Rendering of the proposed new building at 250 Water Street, which will replace a parking lot. Landmarks approved the certificate of appropriateness for the project on May 4th. Image Credit: NYC LPC

On Tuesday, May 4, the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) approved by a 6-2 vote an application for a new residential tower at 250 Water Street in the South Street Seaport Historic District. This was the third time the Howard Hughes Corporation had presented the project, and this time, after the architects at Skidmore, Owings and Merrill made a few tweaks to the design, the LPC determined that the building was appropriate. (more…)

Architect’s rendering of the Pier 17 proposal. Image credit: SHoP Architects

The demolitions would make new Pier building a free-standing structure, with four visible facades, and a new canopy that would allow for all-weather use of roof space. On August 4, 2015, representatives of the Howard Hughes Corporation appeared at the Landmarks Preservation Commission to propose revisions to their planned redevelopment of Piers 16 and 17 in the South Street Seaport Historic District. Landmarks in 2012 approved an application by SHoP Architects, after multiple hearings, to replace the 1985 mall that previously stood on the site. The pier, at 89 South Street, lies in Manhattan’s South Street Seaport Historic District.

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Revised rendering of Seaport’s Pier 17 redevelopment plan. Credit: SHoP Architects.

Modified plan would split redeveloped Pier 17 into two components, with signage added to roof and for the complex’s commercial tenants. On October 23, 2012, Landmarks agreed to amend a previously issued binding report for a plan to redevelop Pier 17 in the South Street Seaport Historic District.  Landmarks in May 2012 initially approved the Howard Hughes Corporation and the New York City Economic Development Corporation’s plan to demolish the existing Pier 17 structure and build a new, SHoP Architects-designed glass-clad complex with retail uses and public space. (See CityLand’s coverage of the approval here.)

ShoP Architects’ Gregg Pasquarelli described the revisions and new elements of the project. The complex had initially been designed as a solid mass with a notch carved out on the waterfront facade to recall that there were once two piers on the site. The notch in the pier will remain, but the complex will now be divided into two structures, which will allow more natural light into the ground floor and break up the interior massing. While the complex’s public rooftop space would no longer be contiguous, connections to each side will remain.

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7-story facade proposed for 246 Front Street. Image courtesy: BORO Architects

Through-block building will have separate residential components with different facades on Front Street and Water Street. On October 16, 2012, the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved Andreas Giacoumis’s revised plan to develop a residential building on a vacant through-block lot with twenty feet of frontage on Front Street and twelve-and-a-half-feet of frontage on Water Street in the South Street Seaport Historic District.

The project, designed by Darrin Krumpus of BORO Architects, will include two different residential components connected by a ground floor extending through the entire lot. The residential components will be divided by a central courtyard sitting on top of the ground floor. The project’s Front Street facade will rise to seven stories and include multiple dwelling units and ground floor retail. The seven-story facade will feature traditional materials, with brick cladding and granite lintels and sills. The Water Street facade will rise to four stories and accommodate a single family. The narrow facade would be built using black structural steel, with zinc panels and glass infill.

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246 Front Street (center building) Credit: Boro Architects

Proposed building would feature a seven-story facade on Front Street and a twelve-and-a-half-foot-wide, four-story facade on Water Street. On July 24, 2012, Landmarks considered Andreas Giacoumis’s proposal to construct a new building on a vacant through-block lot at 246 Front Street and 267 ½ Water Street in the South Street Seaport Historic District. The lot has 20 feet of frontage on Front Street and twelve-and-a-half feet of frontage on Water Street. In 2003, Landmarks approved a proposal for the site from a prior owner, Werber Management. Werber subsequently obtained a variance from the Board of Standards & Appeals, but the project was never developed. Giacoumis’s new proposal retained the building envelope of the previously approved building to avoid having to seek a new BSA variance, but altered design elements and proposed materials.

Darrin Krumpus, of Boro Architects, presented the plan. On Front Street, the building would reach seven stories and feature ground floor retail with apartments above. A narrow, single-family townhouse rising four stories would face Water Street. The ground floor would run through the entire lot, with a central courtyard to separate the two residential components. The Front Street retail entrance would be made with structural steel, painted black, and the upper stories would be clad in brick with granite lintels and sills. A projecting metal cornice above the sixth floor would match the height of the neighboring cornice. The seventh floor would set back eight feet. The Water Street facade would be built of black structural steel, with glass infill and zinc panels.

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