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Seen & Heard: The Pier 26 Restaurant Is Still an Empty Shell
••• “We walked past 147 Duane and the door was open and lights on,” emailed a reader last night. “Three people were unloading a small U-Haul truck. From the contents, it looks like a women’s clothing pop-up.” (That’s the storefront with the mysterious photos in the window.)
••• It’s mid-October and there’s still no sign of any construction inside City Vineyard, as the Pier 26 restaurant will be known.
••• Added to the agenda for Community Board 1‘s Youth & Education Committee meeting on Oct. 13: Manhattan Youth Downtown Community Center also wants a piece of the LMDC’s $50 million pie.
••• Added to the agenda for Community Board 1‘s Tribeca Committee: “376 Broadway plaza – Update by Michael Levine, CB1 Land Use Consultant.” That’s the space that the Harley-Davidson of NYC dealership has taken over. UPDATE: James commented this:
Per Certificate of Occupancy 113287 dated 8/27/97, this building received valuable floor area in exchange for that public plaza. The motorcycle store has no right to monopolize the public space. “Floor area bonus of 22,516 SF for residential plaza has been incorporated into allowable floor area.” And: “OPEN SPACE USES: PLAZA 3,752 SQ FT.” This is the total footage I understand the public has the right too, not just a partial area. Complain to 311.
••• Whole Foods now has an orange juice machine. You need to ask a staffer for assistance, though.
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Re 376 Broadway:
Per Certificate of Occupancy 113287 dated 8/27/97, this building received valuable floor area in exchange for that public plaza. The motorcycle store has no right to monopolize the public space.
“Floor area bonus of 22,516 SF for residential plaza has been incorporated into allowable floor area.”
And: “OPEN SPACE USES: PLAZA 3,752 SQ FT.” This is the total footage I understand the public has the right too, not just a partial area.
http://a810-cofo.nyc.gov/cofo/M/000/113000/M000113288.PDF
Complain to DOB @ 311
Several months ago, the public space was surrounded by scaffolding for building tuck-pointing. Thats when Harley Davidson secretly cut down the small trees and bushes and pulled out the flowers and ferns in the 2 planters.
Who wants to hang out in a little patch of concrete next to Broadway traffic and two blocks from the Tombs?
A plaza full of cool looking motorcycles doesn’t seem like something one would want to complain about.
Who wants Harley Davidson motorcycles revving 120 db under their apartment window? Do you? They can be arriving from Canal Street.
It’s illegal to ride bicycles on the sidewalk, why does NYPD allow Harley Davidson’s?
There used to be a brass plaque bolted to the exterior brickwork at 376 Broadway (Mandarin Plaza) designating it a public space. The plaque disappeared a couple of years ago.
http://tribecatrust.org/harley-davidson-abuses-tribecas-public-realm/
So what’s the problem? Developers often ask to build taller than zoning allows. The city then says: build us a public plaza and we’ll let you. The resulting “public private” plazas, or “POPS” are supposed to provide a public amenity. They vary greatly in quality. Jerold Kayden wrote a book documenting them all in New York City. Tribeca has quite a few:
* in front of 105 Duane
* in front of Citibank on Greenwich Street
* the ATT plaza between Thomas and Worth
* the plaza at the corner of Walker [sic] and Broadway
The last one – a measly affair – was part of “Mandarin Court”. It is shown in the picture above. There is a decent tree at the far end, but it is a place that cries out for a good landscape architect.
Then, two years ago, Harley Davidson asked for permission to redo the ground floor commercial space in front of the plaza so as to open a motorcycle store. Tribeca Trust objected loudly at Landmarks (the building is in Tribeca East Historic District). We said it was a great moment to get Harley’s charitable foundation and the owner of the building to redesign the plaza for better public use. Landmarks replied that this was beyond its competence, so Harley got to glassify the commercial space and now we get to look at their ugly showroom on what is otherwise a beautiful block.
Now it turns out, Harley has taken over the plaza for its motorcycles. When challenged, the manager outright lied and said the motorcycles belonged to customers parking there. He seemed not to understand that it doesn’t matter whose motorcycles they are, why take over the plaza? And neighbors have been documenting the abuse for a while. They supplied the photos.
Why doesn’t Harley do the right thing and help make a great public plaza there?
It might be worth investigating whether the retail space is zoned as a garage—that’s effectively what it is since the dealership is renting bikes as well as selling them.