South Street Seaport plans look for LPC nod

The South Street Seaport in its current form is not long for this world, it seems, the New York Times reported. In a hearing yesterday with the Landmarks Preservation Commission, owner the Howard Hughes Corporation outlined its ambitious plans to “turn Pier 17 into a glass-clad shed dominated by two 60,000-square-foot sales floors on the upper level,” the Times said, which would mean that no large-scale retailers could be accommodated. And so far, the LPC seems receptive.

“We have in the past supported demolition when the trade-off is the new building is just as significant, if not more so,” Pablo Vengoechea, vice chairman of the LPC, said at the hearing.

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Others retained their doubts, hinting that the troubled development, which has never made a profit, according to the Times, might have deeper flaws. “Do people shop on piers?” Frederick Bland, a commissioner with the LPC asked at the hearing.“Is putting a bunch of global generic shops on the pier the answer?” [NYT]