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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The Howard Hughes Corporation plans to retain much of the current mall’s structure, but replace its skin. On May 15, 2012, Landmarks issued a binding report approving a revised proposal from the Howard Hughes Corporation and the New York City Economic Development Corporation to redevelop Pier 17 in the South Street Seaport Historic District. In 2008, the site’s former owner, General Growth Properties, proposed demolishing the Pier 17 mall, relocating the nearby Tin Building, and building a 495-foot residential/hotel tower on the edge of the pier that would be just outside the historic district’s boundaries. That proposal faced strong opposition from local elected officials and preservation groups. Landmarks held two meetings on the proposal, but then General Growth declared bankruptcy. Hughes’s more modest proposal would replace the existing Pier 17 mall with a new, similarly sized building that would reuse much of the mall’s underlying structure. Unlike the 2008 proposal, the project would not affect the adjacent Tin Building, former home of the Fulton Fish Market. The new building would house retail space, restaurants, and provide public space.

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Tin Building Rendering, South Street Seaport. Image Credit: SHoP Architects.

The Tin Building will be elevated to bring it out of 100-year flood plain, and it will be restored to its market use as part of the larger Seaport development.  On March 22, 2016, the Landmarks Preservation Commission considered and approved a proposal to dismantle the Tin Building, built as part of the Fulton Fish Market in 1907, and move, restore and reconstruct the structure within the South Street Seaport Historic District. The building, once the main market building for the Fulton Fish Market, lies at the foot of Pier 17, facing South Street. The building’s renovation and reactivation will be done as part of the larger redevelopment of the Seaport being undertaken by the Howard Hughes Corporation. Landmarks previously approved the demolition of a mall on Pier 17, and the creation of a new retail building with public amenities in 2012. (more…)