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Lower Manhattan’s Local News
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The Broadsheet Inc. | 212-912-1106 | editor@ebroadsheet.com| ebroadsheet.com
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Leader of the PAC
Former Governors Island Overseer Takes Helm at World Trade Center Performance Venue
The Ronald O. Perelman Performing Arts Center, now under construction at the World Trade Center, has a new president — Leslie Koch. Ms. Koch will be most familiar to Lower Manhattan residents as the guiding hand behind the Trust for Governors Island.
Her decade-long tenure there, which saw seasonal visitation rise from 8,000 per season to more than 600,000, ended in 2016. She succeeds the Performing Arts Center’s founding president, Maggie Boepple, who will remain with the organization in an advisory role.
Ms. Koch’s boss at Governors Island was then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who now serves as the chairman of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, which is directly adjacent to the Performing Arts Center. Mr. Bloomberg observed that, “Leslie led the way in helping us transform an old military installation into a stunning new public park and cultural attraction in the middle of New York Harbor. Now she will bring her talent and drive to creating another iconic destination — the Perelman Performing Arts Center — at the World Trade Center. Her experience and expertise make her the perfect person for this important role, and we are excited to welcome her as we complete construction of what will be the final piece of the puzzle in rebuilding the World Trade Center site.
“Leslie is an outstanding choice to help lead this iconic arts and cultural center into the future,” said Ronald O. Perelman, the billionaire philanthropist for whom the Performing Arts Center is being named, in recognition of his $75-million gift to the project in 2016. “The possibilities and potential of the Performing Arts Center are limitless. I am extraordinarily proud of what we have accomplished so far and excited for what is yet to come. I look forward to working with Leslie and the entire team to help bring this center to life as a premier destination for art and culture in the community, the City, and the world.”
Earlier this year, the project reached a milestone when the large steel beams that will support the monolithic 17,000-ton building were installed at the site. When completed (the current projected opening date is the 2021 anniversary commemoration of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001), the building will be an iconic 138-ft tall cube with a glowing marble facade located adjacent to the north reflecting pool.
The progress in construction comes on the heels of other recent turning points. In 2018, the Performing Arts Center signed a lease with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (which owns the World Trade Center complex), authorizing the facility to remain there for 99 years, at a nominal rent of one dollar per year. (The same lease contains provisions for an optional extension of an additional 99 years, as well as the option for the Performing Arts Center to purchase the space it occupies, also for one dollar.) Around the same time, Performing Arts Center officials announced that they had raised more than 80 percent of the building’s estimated construction budget of $360 million.
The Performing Arts Center will produce original, multidisciplinary performances in theater, dance, music, and film, as well as chamber music and new opera from emerging and renowned artists.
The vision for the structure is nearly as bold as the performances it will house. The design, by architectural firm REX, calls for a visually stunning, translucent marble cube that will appear as a windowless, white geometric solid by day, but by night will be transformed into a glowing alabaster hexahedron, suspended above the World Trade Center Plaza. This effect will be achieved with the use of white marble, shaved so thin that light from the outside will penetrate the building’s facade during the day, while light from the inside with radiate outward through the structure’s skin during the evening, giving it a milky iridescence. Joshua Prince-Ramus, the principal architect at REX, hopes to harvest this marble from the same Vermont quarry that was used during the construction of two Washington, D.C. landmarks: the U.S. Supreme Court building and the Jefferson Memorial.
The facility within these walls will encompass 200,000-square-feet of space, including three auditoria (with 499, 250, and 99 seats), and a rehearsal studio, which will also double as a fourth venue — all separated by moveable, acoustic guillotine walls that allow for eleven different arrangements of space.
Matthew Fenton
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Waves of Change
Honoring a Matriarch of the Hudson
On Monday (July 22), the River Project will host its 2019 Summer Cruise, raising funds for the highly regarded, Lower Manhattan-based non-profit that aims to protect and restore the ecosystem of the Hudson River Estuary through scientific research and education programs.
