Silver to Mediate Seaport Squabble

By Andrea Appleton
POSTED MARCH 30, 2007

The future of Peck Slip has long been a contentious issue in the South Street Seaport. Some residents clamor for the lushness of grass and trees on what is now a wide swath of Belgian block pavement between Water and South Streets. Others argue for a broad stone ‘piazza’ in keeping with the neighborhood’s historic character.

Last fall, many thought Community Board 1 had come up with a compromise; a resolution calling for “an open space that incorporates a historic harbor design with plantings as well as seating areas.”

But it wasn’t to be.

On March 20, CB1 unanimously rejected the resulting design, a plaza with a scattering of trees and benches and sculptural elements meant to recall a “ghost ship.”

In CB1 committee meetings earlier in the month, the plan drew both passionate praise and virulent criticism.

“It reminds me of a memorial to the Arizona,” said Seaport Committee member Paul Hovitz, one of the green space advocates. “Or a burnt forest, or perhaps Hiroshima.”

“I think conceptually it’s wonderful, the green area combined with the remnant of a ship,” said Landmarks Committee member Eric Anderson.

In response to the seemingly intractable dispute and CB1’s rejection of the design, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver offered to help mediate. Representatives from Quennel Rothschild, the Parks
Department, CB1’s Landmarks and Seaport Committees and City Planning met in Silver’s office on March 29. The group will meet for further discussion on April 9. Parks will then present a design based on the group’s input to a joint meeting of CB1’s Landmarks and Seaport Committees on April 12.

“The goal is to try to come to a common ground that appeases the community and also respects the historic aspects of the neighborhood,” said Jim Quent, a spokesman for Silver.

The plaza design, created by landscape architecture firm Quennel Rothschild in consultation with the Parks Department and sculptor George Trakas, covers the portion of the Slip from Water Street to South Street that is now used for parking.

Trees are grouped at the west end of the plaza and on the south side. The vaguely boat-shaped plaza broadens as it approaches South Street, and steel “ribs,” meant to evoke those of a ship, point skyward on the north side in front of the Con Ed building.

The plaza would be paved with granite block, laid in a manner meant to evoke a flowing stream, with a slight depression in the center.

There would be a small, shallow pool of water at the west end, and rushing water would be visible beneath grating in other areas.

Seaport Committee members, as well as most of the small group of residents that attended that meeting, were vocal about their desire for green space, calling the design “cold” and “unwelcoming.”

“It’s gimmicky,” said Peck Slip resident Don Walsh. “And it’s no substitute for shrubs or trees.”

“I think if it was outside a corporate complex, it would be stunning,” added board member Harold Reed. “But we need some lushness, something warm.”

But there were a few residents who approved of the plaza’s minimalist design, saying it honored the “historical integrity” of the Slip.

‘“I was prepared to hate this,” said Peck Slip resident Jim Wintner, “but I was pleasantly surprised. I think the design is really sensitive, at least to those of us who are really not looking for a lawn.”

“I think they heard both our voices,” added Lee Gruzen, an outspoken advocate of the “piazza” plan and co-chair of Seaport Speaks, a group advising the city on the area’s development. “Because there’s the voice for green and then there’s also a voice that honors what’s there, which has been a pretty much unchanged area for the last three hundred years.”

The odds of a compromise that pleases all parties may be long, but time is short. After going before the joint meeting of the Landmark and Seaport Committees, the plan will go to the full board on April 16.

If all goes well, the Landmarks Preservation Commission will see the design on April 24.

Even that isn’t the last hurdle.

Because Peck Slip lies in the South Street Seaport Historic District, final design plans will also have to be approved by the New York State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO).

At the Landmarks Committee meeting, Parks Department project manager Lawrence Mauro noted that designers had already done their best to incorporate greenery, given the constraints.

“There’s a perception at both Landmarks and SHPO that green is not appropriate in a historic district,” he said. “We would be happy to get through Landmarks with just this amount of trees.”

[Home][Back][Search] [Advertise][Contact]
The Tribeca Trib · 401 Broadway, 5th Floor · New York, NY · 10013 · 212.219.9709