LOT-EK, Beyer Blinder Belle, and West 8 have been selected as the design team for Hudson River Park’s Pier 57 at 15th Street and the Hudson River as part of the development group led by New York-based real estate developer Young Woo & Associates.
The 375,000 square foot vacant, former passenger ship terminal will be transformed into a cultural center, small business incubator, and public park, including a rooftop venue for the Tribeca Film Festival. The plan builds on the successes of the adjacent High Line park, West Chelsea arts district, Meatpacking entertainment and retail district, and the Hudson River Park itself. It will create more than a third of a mile of new public waterfront access around the pier's perimeter.
The design proposal seeks to capitalize on the industrial pier's location, history, and linear format to realize New York City’s first major pier redevelopment project of the twenty-first century. Design elements include:
• Restoration of the historic pier, which preserves the existing three-level structure while making it open and transparent by glazing the existing sectional doors which define its perimeter
• An open ground floor and glass-walled atrium along the Hudson River Park greenway
• An open-air public market housed in recycled shipping containers and positioned around a central promenade that extends 15th Street westward through the pier and up to a new 2.5-acre “skypark” on the roof that will afford views of the city skyline and Hudson River from 60 feet above water.
Uses will include a contemporary culture center for fine art and performances, more than 200 "work-sell" spaces for small businesses operated by Urban Space Management, restaurants, cafés, and opportunities for waterborne recreation.
The design adapts the three underwater concrete caissons—the structure’s foundation—which were a technological wonder when the pier was constructed in 1954, having been prefabricated and floated downriver for assembly. One of the caisson’s interior spaces, whose prominent repeating columns are reminiscent of ancient subterranean architectural spaces found in cathedral crypts or water cisterns, will be reused to house an educational underwater experience.
Pier 57 is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is expected to benefit from available historic tax credits. F.J. Sciame Construction, Co., a leader in historic restoration in the New York area, will be responsible for construction management. Total development costs are estimated at $210 million.
The design team includes 2008 National Design Awards finalists LOT-EK as lead design architect; Beyer Blinder Belle, responsible for the rehabilitation of Grand Central Terminal, as historic preservation architect and architect of record; and West 8 New York, currently designing Governors Island Park and Open Space, as landscape architects. The project team also includes: Robert Silman Associates: structural engineers; Buro Happold: MEP/sustainability engineers; Langan Engineering and Environmental Services: traffic and environmental engineers; and HR&A Advisors: economic development, real estate, and public policy consulting.