The evening will honor retiring executive director Cathy Drew, who founded the River Project in 1986.
Her vision and leadership, among other accomplishments, helped pass legislation that made the Hudson River Park an estuarine sanctuary in 1998. This legal designation was based, in part, on fish ecology data that Ms. Drew helped compile through her research in the Hudson.
Monday evening’s program begins with boarding and cocktails at 5:30 pm, followed by a dinner cruise from 7:00 to 9:00 pm. For more info, please browse: www.riverprojectnyc.org/events.
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The BPCA Gets a Credit Limit Increase
Albany Legislature Okays Half a Billion in New Bond Debt for BPCA
The State legislature has enacted a measure that will allow the Battery Park City Authority to take on up to half a billion dollars in new bond debt, in order to fund resiliency measures throughout the community, as well as to underwrite other capital projects.
The bill, sponsored in the Assembly by Yuh-Line Niou (who represents Battery Park City south of Vesey Street) and in the Senate by Brian Kavanagh (who represents all of Battery Park City), grants permission to the Authority…
Matthew Fenton
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Come Hell and High Water
Federal Report Foresees More Frequent Flooding for Lower Manhattan
A new report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration(NOAA), the federal scientific agency responsible for study of oceans, major waterways, and the atmosphere, predicts that Lower Manhattan will, in the next 12 months, experience between double and triple the number of flooding days that it did in 2000. The same report warns that ten years from now, the number of flood events will total between five and eight times the benchmark set at the turn of the century, and that by the year 2050, there will be local flooding events as often as every three days.
But particularly dire predictions are reserved for the corner of the country in which New York is located: “The Northeast Atlantic coast is projected to experience the most [high-tide flooding, or HTF] in 2019 with the regional-median expected value of 8 HTF days. Individual locations are projected to experience more (likely range): 12-19 days in Boston, Massachusetts, 8-13 days in New York City region, and 10-15 days in Norfolk, Virginia.”
Matthew Fenton
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Upward with the Arts
Silver Art Projects, a public service project supported by Silverstein Properties is kicking off a new artist residency program at 3 WTC.
Under this initiative, dozens of artists will be invited to share more than 40,000 square feet of free studio space on the tower’s 50th floor.
Occupancy will begin in September, but artists who wish to participate must apply by July 31, www.silverart.com/home
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RiverWatch
Cruise Ships in the Harbor
Arrivals and Departures
Thursday, July 18
Anthem of the Seas
Inbound 6:30 am (Bayonne); outbound 4:00 pm; Bermuda/Eastern Caribbean
Carnival Sunrise
Inbound 6:15 am; outbound 4:30 pm; Bermuda
Saturday, July 20
Adventure of the Seas
Inbound 6:30 am (Bayonne); outbound 3:00 pm;
Bar Harbor, ME/Canadian Maritimes
Norwegian Dawn
Inbound 7:15 am; outbound 3:30 pm; Port Canaveral, FL/Bahamas
Sunday, July 21
Celebrity Summit
Inbound 7:30 am (Bayonne); 4:00 pm; Bermuda
Norwegian Escape
Inbound 6:15 am; outbound 4:30 pm; Bermuda
Sea Princess
Inbound 5:15 am; in port overnight
Many ships pass Lower Manhattan on their way to and from the Midtown Passenger Ship Terminal. Others may be seen on their way to or from piers in Brooklyn and Bayonne. Stated times, when appropriate, are for passing the Colgate clock in Jersey City, New Jersey, and are based on sighting histories, published schedules and intuition. They are also subject to tides, fog, winds, freak waves, hurricanes and the whims of upper management.
