South Street Seaport, Pier 17 | SHoP Architects

Architecture, Landscape & Urban planning, Mixed Use

South Street Seaport, Pier 17

SHoP’s proposal for the Seaport District provides a vision of restoration and revitalization for this historic waterfront neighborhood. While South Street Seaport is currently a waterfront access hub for commuters, boaters, and tourists, it is also home to long-neglected historical elements and impediments to foot traffic.

Photography By Ty Cole

The principal of this mixed-use project is to extend the Manhattan city fabric toward the water, defying the current barriers created by South Street and the FDR drive, and creating continuous pedestrian connections and increased waterfront access. The addition of retail, residential, cultural, and educational facilities will transform the waterfront area to an essential asset for the community and the city.

Courtesy Of SHoP Architects

Two large floors stretch out above the small shops as a roof, each measuring 60,000 sq. ft. Enormous glass garage-style doors descend in bad weather to seal in the lower levels of the complex, offering protection from the elements but still opening up previously blocked views of the Brooklyn Bridge.

C. Taylor Crothers Photography, Courtesy of Bendheim

An extended esplanade, retail on both sides of South Street, and activation of the space under the FDR will invite foot traffic outside of the Manhattan city grid and toward the water. Restoration of the historic Tin Building will breathe new vitality into a long-neglected structure and provide a plaza and marketplace in a previously abandoned space.

Courtesy of Bendheim

The residential building on the New Market site will complement both the history and future of the Seaport in its aesthetic and materiality, and will include retail spaces as well as a school on its lower levels.