A rendering of the new Pier A in Battery Park City.

Today, the Battery Park City Authority made it official: Pier A is the latest Lower Manhattan space lucky enough to get the Poulakakos treatment.

The father-son duo, Harry and Peter, runs seven bars and restaurants in the district and their new venture will include an oyster bar, restaurant, event venue and visitor center.

“Pier A has stood vacant for nearly 20 years but the good news today is that the Battery Park City Authority, led by Bill Thompson and Gayle Horwitz, has given this jewel of New York Harbor back to the people,” said Elizabeth H. Berger, President of the Alliance for Downtown New York. “Harry and Peter Poulakakos, whose patisseries, cafés and restaurants have helped transform the Lower Manhattan dining scene, are a terrific choice to bring Pier A back to life.”

The plan calls for a casual restaurant, oyster bar with outdoor seating, coffee shop and visitor center on the first floor of the pier, an upscale restaurant and event venue on the second floor, and a smaller event and entertainment venue on the partial third floor. There will be public seating on the plaza and promenade adjacent to the pier.

Oysters on the Hudson with a Statue of Liberty sunset view? It doesn’t get much better than that.

In 2007 I was awarded a permanent public art commission by the MTA’s Arts for Transit. A large-scale project, it took almost two years to complete, and through the process I learned that I love the collaborative nature of successful public art. The opportunity to work on another public art project again, this time in Lower Manhattan with ARTEA Projects for the Downtown Alliance/Lower Manhattan Development Corporation Re:Construction public art program, was of course exciting. The location itself was a challenge as it is such a busy and already visually stimulating section of SoHo. Additionally, the sheer size of the project required a completely new approach from my side, both in terms of visual execution and material knowledge.

Because the lot at Grand and Lafayette Streets where Downtown Dogs is now installed is such a bustling corner, I knew the work had to be bold enough to visually stand out. In my proposal, a response to the “Playland” theme, I gave myself the freedom to change the animals in the game Pass the Pigs to dogs. Making use of the large scale of the project, I playfully arranged the colorful dog silhouettes, varying the sizes from a few inches to several feet. My goal: to create a work of art that would be a colorful and conceptual surprise for those who happen upon it, whether from a distance or by walking right next to it.

A multi-disciplinary artist, I get particularly jazzed about the opportunity to take my artistic practice outside the studio where I’m faced with new challenges. Any site-specific commission comes with its own set of considerations. For this particular location I wanted to create a piece that visually would bring together aspects of commercial art, graphic design, and underground street art: disciplines that already exist in this environment. But I also recognize the responsibilities that come with public art and I ultimately want the work itself to hold up over time and continue to positively charge the area—even for those who will see it on a daily basis.

Planning the perfect Valentine’s Day isn’t easy. Either because the pressure is on to make it a special day for your sweetie or because you don’t have a sweetie to plan it for!

Either way, this upcoming Valentine’s Day will be easy to plan if you’re celebrating—or not celebrating—in Lower Manhattan.

My perfect Valentine’s Day would start with opening a beautiful, hand-made, vintage-themed card from Bowne & Company Stationer, then diving into the ganaches from a haute couture coffret from La Maison du Chocolate.

At lunchtime, I’d pick up a custom-made monogrammed silk shirt I ordered as a gift from Carmine & Arthur Clothiers (and no, I’m not telling you whom the recipient would be!).

After work, I would stroll over to Battery Gardens for a delicious, three-course dinner that includes Chilean sea bass and filet mignon (well, I do have an appetite!). The all-white room is beautiful and the view of Lady Liberty is spectacular. At the end of the meal, I hope to be presented with the trademark blue box from Tiffany, and inside a pair of stunning, platinum, diamond earrings.

After dinner, I would lace up and partake in the W New York – Downtown’s new “Skating in the Sky” outdoor rink. Finally, the evening would be capped off by enjoying some tango performed by the Hector Del Curto Tango Orchestra at the Winter Garden.

But the night wouldn’t end there. Too tired to go home to the far reaches of Brooklyn, I’d book a deluxe terrace room at the Best Western Seaport Inn. The easy walking distance from the office ensures I’ll get to work on time the next day. (What, you think I don’t want a raise?!)

On the other hand, I admit, if the wintry weather has put me in a foul mood, and I’m not in the mood to celebrate anything—let alone Valentine’s Day—I have an option right around the corner from my office.

I would march right over to Mad Dog & Beans for its “Anti-Valentine’s Day” celebration, hoisting quite a few of its $6 drink specials with my new anti-holiday comrades. And really, who’s going to stop me from gorging on their half-price appetizers?

After several rounds, I’d still wind up at the Best Western to collapse and make it to work on time the next day (Yes, even when grumpy I still want that raise).

