The BroadsheetDAILY ~ News of Lower Manhattan 2/13/20

Alliance Readies First Steps in Master Plan to Balance Beauty with Security Around Stock Exchange

The Downtown Alliance is preparing to implement the first phase of a master plan unveiled in May 2018, which aims to transform the “frozen zone” — a 3,000-feet security perimeter surrounding the New York Stock Exchange, which has enclosed (and limited access to) 19 acres of the Financial District since shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

While the broader vision must await an allocation of up to $70 million from the City’s Department of Transportation (DOT), the Alliance has raised funds on its own to carry out the initial stage of this plan, which focuses on adding benches and planters to the intersection of Wall and Broad Streets.

	Roger Byrom

As Roger Byrom, chair of the Landmarks & Preservation Committee of Community Board 1 (CB1) explained at the January 28 meeting, “the entire project of making Wall Street and Broad Street more friendly is $70 million, and that’s a drop in the ocean in terms of the DOT’s overall budget. But the Alliance has got some funding now, and we hope that with [CB1’s] approval, the Alliance is going to allocate the funds this year.”

He noted that a key objective of the Alliance’s 2018 plan is to enhance the pedestrian environment and improve mobility, while one feature of this goal is to create new street furniture that can serve both as seating and as planting beds.

The first phase of the plan will entail new installations on Broad Street, opposite the New York Stock Exchange, where twin benches will flank either side of the Fearless Girl statue. This will be followed by additional benches and planters on Wall Street (facing Federal Hall) and further south on Broad Street (near Exchange Place).

“These are free-standing elements, so there won’t be a problem with drainage,” Mr. Byrom continued, “and there’s an ability to put notches in the benches, to discourage skateboarders and homeless sleeping there.”

At Mr. Byrom’s urging, CB1 enacted a resolution noting that, “the designs are sensitive to the fact the Broad and Wall Streets are part of the landmarked road bed — the only such landmark in the City,” and recommending that the City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission (which must approve changes to the streetscape in the neighborhood, because it falls within a legally protected Historic District) okay the proposal. The same resolution calls upon the City, “to fund for the entire vision in 2021.”

This frozen zone, an area bounded by Broadway on the west, Beaver Street on the south, William Street on the east, and Pine Street on the north, is home to several thousand residents, and is the destination to which tens of thousands of people report for work each day. It is also visited by more than one million tourists each year. And yet, security precautions for the Stock Exchange (which is presumed to be a potently iconic target for terrorists planning future attacks on New York) have rendered the surrounding streetscape desolate and uninviting.

This was the problem that the Alliance proposed to solve when it convened a working group of more than 30 residents, community leaders, property owners, and business stakeholders in 2017. The resulting plan, titled, “A More Welcoming Wall & Broad: A Vision for Improving the Stock Exchange District,” envisions transforming the area through a series of innovations, such the creating of curbless “shared” streets, surfaced with historically contextual paving materials. The plan also seeks to create a distinct sense of place by erecting “gateway” structures at entrances to the zone. These interactive sculptural installations would serve purposes both aesthetic and didactic, displaying text to give visitors way-finding directions and historical background.

	Jessica Lappin

The built environment would undergo a visual transformation with the installation of new lighting. Beacons strung from cables or cantilevered off the sides of buildings would brighten now-dim alleys such as Exchange Place and New Streets. Additionally, the plan calls for architectural lighting to illuminate the nine historical landmarks within the perimeter — four of which frame the corners at the intersection of Wall and Broad Street.

The Alliance’s vision also mandates upgrading current features of the area widely regarded as eyesores, such as the “tattered tent” at the Broad Street entrance of the New York Stock Exchange, where security screenings are conducted. The plan calls for replacing this with a permanent, glass enclosure.

And in at least one case, the Alliance wants to bring a new feature to the crossroads of Lower Manhattan: the report proposes to move the Arturo Di Modica sculpture, “Charging Bull,” from its current location at Bowling Green, to the intersection of Wall and Broad Streets. (City officials have begun to worry that the crowds it attracts at the foot of Broadway, which sometimes spill into the street, are creating a traffic safety hazard.) This move, if implemented, would return the bronze (very nearly) to its original home: In 1989, Mr. Di Modica surprised everyone (including City officials, whose permission he had not sought) by placing the statue in front of the Stock Exchange building in the middle of the night.

Several elements of the scheme would have in common that, for the first time, they acknowledge as permanent (and thus attempt to bring a coherent design vision to) improvised security measures that were hastily implemented in the fall of 2001, but were always described in the years since (in a tortured official euphemism) as “temporary.”

The Alliance plan also contains logistical improvements, such as the call for a consolidated delivery center for all packages arriving in the area, which would consist of a centralized drop-off point for delivery trucks, from which parcels could be distributed using hand trucks or small vehicles.

City Council Announces Design Competition to Improve Pedestrian Access to Brooklyn Bridge

The City Council has partnered with the Van Alen Institute (a New York nonprofit architectural organization, dedicated to improving design in the public realm) in sponsoring a contest to incubate fresh ideas for better pedestrian access to the Brooklyn Bridge.

Centuries-Old Aesthetics to Converge with Cutting-Edge Technology at Historic Seaport Warehouse

	245 Water Street

Trinity Church has purchased a historic warehouse in the South Street Seaport district, which it intends to convert into a four-family residence, while also adhering to the environmentally rigorous “passive house” standard. The building, at 245 Water Street (between Peck Slip and Beekman Street), was originally built in 1836, after a fire destroyed the previous structure on that lot. The building was put up by the firm of Hendricks & Brothers, who operated cooper mines in Newark, but had their offices in Lower Manhattan. The family, who had anglicized their names from the Henriques of their native Spain, had been in the cooper business for generations, selling to customers like Paul Revere and Robert Fulton.

Longtime Residents, Neither Rich Nor Poor, Face an Uncertain Future Downtown

Another Food Hall Coming to Lower Manhattan, Amid Signs That Community’s Appetite Is Diminishing

A new food hall is coming to a historic (and long neglected) Lower Manhattan building: the former First National City Bank branch at 415 Broadway (on the corner with Canal Street), which dates from 1927.

This document is meant to gauge the effect of the plan on metrics like noise, air quality, and greenhouse gas emissions that will result from implementing the NYC Ferry expansion planned by the administration of Mayer Bill de Blasio, which is slated to bring to the Battery Park City ferry terminal more than 60 new vessels each day, landing from 6:00 am to midnight, and carrying as many as 2,500 passengers per day.

CB1 Raises Concerns about Wave of New Event and Entertainment Venues Planned for Downtown

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