WTC site damage assessment map, Sept 21, 2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

development started in the 1970s on land created from fill material excavated during the construction of the WTC North and South buildings. Battery Park City is west of West Street and extends from Battery Place to north of Chambers Street. Forming the commercial core of Battery Park City is the World Financial Center, a complex of office towers with retail uses centered by a ground-floor atrium. Flanking the World Trade Center to the north and south are residential communities with shopping and restaurants, public open spaces, a waterfi-ont esplanade and marina, the Jewish Heritage Museiun, Stuyvesant High School on the north and Pier A on the south.

The New York State Legislature created the Battery Park City Authority (BPCA), a public benefit corporation, in 1968. In 1979, title to the land of Battery Park City was transferred fi’om the City of New York to the BPCA. Since that time, parcels of land have been leased to private developers who build in accordance with the BPCA guidelines. The 1979 Master Plan for Battery Park City Authority allocated 30 percent of the area to open space—mainly public parks, plazas and the Hudson River Esplanade. The remainder is earmarked for residential units, commercial space and streets.

Accessible via the World Trade Center and the Winter Garden, is the Battery Park Esplanade along the Hudson River. Waterfi’ont recreation was among the many uses of the outside open space. Pedestrians, bicyclists, joggers, and others who strolled and rested there shared the waterfront vistas. A small marina for community boating (for sailing, kayaking and other boating, and associated upstream or downstream angling) was located at the waters edge of the World Trade Center site. Many commercial boat excursions pass by the World Trade Center site including the Circle Line, the South Street Cruise Lines, the Spirit of New York and others.

The character of the lower Manhattan is well established as a densely developed Central Business District (CBD), surrounded by substantial and varied residential neighborhoods (Figure 3-Jl). Recent trends toward changing neighborhood character through the turnover of manufacturing and loft buildings to office, retail, or residential space, will likely continue. Below Canal Street and the Manhattan Bridge, dominant, pre-disaster land uses are defined by the Wall Street financial district, the World Trade Center, Battery Park City, governmental uses of the civic center, the Tribeca mixed-use neighborhood, and portions of Chinatown and the Lower East Site. The Wall Street area, home to the New York Stock Exchange, is the heart of the downtown business district. Dense office development characterizes the area with numerous historic skyscrapers and more modem towers. In response to public policies aimed at increasing the residential character of the financial district, there have been a number of conversions of commercial buildings to residential use. The completion of Battery Park City and the conversion of older office and loft buildiiigs to a residential use have strongly influenced the area neighborhood character, as one of a dense mix of uses in a 24-hour working and living community. Notable institutions in the vicinity of the WTC site include New York Downtown Hospital, New York Law School, Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Museum of Jewish Heritage, South Street Seaport Museum, Seamen’s Church Institute, New York City Police Museum, Museum of American Financial

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