Developers of Gwathmey Plaza—the city’s newest and still mostly unknown privately owned public space—are taking steps to make the small plaza more inviting to users, after facing criticism earlier this fall from Community Board 1. [1]
The Moinian Group built the public plaza at Washington and Carlisle streets behind its W Hotel in exchange for rights to add nearly 60,000 square feet to the building than zoning would otherwise allow. But users had complained after the plaza opened last year that it was often littered with cigarette butts and trash, and that most of the space appeared to be private seating for a restaurant patio and burger kiosk.
“It is open to the public, but none of us can tell that it is open to the public," board member Pat Moore told the Moinian Group in October.
Next spring, the private restaurant tables will be marked off with 30-inch-high red partitions, representatives of the Moinian Group told the community board last week.
“I think having them blocked off makes it, you know with signage, makes it pretty clear,” said Michael Pisem, a development associate for Moinian.
Four of the 15 tables in front of the BLT Bar & Grill are for the public, but for most of the first season that the plaza was open, all the tables were utilized by the restaurant and had no markers to indicate they were for public use.
Moinian representative Prosha Korangy said the developer has also coordinated a team effort to improve the cleanliness of the space.
“The hotel staff, as well as the BLT staff and the residential side staff, they are all sharing shifts,” Korangy said.
The improvement was already noticeable, according to board member Susan Cole.
“It looks much better than it did,” she said.
Links:
[1] http://www.tribecatrib.com/content/fidis-newest-public-plaza-not-public-enough-users-say