The BroadsheetDAILY – 10/18/22 – A Very Lucrative Landmark

The Broadsheet – Lower Manhattan’s Local Newspaper

A Very Lucrative Landmark

Private Space in a Publicly Owned Building Seeks Expansion of Expensive (and Exclusive) Club

The Battery Maritime Building, built in 1909, reopened in the summer of 2021 as Casa Cipriani.

Community Board 1 (CB1) is casting a skeptical eye on plans to expand a rooftop private club space at the historic Battery Maritime Building, located at 20 South Street. In a resolution enacted at its September 27 meeting, the Board noted that Cipriani, the operator of an upscale hotel and exclusive club housed within the publicly owned and landmarked building, “now proposes to modify the existing hotel addition by exposing the steel framing on the south elevation creating a loggia.”

More than a decade ago, CB1 opposed plans by the City to expand the 1909 Beaux Art structure to make room for a hotel, but was overruled by the City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission, which voted in 2013 to allow the addition of a glass structure to the building’s roof.

The further expansion now proposed by Cipriani, the Board notes in its resolution, “extends the elevator to the mechanical bulkhead level to access an additional private club floor with a new private swimming pool and terrace, information which was curiously omitted from the applicant’s presentation to the CB1 Landmarks Committee.”

A rendering of changes now proposed for the roof of the landmarked structure.

The resolution continues, “CB1 believes the proposed modification of the bulkhead and addition to enclose a private pool and terrace should include a commensurately scaled area in the building that would allow for public access and use.”

The Battery Maritime Building, located next to the Staten Island Ferry, served for three decades as the gateway for boats taking passengers across the East River, but after commuters and vehicles gained direct access to Manhattan with the advent of bridges, tunnels, and subways, ferry usage declined and the building fell into disrepair. (In recent decades, its sole use was as a berth for ferries taking passengers to and from nearby Governors Island.) Starting in the early 2000s, developers and community activists proffered competing visions for the building, with the former advocating commercial uses (such as a hotel and restaurant) and the latter pushing for civic amenities, such as a school or museum.

For years, a succession of developers partnered with the City’s Economic Development Corporation (EDC)—a non-profit corporation that negotiates strategic partnerships designed to harness private-sector resources to public projects, and thus foster economic growth—to rehabilitate and reopen the Battery Maritime Building, but then went bankrupt.

Finally, in 2017, the troubled project was taken over by a partnership led by hospitality firm Cipriani USA, a legendary proprietor of food destinations and event spaces worldwide. That firm’s Lower Manhattan footprint includes two venues carved out of historic building lobbies: Cipriani Wall Street (in the former banking hall of the onetime headquarters of National City Bank) and Cipriani 25 Broadway (in the erstwhile ticketing hall of what was once Cunard’s New York office). The newly branded Casa Cipriani launched with a “soft opening” in the Battery Maritime Building in the summer of 2021, featuring a hotel, restaurant, private club, and event space.

A historic view of the Battery Maritime Buildings Great Hall from the early 1900s, when it functioned as a waiting room and ticketing hall for ferry passengers.

Among the structure’s more notable features is its Great Hall, a majestic 8,500-square foot space, with ceilings 34 feet high, lined with Guastavino tiles. Originally touted by EDC as the home of a new indoor, public market, this space was later reimagined as an event venue and community facility.

At a February meeting of CB1, Susan Cole, who chairs the Board’s Licensing & Permits Committee said that in a recent discussion with representatives from Casa Cipriani, “we raised the issue that there’s no public access to this wonderful building. It’s infuriating.”

CB1 chair Tammy Meltzer then observed, “they had a legal requirement to do a public programming, and keep it open to the public. It’s part of the deal that they signed.”

Ms. Cole responded that the Casa Cipriani team, “said that there’s one restaurant that’s open to the public.”

Since opening last year, Casa Cipriani has hosted a single event in the Great Hall: the Independent Art Fair, which charged $55 for admission. No free public or community events have yet been held at the Battery Maritime Building, nor have plans for any been announced.

The resolution enacted by the Board in September concludes, “CB1 very much hopes the applicant will provide a fair public benefit in exchange for the proposed addition of private space to this formally public city ferry terminal.”

Matthew Fenton

A Report Card on Resiliency

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A report from New York City Comptroller Brad Lander released late last week says that resiliency plans for Lower Manhattan are farther along than the rest of the City, but still less than halfway to completion. Read more…

Got Any Ideas on How to Spend a Million Dollars?

Marte Seeks Suggestions for Allocating Capital Funds to Local Projects

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Star Turns

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Letter

To the editor,

Tragically, my birdwatching has too often been of those birds who will never fly again. So many laying on the sidewalks of Battery Park City. Most of them small and of an exotic species. I asked a Park Ranger about the many dead birds and she told me that when migrating they flew into what they thought was space but was actually the glass windows of the many high buildings in the area. I suggest putting stickers on the windows on the upper floors of local buildings. Appropriate stickers are inexpensive and would cut down the numbers of bird deaths.

Marion Marino

Calendar

Tuesday, October 18

10:30am-11:30am

6 River Terrace

Easy-to-follow Latin dance choreography. Free.

