Saturday, September 14, 2013

PIER 57 - WHAT IS OLD WILL NOW BE NEW



PIER 57 - Meatpacking District/Chelsea
What is Old Will Now be New 




Pier 57 has long stood next to the West Side Highway on the Hudson River abandoned and forlorn. Its most recent uses were as a bus garage for the NYC Transit Authority and a police holding station for people arrested during the 1994 Republican Convention. Plans have come and gone for its use but finally, a developer has come along and will transform it into a multi-level shopping, dining, and public space extravaganza scheduled to open in 2015 thus adding to the already transformed meatpacking district. It wasn't always like this. Let Ben Bagel give a short history about the pier.

The original pier was wooden and built for both passenger and freight ocean going boats. It was originally built as part of the City's plan in the early 20th Century to "modernize" the piers along the Hudson River. Piers like Pier 57 saw many majestic boats come and go. In 1947, the pier burned down and needed to be replaced. To reduce the potential for fire as well as rotting piers due to insects such as marine bores, the City used a imaginative method for construction of the new pier. Three hollow concrete boxes were built and sunk to the bottom of the river. This served as the foundation for the new pier, opened in 1952 and used by the Grace Shipping Line. Evenutally, the pier was abandoned as shipping lines moved their ocean going freight business out of New York. 


The new plan will not only have shops, some of them in actual shipping containers, but dining, rock climbing in the what is now the hollow spaces in the submerged concrete foundations and a roof level public space. Pier 57's new name will be SuperPier and super it will be. However, everything has some history behind it. That's why you should go on a tour of the Meatpacking District/Highline with Ben Bagel to learn about the past, historical and unknown facts, and the present. Call or go online and let's explore New York!