Battery Park City

Battery Park City is a district located at the southern end of the island of Manhattan to New York. It was built on the model of a new Ville, on a surface of 0,4 km ².

The ground on which it rests was gained on the Hudson, by using 917.000 cubic meters of ground and rock extracted during construction of the World Trade Center and other real estate projects. This district shelters World Financial Center, like many residences and of trade. Its name comes from the close park, the Battery Park.

Battery Park City is the property of the Battery Park City Authority , a state enterprise which is not controlled by the municipality of New York. The surplus incomes of this entity are used to subsidize other investments for housing, in particular in the more underprivileged zones of the Bronx and Harlem.

Geography

In the east, Battery Park City is separated from the Financial District by West Street. In the other directions, the zone is surrounded by the estuary of the Hudson river.

The district is divided into five principal sections (north towards the south):

a park, NA Rockefeller Park, bordered by some residential buildings and a large hotel.
the zone of World Financial Center, which comprises other commercial buildings (of which that of American Express), a greenhouse (Winter Garden) and a wearing of yachts.
Gateway Plaza
Rector Places
Battery Place

The three last are residential zones including/understanding supermarkets, restaurants and cinemas.

History

At the end of the Years 1950, this lower part of the wearing of Manhattan fell in decrepitude, victim of the rise of air transport. A first proposal to embank the Hudson river was put forth at the beginning of the Années 1960 by privately held companies having the support of the mayor. The things became complicated when the governor Nelson Rockefeller announced that it wished redévelopper this zone independently of the municipality. A compromise was found in 1966, with the presentation of a concept of “community extended” by the architect Wallace K. Harrison, who integrated housing, infrastructures social and light industries. In 1968, Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) was created to supervise the development of it.

During the first years progress was mean: in 1969, a plan was worked out and in 1972,200 million dollars of actions were emitted to finance construction. In 1976, the fill of the river was finished, the majority of the old abandoned quays having been simply hidden under tons of ground.

Financial problems stopped the effort of construction between 1977 and 1979, when the property of the ground was transferred from the municipality towards the BPCA and that the project was revised with the fall.

The first buildings appeared in 1980, followed in 1981 by the construction of World Financial Center, completed in 1985. During all the Years 1980, work went good progress, Rector Place was finished as well as the esplanade skirting the river. The Stuyvesant High School moved in the district at the beginning of the Années 1990. At the end of the 20th century, Battery Park City was practically built.

The terrorist attack of the September 11th, 2001 on the close World Trade Center had a considerable impact on the district. More of the two-thirds of the inhabitants fled the zone close to the catastrophe. Gateway Plaza, most imposing from the residential buildings, accepted remains coming from the planes, and Winter Garden was seriously damaged. The residents also feared omnipresent dust after the catastrophe. Since, the majority of repairs were carried out, the price of the rents dropped and the government encouraged by subsidies the repairing and the reoccupying of the places. But there remains still way to be traversed so that Battery Park City finds its glare of before the terrorist attack.

External bonds

Battery Park City Authority
Photographs of Battery Park City

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