Streetscape Makeovers Near Exchange

By Nick Pinto
POSTED APRIL 1, 2008

Make New York’s financial heart safe from terrorists, but beautify the streets and make them more friendly to pedestrians, too.

That was the city’s charge to Rogers Marvel Architects, whose designs for handsome sculptural bollards and “euro-cobble” are already in place near the New York Stock Exchange. The bollards replaced concrete barriers and large trucks filled with sand that blocked intersections and protected the exchange after Sept. 11.

Architect Rob Rogers returned to Community Board 1 last month to explain the firm’s designs for the next phase of work.

The new designs evoke the neighborhood’s grand history, which stretches back to the earliest days of New Amsterdam, when Wall Street earned its name from the stockade that ringed the southern tip of Manhattan. The wall only stood for about 50 years, and its configuration appears to have shifted significantly over that time. But based on their best approximation of its location, the designers plan to embed edge-cut woodblock pavers among the cobblestones of Wall Street to indicate where the wall had been.

Rogers said his team has similar plans for Broad Street.

“The reason Broad Street was so broad was that originally it had a canal running down the middle,” he said. “The Dutch who built New Amsterdam sort of thought you needed canals to make a city.”

To recall the canal, the architects plan to install a black granite inlayed pathway down the middle of Broad Street.

Along with the ornamental paving work, the renovation of Broad Street will include new traffic restrictions. Under the new security regime, the primary entrance for vehicles will be from Beaver Street.

Asked if the new pedestrian-friendly street might be a good place for vendors to set up shop, Rogers demurred.

“The PD [Police Department] is reluctant to encourage more vendors in the district,” he said. The space could be suitable for a greenmarket, however, he added.

This phase of the project received the go-ahead from the Landmarks Preservation Commission March 4. The architects said they anticipate the work on Broad Street to begin in the late fall.

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