If that happens, we could be sending out requests for proposals at this time next year, said Schwartz. In hopes of resolving some of these issues by generating design alternatives, Manhattan s Community Board 2 and the Van Alen Institute co-sponsored a design competition. An exhibition opening at the Institute on March 30 will provide further opportunity to review these proposals for this critical waterside site. There are lots of conflicting ideas solutions in terms of program, a number offered ways of preserving at least part of the extant pier, thus creating structural hybrids as well. There s a major building there and the community wants a park, said juror Glenn Smith, a Boston-based urban designer and landscape architect.
Some mediation is the solution.
The two camps were those who kept portions of the structure and those who proposed total demolition. None of them did a complete job of solving the problem, commented fellow juror and landscape architect Judith Heintz, seconding the notion that a middle ground should be found and lauding those entries that attempted this. It was the largest pre-cast structure in the world when it was built, Hardy pointed out. Structural engineer and juror Leroy Callendar believes the pier can be reduced to an elegant frame rather simply. Leaving the frame as a pergola was a lovely and doable solution.