So, if you’re like me, you’re pondering either scenario for February 14th. But there are even more options in Lower Manhattan so you can craft your perfect plan. I’ve created a special page on our website that lists all the Valentine’s Day specials in Lower Manhattan.

As for how I plan to spend my Valentine’s Day, you’ll just have to look around the neighborhood for me that day to find out.

Lower Manhattan visitors wondering what those granite strips along lower Broadway signify will now have a convenient answer. Yesterday, we unveiled a Canyon of Heroes podcast, a ten-minute audio guide to the history and legacy of the famed parade route from Battery Park to City Hall. The podcast is available on CultureNOW’s website, itunes and a free iphone app, CultureNOW: A Guidebook for the Museum Without Walls, Lower Manhattan.

The 10-minute podcast is narrated by our President, Elizabeth H. Berger, and was recorded and edited by our AVP of Technology and Online Communcation–and newly renowned Lower Manhattan meanderer–Jeremy Schneider.

What can you learn when you listen?

Well, for nearly a century and a quarter, some of history’s most notable individuals and sports teams have been honored with ticker-tape parades along the route, starting the with Statue of Liberty dedication in 1886. The Downtown Alliance launched Lower Manhattan’s version of the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2003 to commemorate the Canyon of Heroes’ parades with a series of black granite strips set into the sidewalks of the route.

There are more than 200 markers, identifying pioneers of air and space travel, soldiers, sailors and sea captains, heads of state, politicians, firefighters, journalists, athletes and even a virtuoso pianist.

So take a listen! And then take a walk (albeit when the weather is better) up Broadway to discover these gems for yourself.

When finished in 2014, the Fulton Transit Center will light up the night in Lower Manhattan.

Though it’s hard to tell from street level, construction at the $1.4 billion Fulton Street Transit Center is humming along and on schedule for completion in 2014.

In August, crews completed the station’s main foundation, along with the underpinning of the nine story, 121-year-old Corbin Building on the northeast corner of Broadway and John Street. Because the original brick foundation wasn’t deep enough to be stable, crews added 35 feet of concrete below the brick. Eventually, the building will be fully refurbished—including the grand marble staircase and terra cotta exterior—to house retail spaces and a connection to the main transit building. Construction of that building will begin later this month, said Judith Duffy, Assistant Director Government and Community Relations at New York City Transit. The terminal will include a glass façade, more than 26,000 square feet of retail space and an oculus in the ceiling that will filter light down onto subway waiting platforms. The building’s structural steel is scheduled to arrive in February and will be fully in place by August.

The station will feature a soaring glass oculus.

More milestones are ahead: The southbound R platform at Cortlandt Street will open later this year and include a new entrance on William Street. The northbound platform opened in November 2009. That station will connect to the Corbin Building via an underground walkway. And in 2012, The renovated 4/5 train section of the station will open—along with a new entrance on the ground level of the Corbin Building—with retail and escalators leading from the platforms to the street.

In 2014, the Fulton Transit Center will open as a world-class transit hub in the heart of Lower Manhattan. The finished product will improve connections to 10 subway lines: Fulton Street 2, 3, 4 5, J and Z; Broadway-Nassau Street A and C; Chambers Street-World Trade Center E; and Cortlandt Street R. Additionally, it will connect with the new Cortlandt Street 1 train station, World Trade Center Calatrava PATH Station and the World Financial Center.

Hard to imagine how it will all come together? Check out this video, courtesy of Brookfield Properties and the Wall Street Journal.

With World Trade Center site construction moving full-steam ahead, new playgrounds and hotels opening, and a surge of new media tenants, 2010 was an eventful year below Chambers Street.

“New Yorkers and visitors alike are discovering what we have known for years— that Lower Manhattan is a great place to live, work and visit,” said Elizabeth H. Berger, President of the Downtown Alliance. “Every major element of the World Trade Center site is now in construction. We’re the city’s fastest-growing media district. And with 1,050 restaurants and retailers, 55,000 residents, more than 300,000 workers, and nearly six million visitors a year, Lower Manhattan is alive around the clock—after work, at night, and on weekends, too.”

Here’s a look back at 10 things that made Lower Manhattan great in 2010:

1. Construction at the World Trade Center site

The year was a milestone for reconstruction of the World Trade Center as major agreements paved the way for accelerated progress. Today steelwork for 1 World Trade Center is at 52 floors, halfway to the top. Four World Trade is at 10 floors on its way to 64. Below-grade work has begun on Towers 2 and 3. Tree-planting started in August at the 9/11 Memorial site, which is on schedule to open on the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks. Meanwhile, 2011 promises to be another landmark year.