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Today’s Calendar
Thursday July 18
8AM
Sunrise Yoga at Wagner Park
Battery Park City Authority
Rise and shine to begin your morning with an outdoor yoga class that will help align your chakras and invigorate your day. Instructors focus on movements meant to enhance posture alignment and increase flexibility and balance. All levels welcome. Bringing your own mat is encouraged, as provided accessories are first come, first served. Wagner Park.
1PM
Fraunces Tavern Museum Guided Tour
Fraunces Tavern MuseumSixty minute guided tour of Fraunces Tavern Museum. 54 Pearl Street.Free with admission ($4, $7) http://www.frauncestavernmuseum.org/group-tours
6:30PM
Washington’s War 1779
Fraunces Tavern Museum
In this lecture, Benjamin Huggins will explore George Washington’s relatively unknown generalship. Focusing on 1779, this lecture will highlight several lesser-known aspects of Washington’s leadership in the Revolution: the rouser-in-chief, urging his countrymen to recover the spirit of ’76 and take action to support the army; his diplomacy; his military aggressiveness; and his plan to drive the British from New York City and end the war in 1779. 54 Pearl Street. $10 http://www.frauncestavernmuseum.org/events-calendar
7PM
Crys Matthews
Brookfield Place New York
A southeastern North Carolina native who blends Americana, folk, jazz, blues, bluegrass and funk into a performance steeped in traditional melodies and punctuated by honest, original lyrics. Brookfield Place Waterfront Terrace.
7PM
River & Blues: Low Cut Connie
Battery Park City Authority
The contagious joy of a Low Cut Connie show starts onstage and quickly spreads throughout the crowd. The rootsy, soulful sounds explode into high-octane, red-blooded, American rock-and-roll driven by the pounding piano of frontman Adam Weiner. Wagner Park. http://bpcparks.org/events/2019-07/
7PM
Showcase Reading Series: Brenda Shaughnessy, Roberto Tejada, Cody-Rose Clevidence & Shayla Lawson
Poets House
Readings by poets. 10 River Terrace.
8PM
Rooftop at Pier 17
Comedy performance
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The Tale of the Ticker Tape,
or How Adversity and Spontaneity
Hatched a New York Tradition
What was Planned as a Grand Affair became a Comedy of Errors
While the festivities in New York Harbor didn’t go as scripted that afternoon, the spontaneous gesture it generated from the brokerage houses lining Broadway famously lives on more than a century later.
On October 28, 1886, Liberty Enlightening the World was to be unveiled to New York City and the world as it stood atop its tall base on Bedloe’s Island. But the morning mist had turned to afternoon fog, blurring the view of the statue from revelers on the Manhattan shore and the long parade of three hundred ships on the Hudson River.
John Simko
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Brewer and the Big House
Borough President Expresses Concerns about Jail Plan, But Gives Okay
Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer has given her approval to a plan by the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio to construct a 1.27 million-square-foot prison complex Downtown.
In a determination issued on Friday, Ms. Brewer wrote that, “there is an overwhelming sentiment that we must remember: Rikers Island must close.”
Matthew Fenton
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Packet Racket
CB1 Calls for Delay in New Staten Island Ferry Route That Will Use Local Terminal
Community Board 1 (CB1) is pushing back against a plan by the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio to launch in 2020 a new ferry service from Staten Island that will bring to the Battery Park City ferry terminal more than 60 new vessels each day, carrying as many as 2,500 passengers.
At the June 25 meeting of CB1, Tammy Meltzer, who chairs the Board’s Battery Park City Committee, explained, “the City’s Economic Development Corporation [EDC] had never spoken to the Battery Park City Committee, the Waterfront Committee, or anybody at CB1. They never came and did a presentation for CB1 about new routes they want to do, before they proposed putting boats at Brookfield ferry terminal from 6:00 am to midnight.”
Matthew Fenton
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A Mecca for Millennials
Demographic Analysis Finds FiDi to Be Teeming with Twenty-Somethings
Lower Manhattan is emerging as a mecca for millennials (defined here as people born between 1977 and 1996), according to a new report prepared by PropertyShark, an online real estate database website that provides in-depth data for millions of properties in major urban markets throughout the United States.
