New York Times
Ushering In Open Space on Governors Island
Michael Appleton for The New York Times
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, right, attended the start of demolition work to make way for new park space on Governors Island.
By MARTIN ESPINOZA
Published: October 10, 2008
In New York, where demolition and construction occur at a furious pace, often amid the cries of competing interests, hardly a peep was heard on Friday afternoon when a giant steel claw began to tear through a set of unremarkable three-story buildings on Governors Island.
Michael Appleton for The New York Times
Steve and Theresa Petersen used to live in the Coast Guard complex being torn down, and came from Michigan to watch.
A couple dozen spectators quietly cheered the beginning of a project that will turn eight acres of the island into park space by next year. But Theresa Petersen, who drove all the way from Michigan with her husband, Steve, gazed at the destruction occurring before her eyes and began to shed tears.
“We were the first people to live there after they were built,” said Mr. Petersen, holding a video camera. They lived in a four-bedroom apartment with their three children in one of the buildings when Mr. Peterson was stationed on Governors Island as a chief warrant officer with the
United States Coast Guard.
The 10 buildings that began to come down on Friday made up Liberty Village, housing built in 1988 for Coast Guard officers. The Coast Guard stopped using the island in 1996, and since the last residents left the next year, the buildings have been vacant. The federal government transferred the site to the state and city of New York in 2003, at which time more than 20 acres on the north end of the island were turned over to the
National Park Service. This area includes Fort Jay and Castle Williams.
The rest of the 172-acre island, including a 92-acre historic landmark district to the north, is run by the Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation and includes 16 acres of recreational areas and a one-mile esplanade for jogging and walking.
The buildings of Liberty Village will be replaced by a picnic area, and the project will for the first time open up the island’s entire 2.2-mile perimeter to bicyclists and pedestrians.
Mayor
Michael R. Bloomberg said that the city expected more than 125,000 people to have visited the island by the time the island’s season, which begins in May, ends on Sunday, some of them drawn by one of the waterfall installations by the artist
Olafur Eliasson, on the island’s north end. In contrast, he said, only half that number of people visited the island in 2007.
Barbara Blackwood, a 65-year-old Astoria resident, said she visits the island once a week. The retired chambermaid used a walker to slowly make her way down the island from the ferry terminal to see her first demolition. She said she is eager to see the entire island converted for recreational use. “It’s open to the public, and you can see all these houses — things that were built in 1812. My God,” she said, stopping to take a breath.
Mr. Bloomberg said that by the time the island reopens next spring, new amenities will include a seasonal entertainment and dining venue on the north end of the island. The site will also have artists studios and space for art exhibitions, he said. Other plans for the island include a new home for the 425-student New York Harbor School, a public high school in Bushwick, Brooklyn, that focuses on marine science and technology.
Despite her sorrow, Mrs. Petersen said she was glad that the apartments where she once lived would be turned into a picnic area.
Mrs. Petersen watched as a huge excavator, fitted with a powerful grapple on the end of its black boom, shredded the blue roof gable and white porch where she often visited friends and other families almost 20 years ago. Her former building is scheduled to be demolished soon.
The Petersens said those few years living on Governors Island were, for them, the “ideal way to experience New York City.” They had a commissary, a bowling alley, a golf course, a Burger King, a movie theater and a school that went up to sixth grade. Meanwhile, the world-famous novelty of Manhattan’s urban frenzy was a mere minutes away by ferry.
The building they were watching come down, in grinding twists of metal and loud cracks of posts and plywood, was where a friend of their daughter had lived. They said they had not been back since 1991, when Mr. Petersen was transferred to Michigan.
“It’s just very sad to see it happen,” Mrs. Petersen said.
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company