Anne Frederick of Hester Street Collaborative was one of several speakers at a community day May 4, 2013 at Pier 42.
It will be years before the dream of building a large new park at Pier 42, near Gouverneur Street, is realized. But this past weekend, community activists, non-profit organizations and local politicians took an important symbolic step toward claiming the parcel along the East River for public use. A community day was held Saturday on Pier 42, the kickoff to a summer-long effort to engage residents in the future of the pier.
A year-and-a-half ago, the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. allocated $16 million for the first phase of the project. A design firm, Mathews Nielsen, will present preliminary master plans to Community Board 3 later this week, following a series of community vision sessions during the past several months. On Saturday, Sen. Squadron, who helped secure the funding along with U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, and representatives from non-profit organi
Rendering: Essex Crossing open space.
First off, Community Board 3 has been asked by Delancey Street Associates, the development team, to appoint a group to provide input regarding a park-like space on Broome Street. The community-driven process is part of the agreement signed by the builders earlier this year. Last week, CB3 announced that its parks committee would be the venue for envisioning the 15,000 square foot park. Public meetings will take place in the first part of 2014 to solicit feedback from the neighborhood. Also, CB3 has appointed a point-person to work with the developers with the overall design of Essex Crossing. Gigi Li, the community board’s chairperson, has given the job to Ricky Leung, who served on the committee that has spent much of the past four years developing guidelines for the Seward Park project. In addition to his role as a tenant activist in the Two Bridges Neighborhood, Leung is an architect. He’ll work in tandem with a community ta
Left to right: Kim Fong, executive director, senior nutrition program, Bowery Residents Committee; Gigi Li, Community Board 3 Chair; Bob Humber, coordinator, The Elizabeth Hubbard Memorial Scent Garden. Photo by Lee Brozgol
M’Finda Kalunga Community Garden supporters dedicated a “scent garden” during the annual Juneteenth celebration of African heritage in Sara D. Roosevelt Park on Saturday.
The new section of the garden is designed especially for sight-impaired visitors. It is named in honor of dancer and community organizer Elizabeth Hubbard, a former co-chair of M’Finda Kalunga and a co-founder of the Roosevelt Park Community Coalition.
“While we pay tribute to Elizabeth’s memory we also commit this garden to the sightless and seeing impaired in our community. We intend it to be a garden that will be truly accessible to everyone. Whether by touch or by scent or by sight: a welcoming oasis to everyone,” organizers said in the dedication. “It is being created in t
Mayor Michael Bloomberg came to the Lower East Side this morning to announce that the Seward Park project, delayed for four decades, was finally a “done deal.”
Standing in an abandoned building of the Essex Street Market with some of the city’s biggest developers, community partners and neighborhood activists, he called Essex Crossing (the official name of the project) a “wonderful thing” that will bring “the new housing, jobs and open space Lower East Siders want and need and deserve.”
Word got out yesterday that the residential, commercial and community-oriented complex would be built by L+M Development Partners, BFC Partners, and Taconic Investment Partners. They’re paying the city $180 million for the site and investing a total of $1.1 billion to build the new community at the base of the Williamsburg Bridge over the next decade. Groundbreaking is expected in the spring of 2015; the first buildings are projected to open in the summer of 2018. The architectura
Pier 42 renderings by Mathews Nielsen.
Early this year, the Public Design Commission and Community Board 3 approved a conceptual master plan for a park at Pier 42. Mathews Nielsen, the firm hired to design the 8-acrre recreational space near Montgomery Street will return to CB3’s parks committee October 21 to present a preliminary plan for phase 1 of the project.
The $94 million initiative will create active and passive recreational facilities, a marine habitat, waterfront marshes, a water ecology educational center and a dock for small boats. Three years ago, U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer and State Sen. Daniel Squadron helped secure $16 million in 9/11 recovery funds for the first phase. It entails the dismantling of the old 600 foot shed once used to store bananas and the development of an interim park.