By Ronda Kaysen
Memorial
Train Station
Office and retail
locations that could be connected by an atrium
The city favors extending Cortlandt St. through part of the World Trade Center site as seen above, but the Port Authority wants to keep the street closed to increase the retail space.
For such a little street, Cortlandt St. is getting an awful lot of attention. Two government agencies proposed opposing plans for the block-long street that connects the World Trade Center site to Broadway at a Community Board 1 meeting Wednesday night, with each side vying for the support of the community.
Cortlandt now ends at Church St., but eventually W.T.C. Towers 3 and 4 will rise along Church to the north and south of Cortlandt, opening the street up to extend another block west, to Greenwich St., where the memorial will stand. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the World Trade Center, would like to enclose the street within a mall that would straddle both Towers 3 and 4. The city, which controls city streets and will control any streets running through the Trade Center, would like to extend the street to Greenwich St., keeping it open to pedestrians and vehicular traffic.
“We have an opportunity to have a street here,” said Raymond Gastil, Manhattan director of City Planning, at the meeting. Cortlandt St. “is not just open to the street, it’s open to the sky. If you let it go, it’s never coming back.”
The Port Authority envisions a Time Warner Center-like mall, open round the clock with a glass fronted entryway at Church St. leading visitors to ground floor retail, with two levels ascending above ground and two levels descending below ground. The closed-off street would serve as a public atrium for the mall.
The Port Authority says that enclosing Cortlandt would protect passersby from a wind tunnel created by the tall buildings, add light to a block darkened by towers and make way for an additional 150,000 sq. ft. of retail. An enclosed street would also give the Port Authority more flexibility in designing the retail space, creating more desirable spaces and drawing visitors to the third floor, a traditionally hard sell in outdoor retail.
“Enclosing Cortlandt St. strikes the right balance,” said James Connors, director of the W.T.C. redevelopment for the Port Authority, at the Jan. 4 meeting, adding, “This would be the type of space that would invite people in to shop.”
City Planning, however, has a very different idea of what design would strike a balance for the neighborhood. “A rebuilt Cortlandt St., open to the sky…. is essential to the successful redevelopment of the World Trade Center site and all of Lower Manhattan,” said City Planning chairperson Amanda Burden at the meeting of the World Trade Center Redevelopment Committee.
Cortlandt St. terminated at Church St. when the original Trade Center stood there. But before the Trade Center was built 30 years ago, the street continued through to Greenwich St. Some residents and some civic organizations have expressed a desire to see streets once cut off by the Trade Center be opened up in the new designs.
“The World Trade Center plan calls for the integration of the site with the rest of Lower Manhattan,” said Burden.
Closing off Cortlandt St. will block views and access to the memorial and the Freedom Tower, insisted Burden. The mall will fuse two city blocks—from Liberty St. to Dey St.—into one exceptionally long city block. A City Planning PowerPoint presentation showed a 475-foot long glass wall cutting pedestrians off from the rest of the World Trade Center and sending them trekking a block out of their way to access Greenwich St.
City Planning dismissed the Port Authority’s argument that a wind tunnel and tall buildings would diminish the street level shopping experience. “This is actually a street, a New York City street,” said Gastil. “This is what is characteristic and unique about New York retail. It’s part of the fundamental character of what New York City can be.”
Wind conditions, he added, have not deterred passersby from venturing down Wall St., a narrow street flanked by tall, glass buildings. “Wall St. has somehow managed to get people walking down it every day.”
Connors had a different vision for an exposed Cortlandt St. “We think this would be a pretty inhospitable environment.”
A mall, however, would be far from inhospitable. “We’re not intending some sort of monolithic corridor that blocks off views,” Connors said, describing the mall as a “public thoroughfare.” The glass entryway will be the“front door for the retail environment.”
An enclosed mall would add 150,000 sq. ft. of retail to the neighborhood, mainly on the third floor, said Connors. Typically, third floor retail is difficult to rent, but Connors expects a mall will create an environment where a food court might thrive.
Board chairperson Julie Menin balked at the idea of another food court in the neighborhood. “We really don’t want to see a repeat of the South Street Seaport and the failures of the Seaport,” she said, referring to the isolated food court on the third floor of Pier 17.
Gastil was not convinced that keeping Cortlandt open would ultimately cost the neighborhood as much retail space as Connors suggested. “We want to see terrific retail at the World Trade Center site. We believe there’s ample opportunity for significant retail at the Trade Center site,” he said. “We don’t think this amount of retail is dependent on closing Cortlandt St.”
Community board members appeared as divided as the two agencies about what to do with the street. While some expressed elation at the idea of an enclosed mall, others wondered if the Port Authority’s concerns were significant enough to enclose a city street in glass.
“Do you actually think that having a street that would go for one block would serve any purpose?” asked board member Marc Donnenfeld.
Some harked back fondly to the days of the Trade Center mall. “I’m not really scared that this will become a generic shopping mall,” said board member Tom Goodkind. “I see this as particular to our area of New York, which is a very special area… It seems very clear that enclosure is the most logical choice.”
But not everyone was so eager to see the enclosed mall make a comeback. “I personally do not like malls. I shop in New Jersey when I want to go to a mall,” said board member Jeff Galloway. “I like the street grid. I feel like I’m in New York.”
The Port Authority would like to see above ground retail completed by 2012. In the meantime, the two agencies will need to hammer out an agreement of what to do with the block. “The city and Port Authority need to come to terms with this,” Connors told Downtown Express after the meeting. But for now, both sides seem entrenched in their respective corners.
Ronda@DowntownExpress.com
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