Push to Turn Lowly Tribeca Traffic Triangle into Long-Awaited Oasis

Barnett Newman Triangle today, left, and a concept rendering of how it might be reenvisioned. Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib (today); Friends of Barnett Newman Triangle (rendering)

For many years a Tribeca traffic triangle has carried the lofty name of famed Abstract Expressionist Barnett Newman. But its place among neighborhood public spaces remains lowly and neglected.

Now a new non-profit group, Friends of Barnett Newman Triangle Plaza, has plans to change that.

Community Board 1 this month gave its unanimous support to the group’s goal to transform the homely, block-long triangle, between Sixth Avenue and Church Street, and White and Franklin streets, into a green plaza with seating, plantings and permeable pavers. Newman overlooked the triangle from his last studio, across the street at 35 White St. He died in 1970 at the age of 65.

Alice Blank, an architect who is the CB1 vice chair and a founder of the friends group, bemoaned the plaza’s neglect over many years and calls its condition unsafe. “Friends of Barnett Newman Plaza are looking to create a great community place that celebrates nature and art and implements critically needed green infrastructure,” she told CB1’s Waterfront, Parks and Cultural Committee.

The schematic plan calls for creating a path through a series of small alcoves with tables, and a bench that wraps around the space, which would be buffered by plantings. The triangle would be expanded to occupy what now are parking lanes on the 6th Avenue and Church Street sides.

“You have this very verdant park that calls out to people moving towards it and then through the series of spaces,” said Marie Stargala, an architect who worked on the plan. 

“Rather than just moving through,” she added, “it’s a place where people can actually enjoy the space, where they could meet, have small events, or even exhibit art within these small plazas.” 

Stargala said the schematic design was partly informed by some of Newman’s work, including “Jericho,” completed in 1969, which depicts a red line running down the middle of a black triangle.

Three city agencies, the departments of Transportation, Parks, and Environmental Protection, have joint jurisdiction over the tiny space. It is unique for being part of both the city’s Green Infrastructure Program (formerly Green Streets), which converts traffic islands into green spaces, and the city’s Plaza Program, which turns underutilized streets into public spaces.

“Despite the esteemed city definitions of these two programs,” Blank said, “Barnett Newman is still the only Green Street in Lower Manhattan that has essentially no green, no trees, no plantings, no resilient surface, and is not in any way a vibrant public space.” 

Representatives for DEP and DOT did not respond to requests for comment about the CB1 resolution. A spokeswoman for the Parks Department said in an email, “We look forward to reviewing the proposal alongside our sister agencies.” 

Advocates for the plaza say that the space never got the help it needed because DDG Partners, the developer of 100 Franklin Street, the building across 6th Avenue, reneged on a promise in 2014 to beautify and maintain it in exchange for CB1 support for a variance it needed for the proposed building. The developer was seeking to build two residential buildings at 100 Franklin St. on a single zoning lot. 

DDG Partners did not respond to a request for comment.

If DDG Partners continues to disregard its commitment to help the plaza, CB1 says in its resolution, city agencies, partly through the discretionary funds of elected officials, should provide “necessary resources and personnel to expedite the project.”

The triangle got its name through a contest sponsored by The Tribeca Trib in early 1999. Two of the more than 80 entries, from sculptor Bryan Hunt on White Street, and Michael Kramer, whose father owned an audio store at 35 White Street and knew Newman, suggested Newman for the naming. On Nov. 22, 1999, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani signed the name into law.

The Trib announced the contest, along with a photo of the triangle, on the cover of its December 1998 issue. “Barren and barely noticed,” the cover line read, “this sad concrete isle at Church and Franklin streets is Tribeca’s last triangle without a name. You can help it find a greener future by giving it an official identity.”

That “sad isle” has had an identity for 25 years. Now Friends of Barnett Newman Triangle are looking to finally give it a greener future, too.