Construction continues to move forward at the World Trade Center site. Tower 1 is now at 56 stories, and the glass facade now covers the first 27 stories. Elsewhere, Tower 4 has reached the 16th floor, base and steel work has begun on Towers 2 and 3, and the Memorial is set to open this coming September.
Downtown Alliance provides wayfinding signage to help you find your way.
They’re signs of inspiration.
As you navigate Lower Manhattan, you may notice temporary signs along a few construction sights — particularly at Broadway and Dey Street. More of this exciting signage is on its way…..
It’s the Downtown Alliance’s way to help with wayfinding – emblazoning construction barriers with vinyl posters that provide directions to nearby destinations.
So if you’re a bit lost downtown, you’ve now got another way to find your way.
You can always drop by one of our visitor kiosks, either outside of 7 World Trade and the PATH station or inside the World Financial Center.
Or, you can look for our Heritage Trail Markers, noting nearby historical sites and tourist attractions. There’s also our orientation columns on sidewalks and our permanent wayfinding signage on poles around the district.
Restore the View
There’s a place in Lower Manhattan where the clouds float only a few feet above street level. Walk over to the corner of Barclay and Greenwich streets, and look up. There, adorning the wooden planks flanking the Fiterman Hall construction site, are billowing white clouds and a bright blue sky.
The artwork is the latest to pop up at Lower Manhattan’s construction sites as part of Re:Construction, a construction mitigation program that recasts construction sites as canvases for innovative public art and architecture. It’s an intervention to create a cheerful and welcoming environment in the midst of an urban renewal.
The program—made possible through a $1.5 million grant from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation—began in 2007 and has produced 15 pieces, seven of which are up for viewing. The newest installation, Restore the View, was created by Richard Pasquarelli. You can see images of the project here or watch a video about the project here.
Pasquarelli is a former Lower Manhattan resident whose paintings have been shown at The Miami Art Museum, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, The Chelsea Museum, Jersey City Museum and the Islip Art Museum. His work was recently acquired by the National September 11 Memorial and Museum.
The Downtown Alliance recently asked Pasquarelli about his work.
Why did you want to be a part of this program?
I have been lucky enough to show my work in galleries all over the world, but these projects will be my first opportunity to create public art on such a large scale. So when Karin Bravin asked me to put together some proposals for the Downtown Alliance, I jumped at the opportunity. By placing artworks all over construction sites in Lower Manhattan, the Downtown Alliance is helping create a more beautiful, colorful and open streetscape while introducing a broader audience to contemporary art in an original and accessible way. I am honored to be part of this valuable endeavor and have enjoyed the challenge of creating site-specific works on such a grand scale. My family and I lived just a few blocks away from the installation locations for almost 10 years and I still have a strong attachment to the neighborhood, so it is especially exciting for me that my work can be part of the rebuilding and revitalization of the area.
How would you like people to view your work?
I hope that these works will challenge the common perception that art is just a picture on a wall. The location and sheer scale of the works will demand the viewer’s attention, but what each viewer takes from a work is necessarily very personal. Through the juxtaposition of natural and geometric elements in the urban landscape—familiar images out of place—I hope to create something unexpected, to evoke an emotion or a memory. I want to make people stop and wonder, look up close, then step back and see the work again, only differently.
What do these three works say about your artistic vision?
As a painter, my work has a psychological intimacy. And work of this scale, for such a broad audience, posed a new challenge for me. Unlike a painting, which is, in a sense, self-contained, these works are part of their environment. The tension in my paintings is between the content and the surface; in these pieces, it is instead between the work and its surroundings. While my paintings tend to be more charged, the use of light and color to evoke mood is common to my work, as is the graphic quality. The large swaths of color read one way from a distance, and another way up close, an effect that is magnified with the scale of these installations. My work tends to have an element of mystery and ambiguity that leaves it open to many interpretations and I hope that passersby will each have their own individual responses to these works.
In the next few weeks, Pasquarelli will have two other pieces on full display as part of the Re:Construction program. The second, Secret Gardens, will be installed around a street construction project at Chambers Street between West Street and West Broadway, thanks to New York City Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan. The third piece, Hours of the Day, will be installed in the piazza at the W Hotel, 123 Washington Street (at Albany Street).
Re:Construction is the best kind of public-private partnership, an ongoing opportunity for government, artists, curators, property owners and business people to work together to make something beautiful. It’s a win-win for everyone.
Imagination Playground at Burling Slip (Photo: NYC Parks Dept.)
As summer heats up, Lower Manhattan’s throngs of workers, visitors and residents will be searching for open spaces to have lunch and soak up some rays. Happily, they won’t have to look far because open space is increasing in Lower Manhattan.
In 2004, Downtown had 19 parks or open spaces available for public use south of Murray Street. Through this year and the next, seven new or redesigned spaces will come online for public enjoyment—representing an investment of more than $200 million.
This month, I’m looking forward to visiting Burling Slip Playground—a joint effort between the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation and the Rockwell Group. The park will have a maritime theme, consistent with the Seaport area, and will offer many activities for your little bathtub sailors and pirates!
Also in July, the newly designed Delury Square Park is scheduled to open, providing Fulton Street with a 10,000 square-foot respite complete with benches and a small waterfall.
