Image Credit: Hudson River Park Trust
The proposed rezoning would permit the development of four mixed-use buildings and one commercial building across the street from Pier 40. On August 24, 2016, the City Planning Commission held a public hearing on an application for a zoning text amendment, a zoning map change, four special permits, three authorizations, and one chairperson certification to facilitate the redevelopment of the commercial building at 550 Washington Street, in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village. The project would create three separate city blocks for the five proposed buildings. There would be two buildings each in the northern and central blocks, all being mixed-use, and the fifth building would cover the entire southern lot and remain zoned for office or hotel space. (read more…)
Pier 54 in Manhattan. Image Credit: Pier54.com
Hudson River Park Trust agreed with Barry Diller and Diane von Furstenberg to reconstruct Pier 54 with a larger footprint and with performance spaces that could charge market fees. Pier 54 is a part of the Hudson River Park and is located on West Street and West 13th Street, Manhattan. The pier was built in 1906 for the Cunard Steamship Company, became deteriorated, and was partially dismantled by the Hudson River Park in 2013. The Park proposed to construct a new pier with funds provided by Barry Diller and Diane von Furstenberg. The new pier would be square rather than rectangular, have elevations that ranged from eight feet to approximately 62 feet, be larger in area than the old Pier 54, and have three enclosed performance areas. It would also have landscaped areas, paved walking paths, and seating for both active and passive uses. Under the agreement with Diller and von Furstenberg, the Park would have 51 percent of the performances at the performance areas be free, but 49 per cent could have fees at market rates. The reconstructed pier would be designated Pier 55, constructed north but slightly overlapping a portion of the historic footprint of Pier 54. Petitioners describe the planned location of Pier 55 as a “never-before disturbed stretch of the Hudson River.” (read more…)
City obligated to vacate the Gansevoort sanitation garage by 2012 and Pier 97 by 2008. The Hudson River Park Act, passed by the State Legislature, obligated the City to relocate by the end of 2003 its sanitation operations from Gansevoort Street in the West Village and Pier 97 in Clinton to begin development of park space along the Hudson River. The City continued to occupy both sanitation facilities beyond 2003 and subsequently began construction of a new facility at the Gansevoort site intended for use until 2012.
In April 2005, Friends of Hudson River Park sued the City asserting that it failed to use its best efforts to relocate the Gansevoort Street and Pier 97 facilities and that the construction of the new facility on Gansevoort Street violated the Act. The City responded that temporary use of both facilities would allow it to relocate operations without significant adverse impacts on the public and that it was committed to completing replacement facilities at West 57th Street and on the West Side Highway at Spring Street. (read more…)
