Here we have a row of old walk-up tenements that have survived amid the skyscrapers of Wall Street. Which one of these buildings is an entrance to a parking garage? It’s not immediately obvious unless you see the modest signs advertising parking. At right is a picture of what remains of 211 Pearl Street, between Platt Street and Maiden Lane in the Financial District. The building was demolished to make way for a 100-space parking garage for 2 Gold Street, a new residential tower in the building’s backyard. But the developers of the building saved 211′s pedestrian-scaled facade, which now cleverly hides the garage as far out of sight as possible and keeps the street wall intact. They even went so far as to put some kind of stuff behind the windows to make it look like there’s something in there. Of course, it would have been better to have built a tower without a garage at all, or to have kept 211 Pearl intact as a walk-up. But those restrictions may have prevented 650 apartments from being built in a 51-story tower that helps to bring a 24-hour presence of activity to this central business district, and densifies residential patterns above mass transit. This project shows how balanced preservation and development can work together to improve the built environment. There are reports that the developer, the Rockrose Development Corp., is planning two more buildings on that block. One hopes that they’ll continue to develop with the historical context of this area in mind.
- 2 Gold Street [Rockrose]
- Rumblings & Bumblings Responses: Lotta Shit [Curbed]
- Rockrose plans two more buildings near 2 Gold [The Real Deal]
That guy on the bike is cracking me up!