Trinity Brainstorming Its New Building into Existence
At the first charette, participants offer ideas for the new parish building at one of the theme tables in St. Paul’s Chapel. Photo: Trinity Wall Street
The leaders of Trinity Church are getting lots of inspiration these days, and it’s not all divine.
Well over 100 people from within and outside the congregation are weighing in on what will be at least a five- or six-story multipurpose parish building that is slated to replace the church’s two 92-year-old structures at 68-74 Trinity Pl., next to the former American Stock Exchange.
Just what should go in that building—aside from Trinity offices that will be consolidated there—is the subject of a series of unusual community conversations that will culminate in the presentation of designs for the building in September.
“It’s brave and innovative of them to open up the discussion of their headquarters and invite the community, not one but six times, in a public dialogue, listening to what the needs are of the community,” Catherine McVay Hughes, the Community Board 1 chair, told the gathering last month in St. Paul’s Chapel.
Beekeeping on the roof? Cabaret theater? A climbing wall? A library? A temporary homeless shelter? These are among hundreds of ideas offered in two “charettes,” or public brainstorming sessions, held at the chapel in February and March, with suggestions arriving online as well.
Seated at tables organized by themes—athletics and wellness, arts and performance, community outreach, education, gathering spaces—participants voiced their ideas, which were written down and later presented to the whole group, highlighting common themes that were emerging.
The discussions are being facilitated by staff from Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, the firm that will design the structure. It is their job to help winnow down the wide-ranging ideas and turn them into a physical layout.
“They’re going to take our hopes and dreams around the programming and then translate them into a building for us,” Rev. William Lupfer, Trinity Wall Street’s newly installed rector, told the group before the start of the first charette.
Fred Clarke, a principal of the firm, deemed the process “messy” but assured participants that it was under control.
“It might get scary at moments,” he warned them. “It might appear that things are not coming together where there are more ideas out there than are possible to fit into this site or [you] can possibly afford. But don't worry about it.”
“It’s our job to bring substance and vision to your ideas,” he added.
In September 2013, the firm and church leaders had an initial vision for the project that was not well received. There was dissent among some parishioners and objections from members of Community Board 1, among others.
In preliminary renderings presented to a CB1 committee and promoted by Trinity’s then-rector, the Rev. James Cooper, the Pelli Clarke Pelli plan showed a glass-and-steel parish building topped by a 400-foot-high glass residential tower. Revenue from the tower would finance the parish building.
Some saw the tower, designed to stand 70 feet taller than Trinity’s current building, as an unsightly presence behind historic Trinity Church when viewed from Wall Street.
“The last thing [people] need to see is another building in the Wall Street area that looks like it’s on East 59th Street,” said Financial District Committee member Joel Kopel.
Peg Breen, president of the New York Landmarks Conservancy, called the design a “shiny box backdrop” to the church and a poor replacement for the existing buildings.
Now the future of a residential tower is yet to be determined and, according to Clarke, the not-yet-designed parish building will not be glass and chrome.
“I can absolutely assure you of that,” he told the gathering at the second charette. “Our inspiration will come from Trinity Church itself. The Trinity grounds are warm, they’re welcoming, they have warm hues, bronze hues, certainly not cold chrome colors. That’s the opposite of what we want.”
As for the tower, the church’s vestry or governing body, had four choices, according to Lupfer. One of them was to rehabilitate the current building, but at $70 million it was deemed too costly. And they rejected the idea of a condo tower above the parish space. “We would have to sell the ground under us and we don’t want to do that, either,” he said.
Lupfer said church leaders are now trying to choose between building a rental tower over the new parish building or have no tower at all.
“As we’re doing this,” he told the group at the beginning of the second charette, “our vestry has a parallel process of discovery and discernment about how a rental tower would affect all of this brainstorming that we’re doing.”
The next public meeting takes place at St. Paul’s Chapel, Broadway and Fulton Street, on May 2, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. During that time, broad themes from the first two meetings will be discussed along with design priorities for the first floor.
“This is a rare opportunity to make the building yours,” Lupfer told the gathering. “So please take advantage of it.”
For more information on participating, either in person or online, in what the church is calling a “community conversation,” go to trinitywallstreet.org.