South Street Seaport's Pier 17 has never quite clicked since it opened in 1985. Malls in Manhattan don't exactly have the best track record (besides the outdoor mall that is SoHo), and the Pier has had a hard time getting quality tenants to stick around over the years. So now the owner of the pier wants to gut the whole the thing and replace it with a glass box with a giant lawn and concert hall on top.
Howard Hughes Corp.'s glassy design (by SHoP Architects) was presented to Community Board 1 last night, and was reportedly very warmly received. If it gets the city and public approval in the coming months—it needs to be approved both by the Landmarks Preservation Commission and the Department of City Planning—Hughes hopes to begin construction next year and have the new pier open in 2015.
The really doesn't sound too bad, and it will actually let shoppers see some of the amazing views from the pier:
Unlike the monolithic shopping center that's in place now, the base and mezzanine levels of the new building would feel more like a normal streetscape, with smaller individual structures housing shops and restaurants, separated by open-air pedestrian thoroughfares.
Two large floors would stretch out above the small shops as a roof, each measuring 60,000 square feet and designed for big-name anchor tenants. Enormous glass garage-style doors could descend in bad weather to seal in the lower levels of the complex, offering protection from the elements but still opening up previously blocked views of the Brooklyn Bridge, Pasquarelli said.
And there is one other really interesting part of the proposal! On top of the new pier Hughes hopes to put a public lawn and a 600-to-700 seat concert hall that would convert into an open-air band shell in the summer. Which means the space—which actually has a history of large concerts—could host concerts for up to 2,000 people in the summer. And for an open-air concert venue like that downtown we could totally live with yet another glass box. It isn't like we've been back to Pier 17 since The Sharper Image closed years ago—seriously, who didn't like looking at, and not buying, their gadgets?