2. Hotels are hopping

The December 14 opening of the 400-room Doubletree Hotel at 8 Stone Street marked the fifth hotel opening of 2010 and 18th hotel overall below Chambers Street. That number has tripled since September 11, 2001, and the number of rooms—4,100—has increased by almost 80 percent over the same period. Other openings in 2010 included the 220-room W New York – Downtown at 123 Washington Street, the 169-room World Center Hotel at 144 Washington Street, the 112-room Holiday Inn Express at 126 Water Street, and the 253-room Andaz Hyatt Wall Street at 75 Wall Street. Two more hotels are on the way in 2011.

3. Foodies rejoice

With new hotels came hot new restaurants, including BLT Bar and Grill at the W New York – Downtown, Wall & Water at the Andaz Hyatt Wall Street and 8ight at the Doubletree. Other newcomers included Swedish coffee bar and café Fika on Pearl Street, banh mi shop Baoguette and Julian Medina’s Toloache Taqueria on Maiden Lane, and one of President Obama’s favorite haunts, Five Guys Burgers and Fries, on Fulton Street.

4. A new kind of playground

Not many playgrounds are designed by a prominent architect, built after intensive  child development research and feature a ribbon-cutting with Mayor Bloomberg. But the figure-eight-shaped Imagination Playground, opened in July and designed by David Rockwell, is a far cry from the run-of-the-mill jungle gym and swing set. There are large foam “loose parts” building blocks, water spouts that can be channeled and dammed in myriad ways, a set of lifts and pulleys, wooden masts built by an actual shipbuilder, along with several ramps and pools. Downtown Alliance research released in May shows that more families are moving below Chambers Street—and staying. What better time, then, to open the first new Lower Manhattan playground in more than a decade?

5. Queen for a Day

On July 6, Queen Elizabeth II made her first visit to Lower Manhattan since the 1976 Bicentennial. On a day when temperatures flirted with 100 degrees, she visited the World Trade Center site and the British Garden and Hanover Square.

6. Media on the move

It has been decades since printing presses whirred on Park Row, but now a new wave of media tenants is moving to Lower Manhattan. According to CB Richard Ellis, 60 media firms are situated below Chambers Street in all today—occupying more than 1.15 million square feet of office space—and more have recently signed deals and are on the way. The Deal, LLC signed a lease at 20 Broad Street in March. The New York Daily News and sister company U.S. News & World Report signed a lease in July for 100,000 square feet at 4 New York Plaza, and American Media, Inc.—publisher of Star and the National Enquirer—has a 100,000 square-foot-lease pending in the same building. The newly formed Newsweek Daily Beast Company signed at 7 Hanover Square in October. And in August, global publishing giant Conde Nast signed a letter of intent to move into 1 World Trade Center following the building’s completion in 2014.

7. A new way to eat lunch

The New York City Department of Transportation opened the city’s first pop-up sidewalk café in August. It’s an innovative, temporary new curbside wooden seating platform, featuring a sleek, modern design on Pearl Street between Broad Street and Coenties Slip. Though it’s paid for and maintained by the adjacent restaurants, Fika and Bombay’s, the platform and its bright red tables and chairs are open in warmer months to anyone who wants to sit and take in the bustling streetscape.

8. Fulton Transit Center Foundation Completed

Though it’s hard to tell from street level, construction at the $1.4 billion Fulton Street Transit Center is humming along and on schedule for completion in 2014. In August, crews completed the station’s main foundation, along with the underpinning of the nine story, 121-year-old Corbin Building on the northeast corner of Broadway and John Street. The main terminal will include a glass façade, more than 26,000 square feet of retail space and an oculus in the ceiling that will filter light down onto subway waiting platforms. More milestones are ahead for 2011.

When it opens, the Fulton Transit Center will be a world-class transit hub in the heart of Lower Manhattan. The finished product will improve connections to 10 subway lines: Fulton Street 2, 3, 4 5, J and Z; Broadway-Nassau Street A and C; Chambers Street-World Trade Center E; and Cortlandt Street R. Additionally, it will connect with the Cortlandt Street 1 train station, World Trade Center Calatrava PATH Station and the World Financial Center.

9. Downtown Alliance presents a new vision for Water Street

In June, the Downtown Alliance unveiled a proposal to strengthen the Water Street corridor though capital improvements, land-use changes and programmatic incentives so that the district’s prime commercial corridor can remain an economic engine for Lower Manhattan. In July, Community Board 1 announced its unanimous support for the report, “Water Street: A New Approach – Transforming Lower Manhattan’s Modern Commercial Boulevard.”

Water Street runs more than a half-mile from Whitehall to Fulton streets. Flanked by more than 19 million square feet of Class A and Class B+ commercial office space and housing more than 70,000 workers, the corridor accounts for more than 20 percent of commercial real estate below Chambers Street.

The Alliance will continue working with the City in 2011 to encourage implementation of the proposal. “Water Street,” Community Board 1 said in its resolution, “certainly merits a transformation along the lines advocated by the Downtown Alliance.”

