Posted Feb 17, 2011, 4:35 AM
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Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Borough of Jersey
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http://web.me.com/broadsheet/Broadsh...y_16_2011.html
Staircase Preservationists Step Up
Critics of Planned Demolition Voice Reservations
Matthew Fenton
February 16, 2011
Quote:
Opposition is beginning to coalesce around the proposal by Brookfield Properties, which owns the World Financial Center, to demolish the Grand Staircase within the Winter Garden. The plan, which Brookfield says is necessary to handle the large volume of pedestrian traffic that will pass through the Winter Garden each day once the West Street underpass (connecting the Winter Garden to the new World Trade Center complex and the many subway stations within) is completed and the Vesey Street bridge is demolished. But many resident and Downtown community leaders insist that a way should be found to handle this traffic without demolishing the stairs.
"The Grand Staircase has enormous practical and symbolic value," says Julie Menin, chair of Community Board 1 (CB1). "The practical value derives not only from the fact that thousands of people use it each day to move from one level of the World Financial Center to another, but also because the Staircase becomes a seating venue during cultural and performance events at the Winter Garden."
"The symbolic value," Ms. Menin continues, in a reference to the reconstruction of the Winter Garden's wreckage in the days after September 11, 2001, "comes from the fact that those Stairs are evidence not only of this community's willingness to rebuild, but its ability to do so, and to do it successfully. So there's an enormous iconic and emotional attachment to those Stairs."
Ms. Menin's sentiments are echoed by Roger Byrom, who chairs CB1's Landmarks Committee and is a leader among Lower Manhattan preservationists. "The stairs are a pretty important memorial for many of us," he says. "It's regrettable that Brookfield feels they should be removed. While we understand the need to make changes to accommodate more pedestrian traffic, we should be able to design around that. I would hope that the designers could come up with another solution."
Another skeptic about Brookfield's plan is Amanda Burden, the City's Planning Commissioner. In a June, 2010 letter to Brookfield chairman John Zuccotti, she noted, "removing the Stairs creates a substantial void.... [and] fails to creates a 'grand lobby' space." Her letter continues, "we think it highly questionable as to whether there is a compelling rationale for removing the stairs, which are used regularly, by a broad range of people throughout the day, seven days a week, in exchange for escalators which will only serve to move a select group of users to their destination more expeditiously during a few weekday morning hours." Her letter concludes, "in view of the above, we do not support removing the stairs without substitution of elements that would both fill and enliven the space, as well as provide public amenity."
Ms. Menin adds that, "it's not clear whether City Planning has any direct, legally mandated role in approving or blocking a plan like this." She observes, however, that Ms. Burden's letter to her mentions another component of Brookfield's plan, to build a glass entry pavilion outside the West Street facade of the Winter Garden, of which Ms. Burden writes, "the construction of the Entry Pavilion requires changes to an existing mapping agreement, which City Planning will likely review, and we view changes to the Winter Garden as directly tied to the new Pavilion and public areas."
Either way, Ms. Menin says, "our understanding is that the Battery Park City Authority's consent is required before a plan like this can be implemented. So our first priority is to engage in a dialog with the Authority, and urge them to get this plan modified in a way that preserves the stairs, or else withhold approval."
When Brookfield made a presentation before to the BPCA board in February, Gayle Horwitz, the Authority's president, responded to the proposal by saying that her staff would conduct and independent review of the plans to ascertain whether demolishing the Staircase was necessary.
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