whitehall ferry terminal - 1995 design
(with venturi, scott brown and associates)
The 1995 electronic façade design was in response to a reduced budget and revised program, including elimination of the waterfront big clock, as required by the Staten Island Borough President, Guy Molinari. The design was produced by Whitehall Architectural Design, the New York office of Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, with TAMS Consultants and Anderson/Schwartz Architects. Features of this design include a relatively lower section, consistent with the lower budget, but with flourishes at either end: a roof upsweep toward the city, and an iconographic, programmable electronic façade facing the harbor. The curvy, flag shaped electronic façade was again in contrast to its Lower Manhattan skyline backdrop, and its technology allowed infinite varieties of messages, images and communication to occur, legible from the docking boats as well as from the middle of New York Harbor. The angled roof above the Entry Hall was proposed to integrate an array of photovoltaic panels (for more information click here) that would provide significant electrical power for the facility, and as well demonstrate this evolving green technology on a governmentally-funded facility. Peter Minuit Plaza was reconfigured to accommodate lines of cars for the re-instituted program requirement allowing vehicles on the ferries, resulting in an hour glass-shaped Plaza and crystalline building mass that together knit conflicting program, site and urban requirements into a "difficult whole." The waterfront facade of this design met with similar aesthetic criticisms from the Staten Island Borough President's Office as the previous design, and was never approved.

(continued pg. 2)

   
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