The Battery Conservancy News

After many years of construction, the main pedestrian thoroughfare on Peter Minuit Plaza is officially open today! This huge milestone marks the beginning of the end of a labor of love for the Battery Conservancy, NYC Dept. of Parks and Recreation, NYC Dept. of Transportation, and the Metropolitan Transit Authority.

The Plaza is New York’s premier intermodal transportation hub, hosting the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, the 1 and R subway lines, and the B5 and B20 bus lines. 70,000 commuters pass through this space daily, and the opening of this walkway will ease congestion and make visible the remarkable Plaza design, created by NYC Parks Manhattan Capital Projects.

Soon, the gardens surrounding the walkways will be planted and the first portion of the Battery Garden Bikeway opened to connect the Plaza on its east side to the East River Esplanade, and on its west side, to the Battery, which links up with the Hudson River Bikeway.

Check back soon for updates on the opening of the UNStudio’s New Amsterdam Pavilion, visible below, and the completion of Peter Minuit Plaza.

Jump into the Bosque Spiral Play Fountain …

Kids love the magic and surprise of the Bosque fountain

… sip a lemonade from Picnick and enjoy the harbor breezes.

The New York Time, Sunday June 13th:

The Wall Street Journal, Thursday, June 10th:

A Peek at a Future Dive

At parties these days, you might get a gift bag, you might get to experience a private performance by John Legend, you might get to shake Donald Trump’s hand. But rarely—OK, almost never—will you get to pose for a photo in a 9-foot-by-4-foot fish.

“It was phenomenal. 400 people had their picture taken in the sea glass fish!” said Warrie Price, the founder and president of The Battery Conservancy. “It glowed, even in the huge tent. Everyone fit in it. Bill Rudin, our chairman, is maybe 6 foot 4. He fit just fine!”

It was the 15th Annual Battery Gala Tuesday night at the tip of Manhattan, the future site of Seaglass Carousel a ride of 30 fish of different shapes and colors. The evening raised more than $1 million.

“Warrie Price, well she’s kind of a visionary, a passionate woman and somehow she found me,” said George Tsypin, a sculptor, architect, set designer and the brains behind the carousel. Mr. Tsypin was calling from Las Vegas where he is working on the new “Spiderman” musical. “I had designed ‘The Little Mermaid’ on Broadway and I had come up with this idea of transparent, translucent sculptures that kids would get inside of, like little mysterious ships and submarines. It’s hard to describe on the phone, but it’s a total immersive experience, an urban spectacle.”

More mysterious to Mr. Tsypin, however, have been “the approvals and commissions and the bureaucratic process. The actual design didn’t take long.”

Ms. Price thinks the project could be accomplished in a year to 18 months. Eighteen fish will be made during “phase one” with funding soon to be completed for the other 12. The prototype was on display. It is made of “smart glass,” said Ms. Price.

“Have you ever been in a conference room?” she asked. “Those bathrooms that go from clear to frosted? Well, these fish walls change from clear to cobalt blue to purple to green.”

Additionally, the fish have LED lights flashing and there’s a subwoofer in the base. “The sound wave makes it feel like bubbles are going up your back,” said Ms. Price. “I think people will get engaged on this thing.”

—Marshall Heyman

Thank you to all who attended and contributed to making our June 8th Battery Gala the most successful yet! You helped us raise a record $1.01M for the Conservancy’s operating budget. Your support is so important for this milestone year, as we prepare to break ground for SeaGlass and open Peter Minuit Plaza.

The theme of our 15th gala, “How Deep the Ocean, How High the Sky,” celebrated the Battery’s SeaGlass Carousel and the temporary exhibition of the full scale model of the James Webb Space Telescope on the Battery Lawn.

The SeaGlass fish prototype was the evening’s main attraction, with guests invited to sit in the fish and have their picture taken, while imagining the carousel that would soon be constructed on that very site.  The Space Telescope greeted Gala guests at check-in and through the evening was lit with fantastic changing colors.

Amidst the festivities we honored Moody’s Corporation with the Battery Medal for Corporate Leadership and John C. Whitehead with the inaugural Battery Patriot Award.  We acknowledged those loyal donors who have been with us all 15 years and have been so vital to the park’s transformation.

Here, you can revisit the  evening of fun & deep sea enchantment by browsing our event photo gallery:

 

If you’ve been by the Battery this week, you might have noticed an unusual installation underway. And if you thought it looked like something from outer space, you were on the right track: that thing in the park is a full-scale model of the James Webb Space Telescope, the real version of which will launch into space as the successor to the Hubble Telescope in 2014.

The installation and accompanying exhibit are a production of the World Science Festival, the week-long, city-wide celebration that will present an impressive set of 40 exhibits, lectures, and interactive programs. Festival events officially begin June 2nd, but starting on the 1st, the installation of the Telescope and exhibit will be complete and open to the public. (You can’t miss it—it’s right inside the park off of State Street, across from Bridge Street; see the green arrow on this map.)

A little background: the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a large infrared telescope designed, according to NASA, to study “every phase in the history of our Universe.” Its research, which will be conducted by the Space Telescope Science Institute, will focus on four scientific “themes”: The End of the Dark Ages: First Light and Reionization; The Assembly of Galaxies; The Birth of Stars and Protoplanetary Systems; and Planets & Origins of Life.

The JWST is a collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency, and the prime contractor for its construction is Northrop Grumman. The installation of its full-scale model at the Battery—which is 80 feet long, 37 feet wide, and 40 feet tall (!)—was made possible by the World Science Festival, the Battery Conservancy, and Northrop Grumman, and will be on display through the 6th of June.The exhibit will be open from the 1st to the 6th, 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

The Telescope also looks great after dark. It’s not lit yet, but when it is, on the 1st, it’ll look something like this:

And a plug: the Battery Conservancy’s June 8th Gala, How Deep the Ocean, How High the Sky!, will celebrate the Battery’s history as an exhibition space for radical innovations in science and technology—a tradition renewed by the installation of the JWST model—and the groundbreaking for SeaGlass Carousel. See the Gala page for more information and a response card. The Gala will also feature a live and silent auction; the items available can be viewed here.

Stay tuned for more JWST updates!

We are grateful to the project’s founding supporters: American Express, Burch-Safford Foundation, Emigrant Savings Bank, Logany LLC, May and Samuel Rudin Foundation, and U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.

Immigrants Disembarking at the Battery (1855)

In May 2009, The Battery Conservancy funded a major upgrade to its CastleGarden.org, which is free to all users. Two million new entries were added to the existing 9.2 million immigration records – all of which pre-date Ellis Island and provide the most comprehensive record of immigration into New York City between 1820 and 1892.

New navigational improvements to the website include the ability to search by ship, port of origin, date of arrival, first or last name, occupation, and origin. Previously, users could only search by first or last name. With the upgrade, new information is available on village, province or region of origin, destination and port of embarkation.

CastleGarden.org has an additional 2.38 million records of immigrants to be digitized, bringing the total database to 13.58 million.

Support CastleGarden.org and its historic work today! Donate online and allow The Battery Conservancy to continue to update and maintain this invaluable database.

We are grateful to the project’s founding supporters: American Express, Burch-Safford Foundation, Emigrant Savings Bank, Logany LLC, May and Samuel Rudin Foundation, and U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.