Restoration plans for New York City’s historic Seaport District have surfaced, and SHoP Architects’s plan is to turn it into a mixed use, pedestrianized area, ArchDaily reports.
The scheme includes a proposed 500-foot luxury residential tower that would jut out into the harbor, extending the Manhattan grid out into the waterfront.
According to the architects, the Seaport District proposal “provides a vision of restoration and revitalization for this historic waterfront neighborhood. While South Street Seaport is currently a waterfront access hub for commuters, boaters, and tourists, it is also home to long-neglected historical elements and impediments to foot traffic.”
“The principal of this mixed-use project is to extend the Manhattan city fabric toward the water, defying the current barriers created by South Street and the FDR drive, and creating continuous pedestrian connections and increased waterfront access. The addition of retail, residential, cultural, and educational facilities will transform the waterfront area to an essential asset for the community and the city.”
“Restoration of the historic Tin Building will breathe new vitality into a long-neglected structure and provide a plaza and marketplace in a previously abandoned space. The residential building on the New Market site will complement both the history and future of the seaport in its aesthetic and materiality, and will include retail spaces as well as a school on its lower levels.”
“The Seaport project as a whole embraces the district’s nautical and commercial history at the same time as it rethinks the relationship between the city grid and the waterfront.”
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