10. East River Waterfront Phase 1 Nears Completion
Work on Phase 1 of the two-mile East River Waterfront Esplanade will be completed in February. The segment—from Wall Street to Maiden Lane—will include a variety of seating, lush landscape plantings, new paving, a continuous innovative railing, an integrated lighting system, and a dog run. The overall project is being funded by a $137 million grant from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and was developed by the New York City Departments of Planning and Transportation, and the City’s Economic Development Corporation.

Looking for fun things to do leading up to Halloween?

The Downtown Alliance wants to make sure your days are filled with treats instead of tricks. So we’ve gathered up specials from shops around Lower Manhattan, along with bagsful of free and fun events.

You can check out some of the cool stuff and special promotions going on Downtown for Halloween below, and visit our website for additional events and specials this month.

Halloween is Happening at Trinity Church
Broadway & Wall Street
Friday, October 29
4 PM to 10 PM
You never know who you’ll find in the Trinity Churchyard on Halloween. Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton; Lord and Lady Cornbury; assorted ghosts, witches, goblins, and the occasional Spiderman. It’s all part of the Trinity Church Halloween celebration. It’s a night of fun for the whole family, including treats, games, crafts, and a special silent movie screening in Trinity Church. All events are free and open to the public.

Family Fun
North Churchyard
4 PM to 6 PM
Tricks, treats, games, a photo booth, and stories from the churchyard’s famous inhabitants. Free, open to the public, and for all ages.
Haunted Hamilton Happy Hour

South Churchyard
5 PM to 7 PM
The neighborhood raises a toast to churchyard denizen Alexander Hamilton. Non-alcoholic beverages will also be available.
Silent film, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

Trinity Church
8 PM to 10 PM
See “one of the most striking films of cinema” in Trinity Church’s candlelit Gothic setting. Directed by Robert Wiene. With live organ accompaniment by Robert Ridgell.

Halloween Wine Tasting at California Wine Merchants
15 Bridge Street
Friday, October 29
5 PM to 7:30 PM
California Wine Merchants is holding a free Halloween wine tasting at their store. Costumes are encouraged and there will be candy as well.

Screamin’ Green Halloween
Winter Garden, World Financial Center
Saturday, October 30
Noon to 4 PM
Green your Halloween at the World Financial Center! Join artist-educators for mask and costume making with funky recycled and repurposed materials, compete with other witches and warlocks in “Put a Spider in the Brew”, “Bowling for Ghosts” and a twist on the traditional “Bobbing for Apples,” and enjoy organic and fair-trade candy treats. Exchange last year¹s costume for a new one at the Costume Swap, each gently used and ready-to-wear. Mini parades led by the Hungry March Band will take place on the Plaza at 1 PM, 2 PM, and 3 PM, and the day ends with a Ghosts & Goblins Parade to Poets House for a reading of spooky poems and seasonal snacks.

Day of the Dead/Dia de los Muertos
The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian
One Bowling Green
(212) 514-3700
Saturday, October 30
Noon to 5 PM
Enjoy a fun filled day for the entire family including hands-on workshops, storytelling with the Colorado Sisters and Michael Heralda, and dance performances by Cetilitzli Nauhcampa (Mexica). The museum is free and open everyday from 10 AM to 5 PM and on Thursdays until 8 PM.

Crumbs Bake Shop
87 Beaver Street
(212) 480-7500
Crumbs is happy to offer its Signature Halloween Collection which includes cupcakes such as Ooooohstess, Monster Mash, Spidey Web, Halloween Good Guy and Chocolate & Vanilla Sprinkle. If you can’t decide which one to pick, Crumbs even has a Gourmet Taste Pack that give you 12 to try. They also offer delicious Halloween decorated cookies and cookie bags as well as a 6-inch Spidey Web Cake!

La Maison du Chocolat
63 Wall Street
(212) 952-1123
La Maison du Chocolat is introducing special Halloween treats this month. Pumpkins are available in Dark or Milk Chocolate. Each pumpkin is hollow, then filled with chocolate covered fruits and caramelized roasted almonds. Price $65. The BOUCHEE (rectangular piece of chocolate decorated with a bat & a pumpkin) is an almond and hazelnut praline with pieces of walnuts, orange peel & raisins. Price $22.

New Field Yoga
27 Cliff Street, 3rd Floor
(212) 666-3700
New Field Yoga is having a Halloween special that includes 10% of a single class or 20% of any package of classes.

Nelson Blue
233-235 Front Street
(212) 346-9090
Nelson Blue will be having a special-themed Halloween for patrons all day on Friday, October 29, and hosting its annual Halloween party on Saturday, October 30 from 7 PM until closing. Prizes will be awarded for the best costumes.