On Edge: The West Village Waterfront
Join us via Zoom Webinar on December 4th for a special evening with landscape architect and historic preservationist John T. Krawchuk, in conversation with Village Preservation’s Andrew Berman and Dena Tasse-Winter, as we explore the West Village waterfront on the brink of radical change and redevelopment in the early 1990s. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER.
In the early 1990s, the West Village waterfront was on the precipice of change. This western edge of the city, which had for decades been defined by its industrial architecture and connection to a working waterfront, was by then, in many ways, at risk of losing this tangible history. The area’s unique mix of residential, maritime, and early commercial and industrial buildings of the 19th and early 20th centuries remained largely intact, but a significant proportion of them had become redundant, and lay vacant or decaying.
John T. Krawchuck carefully documented these conditions for his Master of Science in Historic Preservation thesis at Columbia University, “On Edge: The West Village Waterfront,” completed in 1995. In the thesis, he presented the history of the development of the area into the 19th century, describing its natural terrain, evolution into farmland, introduction of transportation technology including maritime and rail, growth of its built forms (streets and infrastructure), the creation of the West Washington and Gansevoort Markets, further development spurred by interaction with passenger ships, and its ultimate industrial decline.
Krawchuck went on to explore the area’s post-World War II conditions, and how the loss of maritime activity during that period left the area susceptible to various urban renewal proposals. During the 1960s, Jane Jacobs’ influence led to several important projects near the waterfront. Krawchuk outlined this period in the area as redevelopment (urban renewal proposals), reaction (community response and Jane Jacobs), rehabilitation (including the creation of Westbeth), the designation of the Greenwich Village Historic District in 1969, the Westway/Route 9a proposal, and the development of Hudson River Park.
Finally, Krawchuk assessed possible future outcomes for the waterfront, including the potential for updated zoning and preservation regulations. Krawchuk reviewed the provisions of the 197a Plan, which was produced by Community Board 2 as a plan that would “protect valuable resources and plan future development along the waterfront.” He concluded by both reviewing existing information and putting forth new ideas for how to preserve this unprotected part of the neighborhood, including the potential for a historic district or districts that would encompass the waterfront’s edge.
Today, nearly 30 years since Krawchuk completed his thesis, while some parts of the Far West Village remain without landmark designation status, much of it (at least those remaining historic structures) has both landmark and zoning protections thanks to vigorous campaigns over the last 25 years. Village Preservation led the successful campaign for landmark designation of the Gansevoort Market Historic District in 2003, which lies just east of the waterfront and north of the Greenwich Village Historic District, and represents an integral layer of the industrial and commercial history of the area. Krawchuk’s photo documentation of the area helped lay the foundation for this and other efforts.
Village Preservation has also led efforts to get several individual landmarks in the neighborhood designated, including Westbeth (in 2011), 159 Charles Street House (2007), 354 West 11th Street House (2007), the Keller Hotel (2007), and the F.W. Devoe & Co. Factory at 110-112 Horatio Street (2008), as well as the Weehawken Street Historic District (2006), which encompasses about a dozen buildings along West Street between Christopher and West 10th Streets. Perhaps most importantly, we succeeded in achieving landmark designation for the Greenwich Village Historic District Extension I in 2006, which expanded the existing historic district into this area.
You can read John Krawchuk’s thesis in full here, and view his incredible photographs of the West Village waterfront in the early 1990s here – the collection is now part of Village Preservation’s Historic Image Archive (and brings back many childhood memories for this author).
Protecting the architectural and cultural history of our neighborhoods is an ongoing effort, and that continues to be the case along the West Village waterfront. In fact, just this fall plans were announced for a new development in the Meatpacking District, which may include a building that reaches up to 60 stories tall on the site of the city-owned Gansevoort Meat Market Center, one of the last remaining vestiges of the neighorhood’s meatpacking history that is located outside of the historic district, but which, if developed as initially proposed, would stand out starkly against the backdrop of the entire neighborhood, more than two-and-a-half times the height of any other building in the vicinity. Click here to find out how you can help Village Preservation oppose this inappropriate oversized development.