In August, Peter Minuit Plaza is scheduled to open, anchored by the New Amsterdam Plein and Pavilion, which will contain an information kiosk and food concession. Also in August, sculpture-lovers will find beauty and solace at the newly reconstructed Louise Nevelson Plaza. In September, another renovated Fulton Street respite will be opened—Titanic Park, at the entrance to the South Street Seaport.
Lower Manhattan has never been so green. I hope you will join me in seeking out these new spots for relaxation and recreation.
Nassau and Ann streets, looking north toward 1 Centre Street.
As part of the City’s reconstruction of Fulton Street, the Department of Design and Construction is rebuilding Nassau Street from Ann Street to Beekman Street. The work consists of a full excavation of the roadbed as seen above. The contractor will remove all old materials, conduits and pipes and replace them with new materials. The City will also implement the standard Downtown Alliance Streetscape by installing new granite curbs and pouring new landmark gray sidewalks. The project will last until October, when the contractor moves on to the block of Nassau Street between Beekman and Spruce streets. The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation makes money available to businesses whose sales decrease because of construction. For more information about the LMDC’s Small Firm Assistance Program, click here.
Nassau and Ann streets, looking north toward 1 Centre Street.
As part of the City’s reconstruction of Fulton Street, the Department of Design and Construction is rebuilding Nassau Street from Ann Street to Beekman Street. The work consists of a full excavation of the roadbed as seen above. The contractor will remove all old materials, conduits and pipes and replace them with new materials. The City will also implement the standard Downtown Alliance Streetscape by installing new granite curbs and pouring new landmark gray sidewalks. The project will last until October, when the contractor moves on to the block of Nassau Street between Beekman and Spruce streets. The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation makes money available to businesses whose sales decrease because of construction. For more information about the LMDC’s Small Firm Assistance Program, click here.
The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation announced on June 18 that deconstruction of the building at 130 Liberty Street is making significant progress. The structure above is currently down to 13 floors and getting harder to see from Broadway. The photograph below was taken last December, when the building was at 25 floors. The project is scheduled for completion by the end of 2010. The deconstruction of 130 Liberty is integral to Port Authority excavation work that will advance the progress of the Vehicle Security Center. To find out more about the project, visit the LMDC website.
If there is one thing I have learned from working in Lower Manhattan, it is that the area is constantly changing. I rarely turn a corner without discovering a new shop or restaurant or a high-rise construction site. So it seems only fitting that the latest exhibition at the Skyscraper Museum would be entitled The Rise of Wall Street.
The exhibition traces the illustrious history of one narrow street in New York City and follows the rise of the skyscrapers along it. But it also touches on the evolution of the skyscraper throughout Manhattan and the world. One section focuses on green initiatives in modern towers. And visitors also learn how modern skyscrapers can reach thousands of feet into the air without collapsing.
The physical layout of the exhibition is impressive. Large columns with posters of Wall Street skyscrapers stretch up to a mirrored ceiling, and as I wandered in between them, it seemed as if I was actually standing on Wall Street, staring up at its skyscrapers as they reached into an endless gray sky.
One of the most interesting things I learned was how Wall Street got its name. Before industrialization, a stockade ran along Wall Street, separating New Amsterdam from the rest of Manhattan. The original structure—made of simple picket and plank fencing—was meant to protect the Dutch settlement from English colonial forces. In 1653, Peter Stuyvesant led an effort to build a stronger structure. They erected a 12-foot wall that could also protect the settlement from various Native American tribes. Thirty years later, the road that ran along the stockade was named—sensibly enough—Wall Street.
After my museum visit, I took my own tour of the real Wall Street, just a few blocks away. It’s amazing to imagine the small buildings that once stood where skyscrapers now loom. The Rise of Wall Street gave me a wonderful appreciation for the transformation that occurred on one particular street in Manhattan over the course of a few hundred years. The Skyscraper Museum at 39 Battery Place is open from 12 to 6 PM Wednesday through Sunday. General admission is $5.
As of this morning the Liberty Street Bridge Realignment will be in effect. This change has come after months of coordination between the Port Authority, City Agencies, Battery Park City and Brookfield Properties. The realignment of the bridge will allow the Port Authority to move forward on important infrastructure work for the World Trade Center Site. Pedestrians will access the bridge from West Street between Albany and Cedar Streets, in front of the 90 West residential building. The Port Authority has placed numerous signs throughout the area directng pedestrians to the change and will also place pedestrian managers to help navigate the changes. While you are being redirected you may notice the new vision of West Street is taking place; this is the culmination of the State Department of Transportation work to turn Route 9a into the West Street Promenade.
Below is a map showing the changes in pedestrian access for the Liberty Street Bridge realignment. This information is from the Port Authority.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority and New York City Department of Transportation are reconstructing Peter Minuit Plaza at South Ferry Station. The plaza will be a multi-modal transportation center with a pedestrian plaza anchored by the New Amsterdam Plein & Pavilion (seen below) with an information kiosk and food concession. The Plein & Pavilion is made possible by a major grant from the government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the Battery Conservancy. The plaza is scheduled for completion in June 2010. For more information visit: thebattery.org/rebuilding/plein.php
Image – A view of the New Amsterdam Plein & Pavillion in Peter Minuit Plaza as seen from 1 New York Plaza.
