Battery Park City

The esplanade of Battery Park City

South End Avenue

Battery Park City is a 92-acre (0.4 km²) planned community at the southwestern tip of lower Manhattan in New York City, United States. The land upon which it stands was created on the Hudson River using 1.2 million cubic yards (917,000 m³) of soil and rocks excavated during the construction of the World Trade Center and certain other construction projects, as well as from sand dredged from New York Harbor off Staten Island. The neighborhood, which is the site of the World Financial Center along with numerous housing, commercial and retail buildings, is named for adjacent Battery Park.

Battery Park City is owned and managed by the Battery Park City Authority (BPCA), a public-benefit corporation created by New York State under the authority of the Urban Development Corporation. Excess revenue from the area was to be contributed to other housing efforts, typically low-income projects in the Bronx and Harlem.

Under the 1989 agreement between the BPCA and the City of New York, $600 million was transferred by the BPCA to the city. Charles J. Urstadt, the first Chairman and CEO of the BPCA, noted in an August 19, 2007 op-ed piece in the New York Post that the aggregate figure of funds transferred to the City of New York is above $1.4 billion with the BPCA continuing to contribute $200 million a year.

Much of this funding has historically been diverted to general city expenses, under section 3.d of the 1989 agreement. However, in July 2006, Mayor Bloomberg, Governor Pataki, and Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. announced the final approval for the New York City Housing Trust Fund derived from $130 million in Battery Park City revenues. The Fund aims to preserve or create 4,300 affordable units over the next three years. It also provided seed financing for the New York Acquisition Fund, a $230 million initiative that aims to serve as a catalyst for the construction and preservation of more than 30,000 units of affordable housing Citywide over the next 10 years. The Acquisition Fund has since established itself as a model for similar funds in cities and states across the country.

Geography

Location of Battery Park City

Greenery at South Cove

Battery Park City is bounded on the east by West Street, which depending on your viewpoint, insulates or isolates the area from the Financial District of downtown Manhattan. To the west, north and south, the area is surrounded by the tidal estuary of the Hudson River.

The development consists of roughly five major sections. Traveling north to south, the first neighborhood, the "North Residential Neighborhood," consists of high-rise residential buildings, a large hotel, Stuyvesant High School, a movie theater and a modern branch of the New York Public Library. Existing restaurants located in the hotel have been closed following a take over of the property by Goldman Sachs with new development planned for " ... a trio of restaurants run by Danny Meyer – the New York City restaurant wunderkind – as well as a new ballroom and conference centre, attached to the hotel which will be upgraded. In addition, the bank [Goldman Sachs] plans 5,000 square feet of retail units." Former undeveloped lots in the area have been developed into high-rise buildings. Goldman Sachs has completed building a new headquarters at 200 West Street. The Battery Park City Ferry Terminal is at the foot of Vesey Street opposite the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Immediately to the south lies the World Financial Center, a complex of several commercial buildings occupied by tenants including American Express, Dow Jones & Company, Merrill Lynch, Nomura Holdings and Deloitte & Touche. The World Financial Center's ground floor and portions of the second floor are occupied by a mall; its center point is a steel-and-glass atrium known as the Winter Garden. Outside of the Winter Garden lies a sizeable yacht harbor on the Hudson known as North Cove.

South of the World Financial Center lies the majority of Battery Park City's residential areas, in three sections: "Gateway Plaza", a high-rise building complex; the "Rector Place Residential Neighborhood" and the "Battery Place Residential Neighborhood". These neighborhoods contain most of the area's residential buildings, along with park space and various types of supporting businesses (supermarkets, restaurants, movie theaters.) Construction of residential buildings began north of the World Financial Center in the late 1990s and completion of the final lots scheduled to be completed by Spring, 2011.

Demographics

As of the 2000 census, there were 7,951 people residing in Battery Park City. The population density was 41,032 people per square mile (15,855/km²). The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 75% White, 17.93% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 2.97% African American, 0.06% Native American, 1.58% from other races, and 2.42% from two or more races. 5.32% of the population were Hispanic of any race. 27.7% of the population was foreign born, 51.8% came from Asia, 30.8% from Europe, 8.2% from Latin America and 9.2% from other (mostly Canada).

Today, about 10,000 people live in Battery Park City, most of whom are upper middle class and upper class (54.0% of households have incomes over $100,000). When fully built out, the neighborhood is projected to have 14,000 residents.

