A View of the World Trade Center Site from the Hudson River.
Studies
In addition to the Innovative design studies conducted
for the World Trade Center site, an integral part of
LMDC's efforts to revitalize Lower Manhattan are a series
of studies that will identify short-term and long-term
solutions to the challenges facing Lower Manhattan's
neighborhoods in the wake of September 11, 2001. The
studies in progress are described below:
Housing Study:
This study will focus on the area immediately south
of the World Trade Center site. Identification of key
sites for new housing, either through conversion of
obsolete office space or through construction of new
units, will serve to enhance the residential population
of Lower Manhattan. An increased residential population
will help to build a strong basis for the development
of a vibrant new mixed-use neighborhood that will complement
and benefit from the development at the World Trade
Center site.
Chinatown Transportation
and Traffic Improvements Study: Since September
11, road closures throughout Chinatown have severed
crucial links to the Financial District and other areas
south of the Brooklyn Bridge. Additionally, outmoded
infrastructure, congestion, and other transportation
and traffic-related problems have converged to inhibit
Chinatown's economic and social activity. Developing
solutions to these and related problems will help encourage
stronger commercial and social activity between Chinatown
and other areas of Lower Manhattan.
Fulton Corridor
Retail and Arts / Entertainment District: Directly
east of the World Trade Center site, the Fulton Street
Corridor could become a premier retail, arts and entertainment
thoroughfare for Lower Manhattan. Even before September
11, 2001, Fulton Street functioned as a traffic artery
and souvenir spot for tourists shuffling between the
World Trade Center and the South Street Seaport, and
as a place where local office workers could obtain discounted
merchandise during work breaks and lunch hours. Moreover,
a dense network of subway lines (A, C, E, J, M, Z, 2,
3, 4, 5) situated beneath Fulton Street makes this corridor
an unofficial transit hub for Lower Manhattan.
However, Fulton Street lies mostly empty during evenings
and weekends, once tourists retreat to hotels, and office
workers leave for home and for places offering a greater
variety of nighttime entertainment and leisure options.
Nevertheless, a growing number of residential conversions
and new construction projects have begun to change the
character of the Fulton Corridor. Currently, more than
5,600 units of housing sustain a small, but promising
residential base within the Fulton Corridor. Development
of an effective urban design strategy could affect a
series of major improvements for the Fulton Corridor.
These improvements could include: increasing the number
of housing units; diversifying retail, arts and entertainment
activity; creating new usable open spaces; and generating
round-the-clock street life. LMDC revitalization efforts
will combine with proposed MTA efforts to transform
an outmoded and overloaded Fulton subway network into
a state-of-the art transit hub and major point of arrival
for Lower Manhattan. Above all, a revitalized Fulton
Corridor could transform Fulton Street into a river-to-river
east-west thoroughfare, linking the new World Trade
Center and Hudson riverfront with areas east of Broadway
all the way to the South Street Seaport area, and the
East River.