Battery Park City: Politics and Planning on the New York Waterfront

by David L. A. Gordon

Overview

Battery Park City in Manhattan has been hailed as a triumph of urban design, and is considered to be one of the success stories of American urban redevelopment planning. The flood of praise for its design, however, can obscure the many lessons from the long struggle to develop the project. Nothing was built on the site for more than a decade after the first master plan was approved, and the redevelopment agency flirted with bankruptcy in 1979.
Taking a practice-oriented approach, the book examines the role of planning and development agencies in implementing urban waterfront redevelopment. It focuses upon the experience of the central actor - the Battery Park City Authority (BPCA) - and includes personal interviews with executives of the BPCA, former New York mayors John Lindsay and Ed Koch, key public officials, planners, and developers. Describing the political, financial, planning, and implementation issues faced by public agencies and private developers from 1962 to 1993, it is both a case study and history of one of the most ambitious examples of urban waterfront redevelopment.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781136647604
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	11/12/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	145
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

David L. A. Gordon

Table of Contents

1., Dueling Plans: Proposals for the Lower Hudson Waterfront, 2. Department of Marine and Aviation Plan, 3. Governor Rockefeller's Proposal - Battery Park City, 4. The City and State Negotiate, 5. The 1969 Master Development Plan, 6. Physical Design Cost Estimates, 7. Designating Developers 8. Funding the Authority, 9. Stalling Out: 1972-1979, 10. The Real Estate Market Collapse The New York City Fiscal Crisis, 11. The 1979 Master Plan 12. Building Battery Park City 13. Gateway Plaza 14. The World Financial Center, 15. Public Spaces and Facilities, 16. Issues for the Twenty-First Century, 17. Corporate Structure, 18. Why Battery Park City Matters, 19. The Downtown-Lower Manhattan Association, 20. Plan Implementation, 21. Affordable Housing 22. Recharging Battery Park City: 1979-1982

Editorial Reviews

Superbly designed for economic development professionals [and] urban design and planning firms.

Mitchell L. Moss

Gordon argues that Battery Park City is a remarkably successful urban development project, and that its implemented plan, prepared largely by Cooper Eckstut Associates, was an admiral combination of postmodern and new urbanist development.

Journal

A case study of a success story of American urban redevelopment planning, focusing on the experience of the Battery Park City Authority. Examines the role of planning and development agencies in implementing urban waterfront redevelopment at Battery Park City, New York, and describes the political, financial, planning, and implementation issues faced by public agencies and private developers from 1962 to 1993. Includes b&w photos, a chronology, and fold-out tables of financial statistics. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Booknews

"Gordon argues that Battery Park City is a remarkably successful urban development project, and that its implemented plan, prepared largely by Cooper Eckstut Associates, was an admiral combination of postmodern and new urbanist development." - Journal of American Planning Association

" Superbly designed for economic development professionals [and] urban design and planning firms." - Mitchell L. Moss, New York University

From the Publisher