Field of dreams (how big?) at Gansevoort
BY MICHELE HERMAN
Vacant 5.5-acre chunks of
prime Manhattan landfi
ll with river views on
three sides don’t come along
often. I went to a Community
Board 2 presentation
at the Greenwich Village
Middle School, at 75
Morton St., last week to
learn more about what’s
in store for the one at
Gansevoort Peninsula
near the northwestern
edge of the Village.
This rectangular
parcel that juts into the
Hudson is in the process
of becoming part of Hudson
River Park now that the
Department of Sanitation facilities
that used to sit on it have
been demolished.
Needless to say, different constituencies
are drooling at the possibilities being
presented by the new section of the
park. Actually, to judge by those in the
audience of roughly 100 who spoke up
during the question-and-answer period
after the presentation, there are mostly
two constituencies: the large, well-organized
school soccer-team community
(parents, coaches, league directors and
after-school program organizers) fi ghting
for the biggest possible ball fi eld,
and assorted others quietly advocating
on behalf of passive green space.
Some things at C.B. 2 never change.
The faces of the soccer proponents
were mostly new since I last attended a
meeting, but their ardor was the same
as ever. However, I was pleasantly surprised
by the civil, even good-natured
tone of the meeting.
The fi rst brave, witty soul to speak
out for passive green space began his
statement by saying, “Can I risk being
lynched?” The second said to the soccer
people, “I know you’ll win, but a
ball fi eld is exclusionary. I’m advocating
for everyone else. As we teach our
kids: You have to share.”
The Hudson River Park Trust, the
park’s governing state-city authority,
hired James Corner Field Operations, a
landscape architecture fi rm known for
connecting city dwellers to nature and
for integrating culture and history into
its designs, to come up with a concept.
Field Operations’ presentation followed
up on the initial one in March, with
a third scheduled for Sept. 4. The design
process is somewhere in the middle stages,
which means there is a basic concept
and many lovely color sketches, but still
some wiggle room as the designers continue
to refi ne the concept and respond
to community feedback. According to
Noreen Doyle, the Trust’s executive vice
president, Gansevoort’s construction
budget of $50 million is in place and the
building of the park is expected to take
one and a half to two years.
COURTESY JAMES CORNER FIELD OPERATIONS
A rendering of the “Upper Beach”
at Gansevoort, playing paddle
ball and relaxing in view of David
Hammons’s “Day’s End”
sculpture.
A
space of
5.5 acres (an
acre smaller than
Union Square) may
seem like a lot, but Lisa
Tziona Switkin, senior
principal at Field Operations,
explained that the
designers and engineers
have to work with a large
number of conditions and givens.
The givens include passive
recreation, no commercial uses or
development, a beach, a maintenanceand
operations building, a comfort
station, a concession and a permanent
art installation by David Hammons —
sponsored by the Whitney Museum of
American Art — that is at once enormous
and unobtrusive, because it’s a
stainless-steel ghost frame of the pier
shed that once stood on the peninsula’s
southern edge.
The conditions consist of unexpectedly
lively wave action on Gansevoort’s
south side, as revealed by underwater
modeling, which makes the dream of an
actual sand beach unachievable. Instead
there will likely be sand yielding to new
riprap (loosely packed rocks or concrete
chunks) at the shoreline. Other conditions
include the C.S.O. regulator (the
underground sewage drainage system);
unstable soil (the technical term, Switkin
explained, is “pudding”) on both
the north and south edges of the 19thcentury
landfi ll; the recently installed
Spectra high-pressure gas pipeline,
and the Fire Department road and
turnaround that has to accommodate
the largest fi re trucks,
which connects to the fi reboat
station at Gansevoort’s
northwestern corner.
As currently conceived,
the park would
include a ball fi eld with
artifi cial turf in the
center of the space, oriented
east-west and elevated
somewhat above
the level of the manmade
peninsula. The building
housing the M&O,
restrooms and concession
would be on the inland side
and broken into three separate
low-slung structures to allow for
views between them, with a single
green roof above. To the north the designers
envision a series of salt marsh
“nooks”; the unavoidable
COURTESY JAMES CORNER FIELD OPERATIONS
A rendering of Gansevoort Peninsula
redeveloped with a park
and sports field, viewed from the
southwest.
fi re road leading to the Fire Department
boat stationhouse, softened with
lawns and gardens; an outdoor “gym”
with exercise equipment, and a dog run
that, at 250 feet, would actually be long
enough for running. To the west there
would be furniture — including seating
— and trees, a rolling lawn for sunset
views and a picnic grove. To the south
there would be kayak access (though
no rentals), tidal pools for education
and exploration, and the beach. Switkin
said she hopes some of the trees
would be willows, which can thrive in
sandy soil.
The aforementioned wiggle room in
the design comes down mostly to the
size of the ball fi eld. As young soccer
players grow, they require bigger fi elds,
with designations that correspond to
kids’ ages. There is plenty of room on
Gansevoort for baseball and for two
U-10 (“under age 10”) soccer practice
fi elds. One U-11 fi ts comfortably, and
one U-12 fi ts. The trouble is that a U-13
fi eld — which is full size for middle-
and high-school kids but still not big
enough for regulation playoffs — does
not fi t on the peninsula without cutting
into some of the passive features and
probably eliminating the space for the
outdoor gym.
The soccer supporters are pushing
hard for the largest fi eld. Jacqui Getz,
principal of the 75 Morton middle
school, wrote a letter of support, noting
the school will be adding an additional
grade in the fall for a total of 900
students.
“We have no access to a fi eld; there’s
a shortage,” Getz wrote. “Kids commute
two hours back and forth to East
River Park to play an hour of sports.
We urge the full-sized fi eld so we can
serve the local community.”
Others chimed in with evermore
dire statistics. There
are only four U-13 fi elds in
the city. There are only
three gyms Downtown
to serve nine schools.
Those fi elds are booked
seven days a week for
10 hours, so overused
that they have become
unhygienic. Downtown
Soccer League will have
to turn kids away for the
fi rst time.
What’s more, virtually
all those overbooked fi elds
are slated to close soon for
work or renovation. East River
Park, with its playing fi elds,
is expected to be off limits for four
years due the East Side Coastal Resiliency
Project. Meanwhile, the fi gure
being tossed around for the eventual
redevelopment of Pier 40, at W. Houston
St., with its huge playing fi eld, is
eight years.
Switkin and Doyle both took pains
to assure the audience that the U-13 option
is on the table.
“We are not trying to be evasive,”
Switkin said. “The large fi eld is an option
but it’s not as fully developed yet.
We are hoping for consensus tonight.”
There were also many questions
about drainage of the fi eld, since Gansevoort
Peninsula fl ooded during Hurricane
Sandy, and the artifi cial turf
fi elds at Pier 40 get soaked and unusable
when it rains.
Sounding like a prophet, Kevin
Quinn, the Trust’s senior vice president,
said, “This fi eld will drain, so
help me.”
6 August 1, 2019 CNW Schneps Media