Whose Downtown Is It Anyway?

A proposal to replace a public plaza with an office building in Lower Manhattan brings up the question: does the downtown belong to residents or to businesses?

1 minute read

February 28, 2001, 10:00 AM PST

By Abhijeet Chavan @http://twitter.com/legalaidtech

Apartment dwellers need open space. Investment banks need trading space. And in Lower Manhattan, where every inch isprecious, the two needs are colliding over an elevated one-acre public plaza.The Goldman Sachs Group proposes to eliminate the 28-year-old plaza...and replace it with a 240-foot-high building...Which invites a question as the fight over 55 Water Street goes before the City Planning Commission today: just whose downtown is it, anyway? By community, does one mean the residential pioneers who came to settle an embryonic neighborhood, or a business that can trace its history in Lower Manhattan to 1869, when Marcus Goldman set up shop on Pine Street?

Thanks to Abhijeet Chavan

FULL STORY: Goldman Sachs Seeks to Turn Open Space Into Trading Space

Wednesday, February 28, 2001 in The New York Times

Land Use New York

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

Get top-rated, practical training

Start Learning

Advertise with us

Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools

This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.