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October 21, 2005
55 Water Street Plaza
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There is a wonderful surprise in store for visitors to the newly reopened Plaza at 55 Water Street. It's terrific! The steep two story approach from Water street, which has been made to look slightly less forbidding by being broken up with four separate escalators and slightly departing from a traditional grid, gives nothing away. You can't see the top from the bottom, and all the contemporary geometry in the world can't eliminate a certain sterility that clings to 55 Water Street, the city's largest office building. It's not until you emerge from a short passage at the top of the staircase that - Pow! Spread before you is one of those pictures that make you love - love - love New York. A stylized landscape (it's called "Dune") gently rises to a view of the Brooklyn skyline, compact and sturdy and framed by gently waving trees. Walk to the top of the landscape and reach the long boardwalk and the whole panorama of a busy harbor spreads out below. Bustling ferries chug back and forth to the terminal just off to the north and helicopters buzz in and out of the downtown heliport immediately to the south, and across the harbor the brooding industrial landscape of the Brooklyn waterfront provides backdrop. It's not the cliched vista of postcards, but something more intimate and vibrant....a living working city.
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Designed by Rogers Marvel Architects and Ken Smith Landscape Architect, this redo of the dispiriting Plaza at 55 Water Street is the result of a competition sponsored by the Municipal Art Society and the building's owner The Retirement Systems of Alabama (we hope they do something this nice for Alabama!). Commissioned in 2002 when Goldman Sachs decided not to build an office tower on the site, the Plaza reopened last week. The one acre site consists of this "Dune landscape", the boardwalk which leads up to a huge glass paneled cube, and a large artificial turf field. The cube, called the Beacon of Progress, will glow at night and recalls the Titanic Memorial Light that stood for many years on this block atop the Seaman's Church Institute. Below the cube the artificial turf field will be used for events as well as just hanging out.
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The landscape, which is the first thing you see when you get to the top of the stairs or escalators, does evoke that combination of openness and random vegetation that characterizes dunes. The openness is provided by textured concrete panels that are laid on the horizontal and subtly expand the view. The planting islands, which are slightly bermed, are geometric shapes and are reminiscent of the island beds in Philip Johnson' garden at the Museum of Modern Art, as is the rectangular grid. There's lots of seating, and the boardwalk is made of fashionable Brazilian ipe, which imparts a little luxurious texture to the project.
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About the planting: Citygardenguide does not like to quibble, because this is a great addition to the city - but no-one else ever critique's the planting in the city's public spaces- better not to plant grasses, perennials and shrubs in neat rows. Perhaps this rigid layout is intentional, following through on the "stylized" theme, but what it looks like is a lot of frantic workmen stuffing plants into the berms without much supervision. Why is it that planting is always the last and seemingly least important step in installing these projects? It's too bad because nothing ruins a landscape faster than poorly set in or maintained plants. There, we got that off our chests.
The owners are planning to sponsor 12 events a year on the turf field to encourage traffic to the site. But Citygardenguide is sure that this new plaza with or without programming will soon become a downtown favorite.
Posted by gardenguidenyc at October 21, 2005 01:01 PM