BY SAM SPOKONY | Now that the city’s plan to redevelop Pier 42 into a new East River waterfront park is officially in the works, local community groups are teaming up with a major Downtown arts organization to establish a series of temporary art and design installations at the pier next summer.
The proposal, called Paths to Pier 42, seeks to utilize the mostly vacant 8-acre Lower East Side space, near the intersection of Montgomery and South Sts., before millions of dollars’ worth of demolition and construction start on the pier. The initiative may also include the use of other available space along the waterfront between the Brooklyn Bridge and East River Park.
Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects, the firm hired by the city to design the new park, has said that it hopes to have a master plan for the pier’s capital improvements in place by next March, but the actual work obviously will not begin until some time after that.
With that fact in mind, the Lower East Side Waterfront Alliance — a collaboration between several community organizations, including the Hester Street Collaborative, the Two Bridges Neighborhood Council and CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities — is now working with the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council to develop a competitive process for the project. Five artists or designers would be selected to create community-based installations on and around Pier 42 during a portion of the interim period.
While Paths to Pier 42 is still in preliminary stages, the proposal is quickly gaining traction, notably with the city Parks Department. A Parks spokesperson said that the agency supports the concept, and will be working with the L.E.S. Waterfront Alliance and L.M.C.C. as the groups do community outreach for the interim plans in the coming weeks.
Melissa Levin, L.M.C.C.’s director of cultural programs, said the Paths to Pier 42 team hopes to send out a request for proposals (R.F.P.) to artists by mid-November, and that an independent jury will be assembled to select the winning ideas. But she added that the R.F.P. is still being developed, and it hasn’t been decided yet whether only New York City-based artists will be considered, or if others from around the country — or other countries — will be able to submit proposals.
Whatever the case, Levin explained that the primary goal of Paths to Pier 42 will be to provide programming and exhibits that are relevant to residents of the area around the pier.
“We’re looking for artists and designers who will really engage the site and the community,” she said, “and especially to use specific assets and challenges found within that community to create something that’s responsive to the local audience.”
Representatives of CAAAV and the Hester Street Collaborative passed out fliers describing the proposal at Community Board 3’s Parks, Recreation, Cultural Affairs, Landmarks and Waterfront Committee last Thursday. According to a diagram on the flier, the Paths to Pier 42 team is considering using all of the pier’s available space — including the interior of its vacant pier shed — for various purposes that would complement potential art installations, such as a pop-up park with moveable furniture, a barbecue area with picnic tables, or a space set aside for food trucks.
Levin said that the artists and designers for next summer’s project will hopefully be chosen by January, and that the decision will be followed by a series of community meetings at which local residents will be able to give input on what they’d like to see in the temporary installations.