12pm-1pm

Livestreamed

Lunchtime talk hosted by the Museum of American Finance. What do ancient entrepreneurs have in common with modern entrepreneurs? Free.

12:30pm-1:30pm

Rockefeller Park House

Five-minute games that are fast, furious and fun. An instructor will be on hand to offer pointers and tips to improve your game. Free.

3:30pm-5pm

Rockefeller Park

Play the popular strategy game while getting pointers and advice from an expert. For ages 5 and up (adults welcome).

3:45pm-4:30pm

Rockefeller Park

For ages 6-10. Practice the basics of passing, receiving, and game strategy with fun and challenging exercises and drills for all levels. Free.

6pm

Livestreamed

New York City, arguably the world’s Art Deco capital, is well known for its iconic towers. Learn about the myriad ways that Art Deco is drawn in steel, stone, terra cotta, brass, and bronze upon the city’s great buildings. Hosted by the Skyscraper Museum. Free.

6pm

Livestreamed

Agenda

7:30pm

Livestreamed

Agenda

Wednesday, October 19

10am-12pm

Rector Park East

Each week a model will strike short and long poses for participants to draw. An artist/educator will offer suggestions and critique. Materials provided. Free.

2pm-4pm

Rector Park East

Join artists of all skill levels to create with drawing materials, pastels and watercolors. An educator will provide ideas and instruction. Materials provided.

6:30pm

South Street Seaport Museum, 12 Fulton Street

Walking tour at South Street Seaport. Most printers in early 19th-century New York were located where the action was: near the city’s main port of entry at South Street. Discover where passenger and shipping services printed their tickets, and learn about the typography on these historic buildings. Free.

7pm

McNally Jackson, 4 Fulton Street

Reading. In Dani Shapiro’s first work of fiction in fifteen years, she returns to the form that launched her career, with a riveting, deeply felt novel that examines the ties that bind families together—and the secrets that can break them apart. Signal Fires is a work of haunting beauty by a masterly storyteller. RSVP required.

Lower Manhattan Greenmarkets

Tribeca Greenmarket

Greenwich Street & Chambers Street

Wednesdays and Saturdays, 8am-3pm (compost program: Saturdays, 8am-1pm)

Bowling Green Greenmarket

Broadway & Whitehall St

Tuesdays and Thursdays, 8am-5pm (compost program: 8am-11am)

World Trade Center Oculus Greenmarket

Tuesdays, 8am-5pm (ending this month)

The Outdoor Fulton Stall Market

91 South Street, between Fulton & John Streets

Indoor market: Monday through Saturday,11:30am-5pm

CSA pick-up: Thursday, 4pm-6pm; Friday, 11:30-5pm

Outdoor market: Saturdays, 11:30am-5pm

Today in History

October 18

The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, opened on this day in 1997. Designed by Frank Gehry (known locally as the architect behind the undulating curves of 8 Spruce Street), the Bilbao Guggenheim is hailed as an architectural masterpiece.

320 – Pappus of Alexandria, Greek philosopher, observes an eclipse of the Sunand writes a commentary.

1081 – The Normans defeat the Byzantine Empire in the Battle of Dyrrhachium.

1386 – Opening of Heidelberg University.Founded in 1386, Heidelberg University is a public research university and is Germany’s oldest.

1851 – Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick is first published as The Whale by Richard Bentley of London.

1867 – United States takes possession of Alaska after purchasing it from Russia for $7.2 million. Celebrated annually in the state as Alaska Day.

1898 – The United States takes possession of Puerto Rico from Spain.

1931 – American gangster Al Capone convicted of tax evasion

1954 – Texas Instruments announces the first transistor radio.

1962 – James Watson (US), Francis Crick (UK) and Maurice Wilkins (UK) win the Nobel Prize for Medicine for their work in determining the structure of DNA

1997 – The Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Gehry, is inaugurated by King Juan Carlos I in Bilbao, Spain

2019 – First all-female spacewalk by NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir outside the International Space Station

Births

1130 – Zhu Xi, Chinese philosopher (d. 1200)

1836 – Frederick August Otto Schwarz, founder of FAO Schwarz (d. 1911)

1904 – A. J. Liebling, journalist and author (d. 1963)

1919 – Pierre Trudeau, lawyer, academic, and politician, 15th Prime Minister of Canada (d. 2000)

1927 – George C. Scott, American actor and director (d. 1999)

1950 – Wendy Wasserstein, American playwright and author (d. 2006)

1961 – Wynton Marsalis, jazz and classical trumpeter

1984 – Lindsey Vonn, alpine skier

Deaths

1141 – Leopold, Duke of Bavaria (b. 1108)

1871 – Charles Babbage, English mathematician and engineer, originated the concept of a programmable computer (b. 1791)

1931 – Thomas Edison, engineer and businessman, invented the light bulb and phonograph (b. 1847)

1966 – S. S. Kresge, businessman, founded Kmart (b. 1867)

2021 – Colin Powell, General and First Black US Secretary of State (2001-05), dies from complications of COVID-19, blood cancer, and Parkinson’s disease at 84

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