History

Throughout the 19th century and early 20th century the area adjoining today's Battery Park City was known as the Greek quarter; a long-standing reminder of the ethnic past was the former St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church which was destroyed in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

At the corner of Vesey Street and North End Avenue is the Irish Hunger Memorial

North End Avenue towards Stuyvesant High School

Yacht harbour at North Cove, next to the World Financial Center

Northernmost part of Battery Park City

By the late 1950s, the once prosperous port area of downtown Manhattan was occupied by a number of dilapidated shipping piers, casualties of the rise of container shipping which drove sea traffic to Port Elizabeth, New Jersey. The initial proposal to reclaim this area through landfill was offered in the early 1960s by private firms and supported by the Mayor. This plan became complicated when Governor Nelson Rockefeller announced his desire to redevelop a part of the area as a separate project. The various groups reached a compromise, and in 1966 the governor unveiled the proposal for what would become Battery Park City. The creation of architect Wallace K. Harrison, the proposal called for a 'comprehensive community' consisting of housing, social infrastructure and light industry. The landscaping of the parkspace and later the Winter Garden was designed by M. Paul Friedberg.

In 1968, the New York State Legislature created the Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) to oversee development. The New York State Urban Development Corporation and ten other public agencies were also involved in the development project. For the next several years, the BPCA made slow progress. In 1969, it unveiled a master plan for the area, and in 1972 issued $200 million in bonds to fund construction efforts. Landfill material from construction of the World Trade Center was used to add land. Cellular cofferdams were constructed to retain the material. By 1976 the landfill was completed; in many cases, the pre-existing piers were simply buried. Construction efforts ground to a halt for nearly two years beginning in 1977, as a result of city-wide financial hardships. In 1979, the title to the landfill was transferred from the city to the Battery Park City Authority, which financially restructured itself and created a new, more viable master plan, designed by Alex Cooper and Stanton Eckstut. The design of BPC to some degree reflects the values of vibrant city neighborhoods championed by Jane Jacobs. The Urban Land Institute (ULI) awarded the Battery Park City Master Plan its 2010 Heritage Award, for having "facilitated the private development of 9.3 million square feet of commercial space, 7.2 million square feet of residential space, and nearly 36 acres of open space in lower Manhattan, becoming a model for successful large-scale planning efforts and marking a positive shift away from the urban renewal mindset of the time."

During the late 1970s and early 1980s the site hosted Creative Time's landmark Art on the Beach sculpture exhibitions. On September 23, 1979, the landfill was the site of an anti-nuclear rally attended by 200,000 people.

Construction began on the first residential building in 1980, followed in 1981 with the start of construction on the World Financial Center. Olympia and York, of Toronto, was named as the developer for the World Financial Center in 1981, who then hired Cesar Pelli as the lead architect. By 1985, construction was completed and the World Financial Center saw its first tenants.

Throughout the 1980s, the Battery Park City Authority oversaw a great deal of construction, including the entire Rector Place neighborhood and the river Esplanade. It was during this period that current City Planning Department Director Amanda Burden worked on Battery Park City. During the 1980s a total of 13 buildings were constructed. In the early 1990s, Battery Park City became the new home of the Stuyvesant High School. During the 1990s an additional 6 buildings were added to the neighborhood. By the turn of the 21st century, Battery Park City was mostly completed, with the exception of some ongoing construction on West Street.

Current residential neighborhoods of Battery Park City are divided into a north and south section, separated by the World Financial Center Complex. The southern section, extending down from the Winter Garden, is the more densely populated region, containing Gateway Plaza, and Rector Place apartment buildings. The northern section, although still under very large construction, consists entirely of large, 20-45 story buildings which are all various shades of orange brick.

The September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks had a major impact on Battery Park City. The residents of lower Manhattan and particularly of Battery Park City were displaced for ten days [1]. Parts of the community were an official crime-scene and therefore a few residents were unable to return to live or even collect property for a longer period of time. When they were finally allowed to return to Battery Park City, some residents of the Gateway Plaza complex reported their homes had been looted. Upon return the air in the area was still filled with toxic smoke from the World Trade Center fires that persisted until January 2002.

Gateway Plaza's 600 building, Hudson View East and, the then Parc Place, now Rector Square were punctured by airplane parts and severely contaminated. The Winter Garden and other portions of the World Financial Center were severely damaged. Environmental concerns regarding dust from the Trade Center were a source of concern for many residents, scientists, and elected officials. Since the attacks, the damage has been repaired. While a substantial portion of the area's residents moved away permanently, temporarily reduced rents and government subsidies helped restore residential occupancy in the years following the attacks.

Since then, real estate development in the area has continued robustly. Commercial development includes the 2,100,000-square-foot (200,000 m²) Goldman Sachs Group World Headquarters scheduled for occupancy in 2009. Goldman Sachs is seeking gold-level certification under the United States Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program by incorporating various water and energy conservation features. Several residential projects are underway, including LEED buildings which cater to the environmentally conscious.

Construction history:

• 1980s: 13 buildings, 9 residential and 4 commercial
• 1990s: 6 buildings, 5 residential and 1 commercial
• 2000s: 10 buildings, 6 residential, 3 mixed use and 1 commercial
• 2010s: 3 buildings, 1 commercial(completed) and 2 residential(under construction)

External links

• Battery is our business
• Battery Park City News, Events & Food
• Cooper, Robertson & Partners
• EE&K Architects
• Battery Park City Authority
• North Cove Marina
• Battery Park in Spanish