UNStudio Designing New Amsterdam Plein & Pavilion
The project will be funded through a grant from the government of Kingdom of the Netherlands to The Battery Conservancy.
Nicholas Tamarin -- Interior Design, 2/16/2009 12:00:00 AM
The Netherlands and New York are going Dutch on a dramatic public hub to be built for this year's NY400 celebration, which will commemorate the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's arrival in New York Harbor.
UNStudio principal Ben van Berkel, one of Holland's most prominent architects. will design the 5,000-square-foot New Amsterdam Plein & Pavilion. It will be located on the Battery, the 25-acre park overlooking New York Harbor that was the arrival site for Dutch settlers when they arrived at the tip of Manhattan Island in 1626 to form New Amsterdam.
Van Berkel's design calls for a flower-shaped pavilion within the Battery's Peter Minuit Plaza, named for the Dutch director-general who consolidated early settlements at the tip of Manhattan in 1626. It will rest on a stone-paved platform, or plein in Dutch, with walkways engraved with quotations from Russell Shorto's book The Island at the Center of the World. A carved stone map of Castello's New Amsterdam will be placed at the entrance to the Plein, while its open space will feature UNStudio-designed tables and chairs. The structure will also be equipped with an electronic LED façade that will project a constantly changing nocturnal light show.
"With New Amsterdam Plein & Pavilion, we are delighted to continue our mission of design excellence, and honored to bring to New Yorkers and guests from around the world the joy of nature, the pleasure in community and the value of great modern architecture," says The Battery Conservancy president Warrie Price.
The project will be made possible by a grant from the government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the Battery Conservancy as part of the joint Dutch-American celebration. Following the festivities, the pavilion will serve as a multipurpose facility for public activities, markets, food, information--and that favorite Dutch pastime of sitting in the shade.
"It is our hope that New Amsterdam Plein & Pavilion will become a permanent Dutch legacy in New York City, and a nod to the future as well as our shared history," adds Gajus Schitema, consul general of the Netherlands in New York. "It marks the celebration of 400 years of friendship between our nation and this great American metropolis."
Renderings courtesy of UNStudio.
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