Pier 42’s Rusted-out Shed is Getting Demolished

Photo: Elisabeth Hall

The existing shed sitting atop Pier 42 is undergoing demolition. It’s the first major step, albeit years behind schedule, toward the rehabilitation and development of the waterfront park.

Indeed, the capital works project has been on the boards for five years with little to show for it but “interim programming” during warmer months. Revival is owed to the additional federal funding via the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. that helped resucitate the anemic undertaking at a cost of roughly $14 million. (Original completion date was 2016.) That all changed with recent implementation of the first phase of the project, now in two parts.

Phase 1A, as it’s called, is happening as we speak, which includes asbestos abatement and demolition of the rusted-out shed. Indeed, crews were dispatched to the job site in October to establish staging area for in the adjacent parking lot (the business operating there is now closed). The takedown process will take several months, and should wrap “late next spring” (i.e. summertime). Already, we see a large proportion of the corrugated steel roof is removed.

Pier 42 shed, September 2012

In the meantime, the architects are finalizing the design of those elements not included in the initial master plan, which comprise Phase 1B. Comfort station (aka toilets) and a children’s playground. The city (with Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects) is at the very beginning of design duties, so there aren’t many details (at least in public), other than the bathrooms will sit on elevated land (above the flood line). This part of the project will also include new plantings, lighting, and site furnishings.

The main wild card, however, is the constraint of utilities infrastructure beneath, including the sewers and Con Edison lines. (Requires 30-foot clearance on either side.)

Remember, though, that full completion is not likely until 2020 at the very least.