South Street Seaport Plans Summer Experiment in Temporary Urbanism
(Courtesy Howard Hughes Corp.)
The South Street Seaport‘s Pier 17 won’t be around much longer in its current form as it awaits a $200 million overhaul by SHoP Architects, but this summer, the neighborhood surrounding it has some exciting plans in store that bring the hottest trends in temporary urbanism to the waterfront site. Starting on Memorial Day Weekend, the See/Change program will bring film screenings, a SmorgasBar, and pop-up shipping container boutiques in hopes of enticing New Yorkers back to this once-trendy Lower Manhattan neighborhood.
New York City Council Approves SHoP-Designed Pier 17 Makeover at the South Street Seaport
Proposed changes to Pier 17. (Courtesy SHoP)
Last Wednesday, the New York City Council unanimously approved plans to tear down the current Pier 17 in the South Street Seaport and build a new $200 million SHoP Architects-designed mall in its place, marking the end of the long and sometimes contentious ULURP approval process. Crain’s reported that Dallas-based developer Howard Hughes made some concessions to the council including pushing back construction on the project to allow Hurricane Sandy-battered tenants to have an additional summer season, with construction now anticipated to begin on October 1st.
Video> Ben & Jane Thompson Tour Seaport, circa 1981
The video shows the bad old days before the Thompson plan for the seaport was complete.
While combing the web for info on the early days of the South Street Seaport‘s Pier 17, AN came across a Youtube video of Ben & Jane Thompson discussing plans for redeveloping the upland and the piers near Fulton Fish Market. The short video, circa 1981, certainly puts the current debate on SHoP’s new design into historical focus, particularly when Ben Thompson speaks of retaining the now long gone market.
South Street Seaport Preservationistas: Oh no! PoMo Don’t Go!
Detail of the Pier 17 model presented by SHoP at yesterday's Landmarks hearing. (AN/Stoelker)
The PoMo aficionados were out in force at yesterday’s Landmarks Preservation hearing for the new proposal for South Street Seaport’s Pier 17. It would seem that just as debate on the value of 1970s Brutalism shifts into high gear, the 1980s PoMo crowd is revving its engines. As preservationists and developers whacked it out, some larger questions about context and neighborhood integration arose.
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