BY ALINE REYNOLDS | Pace University’s entrance plaza to its Downtown campus will soon be enlivened with seating, umbrellas, planters and other public-friendly amenities if the city approves a proposal for its redesign.
The University hopes to transform the bleak, 14,000-square-foot space into a pleasant resting area for passers-by and a vibrant venue for concerts, art exhibits and other community-focused events.
“Right now, it’s a pretty barren place — it’s basically a cross thoroughfare to the subway entrance,” said Tobias Bisharat, director of facilities planning and design at Pace University. “We’d like to bring some charm to the space, make it something that’s more pleasing to the eye and have it be an interactive place for students and events,” he said. Apart from its mediocre appearance, much of the current plaza is in structural disrepair that is beyond the scope of general maintenance, despite its constant upkeep by the University.
The plaza, located at the intersection of Frankfort and Spruce Streets, runs parallel to a city-approved bicycle route, Bisharat noted, giving the University yet another incentive to renovate it.
Downtown’s redevelopment has significantly outpaced the amount of spruced up open space and plazas the area has to offer residents and workers, according to Robert Keating, vice president of the University. “There is an absence of places for people to sit and enjoy Downtown,” he said. “The numbers of people going Downtown are increasing geometrically… the more places we have for them to enjoy the neighborhood, the better.”
Administrators also envision the future plaza as a forum for local restauranteurs and businesses to promote their goods and services, since “Lower Manhattan is home to many retail stores and restaurants that have faced visibility challenges due in part to the high volume of construction projects in the neighborhood that diminish their storefronts,” according to the University’s project summary.
To help finance the approximately $2 million project, the University is applying for funding from the city Department of Transportation’s Public Plaza program, whose winners will be announced in the fall. Keating said the University hopes to coordinate with the city to come up with a detailed design plan immediately thereafter and begin reconstruction of the plaza as quickly as possible.
The renovated plaza, the vice president said, should be completed by the end of next year.
