Battery Park City Streetscapes

Downtown NYC — 2006

OVERVIEW

The project required an extensive security barrier along a dense urban street in lower Manhattan, and the Battery Park City Authority client team also wanted to extend and enhance the gardens that weave the community with the Hudson River Harbor. A series of seating, screen and shade elements were designed to address both these requirements, with a welcoming and secure arrangement along Vesey Street and North End Avenue. Textured and patterned glass materials were deployed at the human scale, gathering sky brightness and colors and re-presenting the seasonal environmental changes to commuters, residents and daily visitors flowing by.

The Battery Park City Streetscapes project extended over two streets, Vesey Street and North End Avenue, in the Battery Park North neighborhood in lower Manhattan. A security barrier was required to the south of Vesey Street, including both vehicular and truck deterrents. The streets are filled daily with commuters, visitors and residents, and it was critical that the design welcome and enhance everyday use of the streets without imposing a barrier and defensive strategy at this busy connection to the garden parks along the Hudson River. Working with Rogers Partners Architects, we developed a continuous cast glass bench with formed seating along the street and sidewalk. Concealed within the bench is a steel beam and concrete base that addresses the potential vehicular threat, and the position and size of these elements works with a collapsible material along the road side. The smooth side of the glass castings reflect the activity of the neighborhood and ergonomically shaped stainless steel benches offer comfortable seating places.

Along North End Avenue, a series of glass shade structures, benches and stainless steel fences are arranged, mixing landscape with communal spaces for residents, students and a neighborhood dog run along the center of the street. The shade structures are composed of laminated glass panels, tilted to maximize solar shade on the warmer parts of the year, and diffused to distribute light and minimize glare off the external surfaces.