NOW AND THEN: A Reuse and Infill Design for Lower Manhattan's Schermerhorn Row Block By Patricia Magidson Seidman B.A. University of Pennsylvania, 1966 Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Architecture at the MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY September 1977 Signature of Author / I / Department of Architecture June 10, 1977 Certified by Professor Donlyn Lyndon ,/1 I V " I Thesis Supervisor Accepted by % V- Professor Wayne Andersen, Chairman Roten Departmental Committee for Graduate Students kSEP 26 1977 S.' Room 14-0551 77 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139 Ph: 617.253.2800 MIT Libraries Email: [email protected] Document Services http://libraries.mit.eduldocs DISCLAIMER OF QUALITY Due to the condition of the original material, there are unavoidable flaws in this reproduction. We have made every effort possible to provide you with the best copy available. If you are dissatisfied with this product and find it unusable, please contact Document Services as soon as possible. Thank you. The images contained in this document are of the best quality available. ii CONTENTS Abstract iii Acknowledgements V INTRODUCTION 6 ABOUT THE SEAPORT AREA 13 EXISTING PLANS AND ELEVATIONS 18 REUSE AND INFILL DESIGN DRAWINGS Site Plan 22 Floor Plans 23 Sections 29 Elevations 35 Axonometric 37 PROGRAM ISSUES 38 FORMAL ISSUES 46 ACCESS AND DISTRIBUTION 50 THE INFILL BUILDING 53 SOME CONCLUSIONS 61 Bibliography 66 iii Abstract NOW AND THEN: A Reuse and Infill Design for Lower Manhattan's Schermerhorn Row Block Patricia Magidson Seidman Submitted to the Department of Architecture on June 10, 1977, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Architecture Urban architecture demands a special kind of responsiveness to context, to the selfconscious and unselfconscious, built and unbuilt, forms of the city. Like the existing fabric into which it must knit itself, new urban growth must function and be understood at several scales: at the scale of its own site boundaries; at the scale of its immediate context--the street and block; at the scale of its larger context, the neighborhood and sometimes the city as a whole; and also with reference to time and to the history of place with which cities are so richly endowed. The purpose of my thesis has been to pursue the implications of this many-layered contextualism by adapting a block of historic buildings for contemporary uses and by filling a gap in the block with a new structure that is true both to its own time and to its historic setting. The site is the Schermerhorn Row Block on Lower Manhattan's East River waterfront, just south of the Brooklyn Bridge. It is part of the South Street Seaport Historic District. iv The thesis was developed by cycling through three distinct but interdependent parts: ---reuse of the existing buildings; ---design of an infill building for the underused corner of the block; ---streetscape design for Burling Slip, the open space adjacent to the southeast edge of the block. The historic significance of the site has served to underscore, and sometimes clarify, the central design issue posed at every scale of the thesis: How much THEN versus what kind of NOW? Thesis Supervisor Donlyn Lyndon Professor of Architecture ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS V I have leaned gratefully on the preliminary work done by Giorgio Cavaglieri in his 1973 design for the N.Y. State Maritime Museum, and on the critique of this work offered by the State Historic Preservation Commission. I am also gratefully indebted to at least the following people: Donlyn Lyndon, whose understanding of the meaning of architectural humanism reflects the very best of architectural education at M.I.T. Bob Slattery, whose architecture wholeheartedly embodies that humanism Kyu Sung Woo, whose clarity of perception orders the trickiest issues of urban use and form Imre Halasz, whose skilled experience continually kicks open the doors of the ivory tower Special thanks to Jack Myer, who teaches people to design buildings with heart and soul. To the generous time and effort of Susan Myers, Lisa Heschong and Peter Dubin; to Pat Bjorklund's secret typing skills; to the talk, crits and moral support of my fellow thesis students, Jenny, Kosta, Marcia, Chip, Kevin, Taylor, Hermon--all of whom made it possible for me to someday emerge from Room 3-442. To.Bob Seidman, as always, only moreso. INTRODUCTION 6 Schermerhorn Row is the architectural show- piece of the South Street Seaport historic district, a seven-block area on the East River waterfront just south of the Brooklyn Bridge. These seven blocks of small, 19th century warehouse buildings are virtually all that remains of Lower Manhattan's historic commercial waterfront. Here are the stores that once housed coffee, tea, and spices from all over