARO); Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners; Coen + Partners; DeWitt Godfrey; Iwamoto Scott Architecture; Jorge Colombo; Morphosis; Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis (LTL); Open; Raphael Lozano-Hemmer; Transsolar Climate Engineering; and WORKac.
The Downtown Alliance developed a five-pronged approach to create a vision — rather than a comprehensive plan — for future development. The goals are to encourage mixed-use development, reconnect the city to Greenwich Street, create an east/west corridor, build density designed for people to inhabit the space, and ultimately design a reason for people to both visit and stay.
Downtown Manhattan is home to more than half of the one-time tallest buildings in the world. When it was built, the World Trade Center officially severed Greenwich Street. “It would seem the west side of lower Manhattan was doomed from the beginning of settlement,” said Stephen Cassell, AIA, principal of ARO, a firm engaged by the Downtown Alliance. The Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel holds more than 3 million square feet of transferable air development rights in the area. Utilizing this space, ARO proposed a public market, park, plaza, and recycling center over the tunnel approach. Paul Lewis, AIA, a principle of LTL and resident of Greenwich South, envisioned a “bicycle epicenter” with bike storage and rentals and shower facilities. Along with Transsolar Climate Engineering, LTL also conceptualized the space above the tunnel entrance as a translucent structure, or a “vertical park,” with an ecological center to produce food, decompose waste, and harvest water. Called a “green sponge,” the facility would cleanse the tunnel’s exhaust air.
Neil Kittredge, AIA, partner at Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners, claimed that Greenwich Street is the only other iconic connecting street in Manhattan besides Broadway. To maximize its connection to Greenwich Village, the Meatpacking District, and the High Line, he proposed sustainable public transit systems, such as light rail, to carry passengers among these destinations.
The Downtown Alliance has assembled these proposals into a document titled “What If.” As Berger pointed out, its “great work, great process, so what?” There are many roadblocks in the path of progress, such as capturing air rights over the tunnel and interfacing with the MTA, police department, and other stakeholders, not to mention working with property owners to open ground floors of buildings into public connectors. Incentives from city government could prove a potential catalyst, they agreed.
Until these larger issues can be resolved, small efforts are already underway. Artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer designed a public art installation. Open developed a way-finding and place-marker system. And Coen + Partners created a green gateway. For renderings and more information on the proposals for Greenwich South, visit the Downtown Alliance website.
Murrye Bernard is a freelance architectural writer in NYC and a contributing editor to e-Oculus.