The study finds that 67 percent of the residential population within the 10005 zip code in the Financial District — a catchment bounded roughly by Broadway, Beaver Street, South Street, and Liberty Street — is compromised of people born between the year “Three’s Company” debuted, and when “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air” aired its last episode.
Matthew Fenton
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Today in History
July 18
390 BC – Roman-Gaulic Wars: Battle of the Allia – a Roman army is defeated by raiding Gauls, leading to the subsequent sacking of Rome
64 – Great Fire of Rome begins under the Emperor Nero
1334 – The bishop of Florence blesses the first foundation stone for the new campanile (bell tower) of the Florence Cathedral, designed by the artist Giotto di Bondone
1536 – Pope’s authority declared void in England
1743 – First half-page newspaper ad is published in the NY Weekly Journal
1870 – Pontifical infalliability proclaimed
1931 – First air-conditioned ship (Mariposa) launched
1942 – Test flight of German Messerschmitt Me-262 using only its jet engines for the first time
1963 – Failed military coup in Syria
1966 – Carl Sagan turns 1 billion seconds old
Sagan assembled the first physical messages that were sent into space: the Pioneer plaque and the Voyager Golden Record, universal messages that could potentially be understood by any extraterrestrial intelligence that might find them. The Pioneer plaques are a pair of gold-anodized aluminium plaques which were placed on board the 1972 Pioneer 10 and 1973 Pioneer 11 spacecraft, featuring a pictorial message, in case either Pioneer 10 or 11 is intercepted by extraterrestrial life. The plaques show the nude figures of a human male and female along with several symbols that are designed to provide information about the origin of the spacecraft. (wiki)
1972 – Egyptian president Anwar Sadat throws 20,000 Russian military aids out
1986 – Videotapes released showing Titanic’s sunken remains
1994 – Comet Shoemaker-Levy collides with Jupiter
2013 – Detroit, Michigan, files for bankruptcy to become the largest US municipal bankruptcy at $18.5 Billion
Birthdays
1635 – Robert Hooke, Isle of Wight, Scientist (Micrographia)
1871 – Giacomo Balla, Italian painter (Dog at a Rope)
1890 – Charles Wilson, President of General Motors (1940-53)/Secretary of Defense (1953-57)
1895 – George Machine Gun Kelly [Georgio Barnes], Memphis Tennessee, American gangster, (d. 1954)
1897 – E. A. D. Eldridge, British racing driver (d. 1935)
1918 – Nelson Mandela, Qunu South Africa, political prisoner who became president and won the Nobel Peace Prize
1921 – John H Glenn Jr, The Mercury astronaut who first orbited the earth three times.
1937 – Hunter S. Thompson, American journalist and author (Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas) (d. 2005)
1950 – Richard Branson, enterperneur (Virgin Atlantic)
Deaths
1817 – Jane Austen, English novelist, dies at 41
1958 – Henry Farman, French aviation pioneer, dies at 84
1997 – Eugene Shoemaker, astronomer (Shoemaker-Levy comet), dies at 69
Sourced from various internet sites.
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Valediction
Paul Hovitz Concludes 27 Years of Service on Community Board 1
After nearly three decades of building schools, fighting for affordable housing, championing cultural institutions, and generally making Lower Manhattan a better place to live, Paul Hovitz has stepped down from Community Board 1 (CB1), where he has served as vice chairman for three years, and previously presided as chair of the Youth & Education Committee.
Matthew Fenton
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South BPC Resiliency Project
The full presentation and video from the South BPC Resiliency Project Public Meeting #3 held last week at 6 River Terrace is now available on the Battery Park City Authority’s Resiliency page under the heading “South Battery Park City Resiliency Project.”
Additional feedback on the concepts presented may be submitted until Monday, July 15 to the dedicated email address sbpcr@bpca.ny.gov.
