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The Battery Park City Master Plan, adopted in 1979, has facilitated the
private development of 8 million square feet (743,000 m2) of commercial space, 7.2 million square
feet (669,000 m2) of residential space, and nearly 36 acres (14 ha) of open space in lower Manhattan,
becoming a model for successful large-scale planning efforts. The strength of the master plan has al-
lowed development to occur incrementally, thereby creating a neighborhood with a stable mix of uses
and diverse architecture that blends into the existing New York City street grid. “The Battery Park City

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 Master Plan represents a positive shift away from the urban renewal mindset of the 1960s and 1970s.
The plan has been responsive to changing conditions—such as the emergence of energy-efficient
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6JI=DG>IN,,!,-A!,-G!,. buildings—but has remained true to its original intent,” according to Joe Brown, chief executive, plan-
ning, design, and development at AECOM and chairman of the ULI Global Awards for Excellence.
The original master plan for Battery Park City was developed during the 1960s under New York
governor Nelson Rockefeller. Early ideas for the “city within a city” envisioned the area as a continu-
ous 100-acre (40.5-ha) truck dock and warehouse to bring shipping companies back to Manhattan.
However, this plan was quickly scrapped, and a new team of planners and designers sketched out
a community reminiscent of a 1960s beach resort—hoping to offer homeowners an oasis in lower
Manhattan and office tenants an alternate destination to the buzzing financial district. This design was
meant to exemplify an innovative “city of the future” with a protected pedestrian realm, urban open
space, and integrated transportation options. In 1962, however, the idea of combining housing, of-
fices, and light industry was not well received.
Governor Rockefeller hired architect Wallace K. Harrison to design the second generation of the
plan. Harrison was tasked with inventing a model community that was the antithesis of the slums
plaguing New York City at the time. The result was a socially diverse, mixed-income community: the
plan sought to create safe streets, ample parks and green spaces, and healthy buildings where every
unit received abundant sunshine and fresh air. Harrison’s proposal relied heavily on strong social pro-
grams and, coinciding with dwindling approval of the city’s public housing policies, met with vehe-
ment public resistance.
In 1969, a collaborative city/state design team created the final master plan. Although well received
by all of the stakeholders, the plan was held up by the 1973 recession, stagnating until a financial
emergency in 1979 caused New York State’s Urban Development Corporation to condemn the project
and transfer the title from the city to the Battery Park City Authority. The authority acted quickly to
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devise and adopt a new master plan. The goals of this plan were simple: expand lower Manhattan,

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encourage people to live downtown, and increase the amount of green space and trees in the region.
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The new plan extended the city’s existing street grid in blocks that could be parceled out to different
developers as the market allowed. LZWH^iZ
The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks had a major impact on Battery Park City. Many residents lll#WViiZgneVg`X^in#dg\
were displaced because of toxic dust and smoke, the immediately affected area was closed off and de-
clared a crime scene, and a number of residential buildings were seriously damaged. Since the attacks, H^iZ6gZV
however, the neighborhood has been resurgent, with more than a dozen new buildings—including the .'VX(,#']V
Goldman Sachs Group World Headquarters, the Visionaire, and Riverhouse.
Even though it has been continually reinvented, all iterations of the master plan were based on four ;VX^a^i^Zh
core values: productive public/private partnerships, balance and aesthetics, environmental responsi- -b^aa^dch[,)(!%%%b'XjggZci.#-
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bility, and public benefit. Today, with its rich mix of residential and commercial uses, the area is home
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to 9,000 residents, 52 shops and service providers, 22 restaurants, a movie theater, two hotels, almost
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36 acres (14 ha) of parks, 20 works of public art, three public schools, a marina, a 1.2-mile (1.9-km) Wj^aYdji
esplanade, the Irish Hunger Memorial, the Museum of Jewish Heritage, the New York Police Memorial, ,+*]diZagddbh
and the Skyscraper Museum. &!(%%eVg`^c\heVXZh

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