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Tribeca

Coordinates: 40°43′06″N 74°00′28″W / 40.718266°N 74.007819°W / 40.718266; -74.007819
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40°43′06″N 74°00′28″W / 40.718266°N 74.007819°W / 40.718266; -74.007819

For other uses of the term TriBeCa or Tribeca, see Tribeca (disambiguation).
Hudson Street in TriBeCa.

TriBeCa is a neighborhood in lower Manhattan, New York in the United States. The name is a syllabic abbreviation of "Triangle Below Canal Street." It runs roughly from Canal Street south to Park Place (or Vesey Street), and from the Hudson River east to Broadway.[1] TriBeCa, once an industrial district dominated by warehouses, has undergone a major revitalization. Warehouses were converted into loft apartments and new businesses emerged, making it into a mixed zoning neighborhood.

After the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, TriBeCa suffered financially. However, government grants and incentives provided an infusion of capital and the area rebounded. Amidst the recent real estate boom, TriBeCa housing prices outpaced even those of the highly popular Manhattan market as a whole. Tribeca has become one of the most trendy residential neighborhoods in the city. Forbes magazine ranked the 10013 zip code in TriBeCa as the 12th most expensive zip code in the United States in 2006.[2]

The neighborhood is also home to the Tribeca Film Festival, founded to celebrate New York City as a major filmmaking center and to contribute to the long-term recovery of lower Manhattan. The mission of the film festival is "to enable the international film community and the general public to experience the power of film by redefining the film festival experience." The neighborhood is a frequent filming location for movies, most notably, the 1984 hit Ghostbusters.

Demographics

Historical population
CensusPop.Note%±
1950782—
1960382−51.2%
1970370−3.1%
19805,9491,507.8%
19908,38641.0%
200010,39524.0%

As of the 2000 census, there were 10,395 people residing in TriBeCa. The population density was 31,467 people per square mile (12,149/km²). The racial makeup of the neighborhood was 82.34% White, 7.96% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 4.89% African American, 0.10% Native American, 1.66% from other races, and 3.02% from two or more races. 6.34% of the population were Hispanic of any race. Of the 18.2% of the population that was foreign born, 41.3% came from Europe, 30.1% from Asia, 11.1% from Latin America, 10.2% from North America and 7.3% from other.

Architecture

TriBeCa is dominated by former industrial buildings that have been converted into residential buildings and lofts, similar to those of the neighboring SoHo Cast Iron Historic District. In the nineteenth and early twentieth, the neighborhood was a center of the textile/cotton trade.

Powell Building

Notable buildings in the neighborhoods include the Powell Building, on Hudson Street, which was designed by Carrère and Hastings and built in 1892.[3] At 73 Worth Street there is a handsome row of neo-Renaissance White Buildings built at the end of the Civil War in 1865. Other notable buildings include the New York Telephone Company building at 140 West Street with its Mayan-inspired Art Deco motif, and the former New York Mercantile Exchange at 6 Harrison Street.

During the 1960s and '70s, abandoned and inexpensive TriBeCa lofts became hot-spot residences for young artists and their families because of the seclusion of lower Manhattan and the vast living space. James Stratton, a TriBeCa resident since this period, wrote the 1977 nonfiction book entitled "Pioneering in the Urban Wilderness," detailing his experiences renovating lower Manhattan warehouses into residences.

Name

Many people mistakenly attributed the name TriBeCa, the acronym for Triangle Below Canal, to the “triangular-shaped neighborhood”. However, the neighborhood resembles an irregular trapezoid. TriBeCa’s etymology is more site-specific.

In the early 1970s, a couple of years after artists in SoHo were able to legalize their live/work situation, artist and resident organizations in the area to the south, known then as Washington Market or simply the Lower West Side, sought to gain similar zoning status for their neighborhood. A group of Lispenard Street artist/residents living on the block directly south of Canal Street between Church Street and Broadway, joined the effort. Just as the members of the SoHo Artists Association coined "SoHo" after looking at a City Planning map which marked the area as So. Houston’ and shortened that to SoHo, these Lispenard Street residents likewise employed a City Planning map to describe their block.

Since that block below Canal is wide on the Church Street side but narrows towards the Broadway end, it appears as a triangle on City maps. The Lispenard residents decided to name their group the Triangle Below Canal Block Association, and, as activists had done in SoHo, shortened the group’s name to the TriBeCa Block Association.

A reporter covering the zoning story for the New York Times came across the block association’s submission to City Planning and mistakenly assumed that the name TriBeCa referred to the entire neighborhood, not just one block. Once the paper began referring to the neighborhood as TriBeCa, it stuck.

Landmarks

The Holland Tunnel connecting New York to New Jersey has its entrances and exits in the northwest corner of TriBeCa, centered around the intersection of Canal Street and Varick Street.

Washington Market Park

Washington Market Park, bounded by Greenwich, Chambers, and West Streets, is a 1.61-acre (6,500 m2) park in TriBeCa that is popular with children for its large playground. The park also has a community gardens and hosts many community events.

The Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC), part of the City University of New York, is located in TriBeCa. The college campus is located between Chambers Street and N. Moore Street, spanning four blocks. BMCC's Fiterman Hall, severely damaged in the September 11, 2001 attacks, is slated to be demolished and rebuilt.[4]

Stuyvesant High School, one of New York City's prized Specialized Science High Schools, calls TriBeCa home. The ten-story building is located on Chambers Street on the Hudson River, accessible via The Tribeca Bridge, a pedestrian bridge, over West Street. Stuyvesant is noted as being one of the best schools in the country.

Public School 234 is the zoned elementary school for TriBeCa. Located at the corner of Chambers Street and Greenwich Street, it is considered one of the best public elementary schools in New York City for its exceptional test scores, teachers, curriculum and building.

Tribeca Park, West Broadway

A large number of Citigroup employees work in Tribeca at 388 Greenwich Street near the northwestern corner of Tribeca.

Notable residents

Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal had high profiles in the district's revival when they co-produced the dramatic television anthology series TriBeCa in 1993 and co-founded the annual TriBeCa Film Festival in 2002. De Niro also claimed ownership of all domain names incorporating the text "Tribeca" for domain names with any content related to film festivals. In particular, he had a dispute with the owner of the website http://tribeca.net[9][10].

References

  1. ^ Tribeca Organization - Shopping, Directions and Maps
  2. ^ Most Expensive ZIP Codes 2006, Forbes, accessed November 6, 2006
  3. ^ Gray, Christopher (June 2000). "Streetscapes/105 Hudson Street; A TriBeCa Taste of the Young Carrere & Hastings". New York Times.
  4. ^ "About BMCC". Borough of Manhattan Community College. Retrieved 2006-07-13.
  5. ^ U2's Edge Settles into $4.3 Million Tribeca Penthouse bergproperties.com. Retrieved June 17, 2007
  6. ^ Stars toast Tribeca artists at Chanel fete usatoday.com. Retrieved June 18, 2007
  7. ^ The Return of Canastel's nymag.com. Retrieved June 19, 2007
  8. ^ House of Stewart forbes.com. Retrieved June 17, 2007
  9. ^ Erik Davis (2 Jan 2007). "Robert De Niro: Raging Bully?".
  10. ^ "I am Tribeca, De Niro claims". 31 Dec 2006.
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