the world, manu- factured goods, dry goods and grains shipped down the Erie Canal from the vast interior of the country; the ship chand- leries and marine suppliers; the sea cap- tains' hotels, sailors' saloons and board- inghouses; and the countinghouses that ruled New York's maritime empire in the age of sailing ships. The coming of steam-powered shipping in the 1860s gradually shifted the maritime focus to deeper waters along the Hudson, and the East River seaport began the slow decline which now finds these seven blocks severely deteriorated and largely abandoned. The Fulton Fish Market is one of the few healthy enterprises occupying a portion of the area, but its continued tenancy is un- certain. In 1966, the South Street Seaport Museum Viewof SouthStreet was founded to preserve and display historic lookingtowardsBrooklynBridge ships and marine artifacts and "in the fromHarpeesWeekly,April20th,1878. (source- 17) blocks adjoining the piers where the ships Courtesy Museum of The City of New York. are on display, to restore a precinct of 7 historic buildings that will preserve a continuity with the past, and yet will have a contemporary life of its own." * The City of New York supported the goals of the Seaport Museum. When the office-building boom of the late 1960s threatened to gobble up the Schermerhorn Row Block, the Mayor's Office of Lower Manhattan Development Seaport Area (O.L.M.D.) intervened and devised a complex air rights transfer which preserved the Block, created a Seaport special zoning district, and gave the South Street Seaport Museum control of the two blocks opposite Schermerhorn Row on the north side of Fulton Street (Blocks 96 E & W: see page 9) But the four blocks north of Beekman Street are under no such control, and their buildings continue to deteriorate. When I worked at O.L.M.D., I developed a prelimi- nary scheme for restoring the buildings on these northern blocks, selling unfinished, "shell" space for residential use on a condominium basis, and leasing out ground floor space for retail shops. At that time, the State of New York was firmly K committed to restoring the Schermerhorn Row Block as a maritime museum; Giorgio Cavaglieri did a feasability study and preliminary design for the museum in late 1973. The South Street Seaport Development Plan, 1973, p. 2. During the last year and a half, the State's 8 as well as the City's financial troubles scuttled all these plans. And the Seaport Museum's renovation efforts, dependent on philanthropic funding, slowed almost to a standstill. At the same time, the over- bearing presence of the public sector, plus uncertainty over the future of the Fulton Fish Market, discouraged the private sector from making the kind .of investment in the area that would otherwise most likely have taken place. Today, the three blocks flanking Fulton Street are ripe for the sort of joint public/private development that resurrected Boston's Faneuil Hall Market. Such activity would prompt private renovation of the northern blocks, which will soon be pro- f tected by Landmarks designation. Yet it is still unclear whether the State of New York will pursue revised plans for a mari- time museum, or whether Schermerhorn Row will be renovated by a private, commercial developer. I began work on this thesis assuming the latter would be the case. I do not believe the Block appropriate for the sort of full-scale Maritime Museum planned in 1973; I do think, however, that selective restoration, and the building of an infill structure for public use, accom- modating exhibits on the maritime history of the area, make my proposal consistent with the goals of the State of New York as well as the obligations of any future pri- Schermerhorn V vate developer. These assumptions form the setting for my thesis, which focuses on the architectural problems of renovating Seaport Area the Schermerhorn Row Block for valid and lively reuse. 9 SEAPORT RESTORATION (Summer 1975) FLL CONSTHJCN U BLJESTOE SELKS COBBLESDE RAMNG BOLARDS 6.R.3. - Schermerhorn Row Block OFED OFFICE OF LOWER MANHATTAN DEVELOPMENT, OFFICE OF THE MAYOR, CITY OF NEW YORK 10 VIEW OF FULTON STREET - FRONT STREET (source: 19) 11 i Ii - 1 Ii IIII I' -M -mw" VIEW OF FRONT STREET - JOHN STREET (source: 19) A. F, I ag II VIEW OF SOUTH STREET - FULTON STREET (source: 19) ABOUT THE SEAPORT AREA 13 The South Street Seaport area was just grazed by the Lower Manhattan office- building boom which started in the mid-1960s, largely in response to plans for a new sub- way along Water Street, and which screeched to a halt in the early 70's with the City's real estate and general financial crisis. Toward the end of the boom, plans were un- veiled for Manhattan Landing, a mixed office/commercial/recreational/residential development along the East River waterfront from the Battery to Brooklyn Bridge.