a committee and task force member and head of the Battery Park City Dog Owners Association.

Anthony Notaro, the chair of the committee, also called the plan a disappointment. But Claire Weisz, the project's architect, and Stephanie Gelb, the Authority's vice president for planning and design, said that creating the larger dog run would require moving walls and repositioning a ramp that runs from the plaza to the esplanade, which would cost too much.

"It involved significant structural change," Gelb said. "It wasn't as simple as it looked in a drawing."

The plan also includes a new 3,500-square-foot tot lot, several times the size of the existing one, which would be constructed on the western edge of the plaza. That area, known as the bosk, now has trees and benches but is underused. The playground might include a sandbox, swings, a maze and a tunnel, Weisz said.

But design details for the dog run and the tot lot have yet to be worked out, Weisz said.

The plaza, between the North Cove marina and the Gateway Plaza residential complex, will also be enhanced with new trees and planters, moveable tables and chairs, and L-shaped arbor with a trellis, climbing vines, and seating underneath. In addition to beautifying the plaza, the plantings will help muffle sound from the dog run and playground.

"Right now, the overwhelming feeling of the space is of a hard, concrete landscape," Weisz said. "The goal is to make it feel like a place that you can sit and have lunch, and the most important element to do that is to add greenery and add shading structures.

The plaza, formerly called Pumphouse Plaza, is the roof of an underground water pumping station that used to supply heating and cooling water to the World Trade Center and that the Port Authority wants to preserve for possible future use. Since before Sept. 11, the plaza surface has needed to be waterproofed and repaved.

Since the plaza had to be ripped up anyway, the Authority decided to enhance it with the new landscaping, and proposed adding the dog run. Initially the Authority suggested putting the dog run in the bosk area, but some Gateway residents protested, raising concerns about noise under their windows.

That led to the creation last spring of the task force, which came up with the suggestion to move the dog run to where the existing tot lot is, further away from Gateway, and to build a playground.

At the March 4 meeting, Galloway also pointed out that children play catch and enjoy other kinds of "informal play" on the main part of the plaza, and said, "I would think twice about adding obstructions, like new planters, and taking away open space."

Weisz and Gelb agreed to consult with the Dog Owners Association and the Battery Park City Parents Association as they flesh out design details for all the elements. The final design will have to be approved by the Authority's board of directors and will be brought back to Community Board 1 for review.

If the final designs can be completed and approved in time, construction is scheduled to begin this fall and the plaza, with the dog run and new tot lot, should be open in the spring of next year. The Authority prefers do the work during the winter, when windows are closed, shutting out noise and dust.

The project, expected to cost $2 million, with $1.2 million of that going toward demolition and reconstruction of the plaza surface, was intended for the fall of 2001 but was delayed because of
Sept. 11.