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Albany Wants to Keelhaul Ad Barges
State Lawmakers Bark ‘Belay That’ to Water-Borne Marketing Messages
The ubiquitous advertising barges that have become anathema for Lower Manhattan residents over the past year have attracted hostile attention from members of the State Senate and Assembly.
Bills were enacted in the closing days of the legislative session that would ban the 60-foot catamaran — bearing an electronic sign capable of rendering high-definition, full-motion video, similar to the “jumbo-tron” panels that adorn multiple buildings in Times Square — from continuing to conduct its business in New York’s waters.
Matthew Fenton
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Very Merry Skerry Ferry
Governors Island Passengers Are Going in Style with Launch of New Vessel
Visitors to Governors Islandembarking from Lower Manhattan now have a new way to get to the beloved greensward that has become Downtown’s equivalent of Central Park.
The new vessel, Governors 1, a 132-foot-long, 40-foot-wide ferry was built over the last two years at a cost of $9.2 million in the Warren, Rhode Island shipyard of Blount Boats, from a design by Seattle-based Elliott Bay Design Group.
Matthew Fenton
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Not Ferry Nice
Concerns about Crowding and Noise Surround City Hall Plan for New Staten Island Route to Battery Park City
The administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio is planning to launch in 2020 a new ferry service from Staten Island that will bring to the Battery Park City ferry terminal more than 60 new vessels each day, carrying as many as 2,500 passengers.
Matthew Fenton
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CLASSIFIEDS & PERSONALS
Swaps & Trades Respectable Employment
Lost and Found 212-912-1106
$99 Hypnosis Session
($247 value) Smoking Cessation, Weight Loss, Motivation, Sports Performance, Confidence, Stress, Insomnia…
Call Janine Today. Limited time offer! 917-830-6127
Situation Wanted:
Experienced Elder Care (12 years)
Able to prepare nutritious meals and light housekeeping
Excellent references 347 898 5804 Hope
NOTARY PUBLIC IN BPC
$2 per notarized signature
Text Paula at 917-836-8802
CLEANING SERVICES
Dishes, windows, floors, laundry, bathrooms.
You name it – I will clean it.
Call Elle at 929-600-4520
IT AND SECURITY SUPPORT
Experienced IT technician. Expertise in 1-on-1 tutoring for all ages.Computer upgrading & troubleshooting.
Knowledgeable in all software programs. James Kierstead james.f.kierstead@gmail.com 347-933-1362. Refs available
ELDER COMPANION
Experienced with BPC residents. Available nights, days, and weekends. Will cook, clean and administer medicine on time. Speaks French and English. Can start immediately. Please call or text 929-600-4520.
OLD WATCHES SOUGHT
PREFER NON-WORKING
Mechanical pocket and wristwatches sought and
sometimes repaired
212-912-1106
If you would like to place a listing, please contact editor@ebroadsheet.com
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CB1 Wants to Contravene Convene
Local Leaders Raise Concerns about Traffic and Crowding from Planned Events Venue at Brookfield
The owners of Brookfield Place, are planning to launch an events venue that will host up to 1,000 people at a time, which has sparked concerns about traffic and crowding from community leaders. At the June 5 meeting of the Battery Park City Committee of Community Board 1 (CB1), Mark Kostic, Brookfield’s Vice President for Asset Management, explained that Convene, a firm that develops and markets meeting rooms, event venues and flexible workspaces (and is partially owned by Brookfield) will be taking over the 86,000-square-foot space formerly occupied by Saks Fifth Avenue, at 225 Liberty Street. Matthew Fenton
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Anthem of the Seas Spins About
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Cass Gilbert and the Evolution of the New York Skyscraper
by John Simko
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The Broadsheet Inc. | 212-912-1106 | editor@ebroadsheet.com| ebroadsheet.com
No part of this document may be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher
© 2019
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