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City Closing in on Final Pier 15 Plans
As part of its massive, multi-billion dollar East River Waterfront Project, the city’s Economic Development Corporation (EDC) plans to reconstruct Pier 15, near the intersection of South and Pine Streets. Recently, the EDC cleared an important hurdle in the process of finalizing the design of the new pier, garnering a majority approval from Community Board 1. Plans for the new two-tiered pier include an elevated park, complete with lawns and shrubs, connected by long ramps to the lower level pier, which is slated for a maritime education center to be run by the South Street Seaport Museum. The design is about 70% complete, according to an EDC spokeswoman. The project, which is being designed by Manhattan-based SHoP Architects, still needs approval from several city and state agencies—including the Art Commission, State Historic Preservation Office, the Army Core of Engineers and Department of Environmental Conservation. EDC is slated to appear before the Landmarks Preservation Commission next month. When CB1 last saw the plans for the pier in February, one of the main points of contention was the size of a cutout with a set of stairs along part of the southern edge of the pier, designed to allow small boats and kayaks access to the river. Under the old plan, 15% of the pier’s square footage would have been lost to the cutout. Per recommendations made by CB1’s Waterfront Committee July 21, EDC revised their plans, reducing the amount of lost usable space on the pier to just 5%. “The idea was to make it feel like you were really connected to the water from the lower level,” said Gregg Pasquarelli, one of the project’s architects. Another key change in EDC’s design for the new pier was a reduction in the size of the elevated park. The old design showed the park extended all the way to the end of the pier, covering the lower level entirely. The new design, Pasquarelli said, leaves 80 feet of the lower level uncovered, and opens up a large swath of the deck for outdoor seating.
Later this fall, the design will go back before CB1’s Waterfront Committee, whose chairwoman, Julie Nadel, continues to oppose any cutout on the pier’s edge. "Once they put in cutouts it precludes larger vessels docking in that area and they have no practical use," she said, adding that floating docks would serve the purpose of "get downs" to the water for boarding small vessels. "Cutouts are not in keeping with the historical purpose of the pier," which is maritime education and use, Nadel said. Lee Gruzen, co-chair of the community group Seaport Speaks, credited EDC for compromising their original plans as much as it had, but said she too couldn’t imagine supporting the proposal until the cutout is removed. “The design is getting better and better...but it’s not done yet,” Gruzen said. “It’s not 100% functional yet, and with such a premium on dock space in the city, we need all three straight sides. CB1 member and Landmarks Committee co-chairman Bruce Ehrmann cautioned opponents of the plan in its current state about trying to over-regulate what he believed was an appropriate plan for the pier’s rebirth. “I think it’s an extremely coherent design,” Ehrmann said. “We ought to be careful of tampering with it.
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