When the Rouse Company remade the South Street Seaport area between 1981-1983, rehabilitating buildings, adding new buildings, and opening the tourist-friendly Pier 17 (where I still get tuna and pasta for lunch every so often) it attempted to add authenticity to the streets of the Seaport by adding a number of lampposts, unique to NYC, that attempted to evoke the gaslights of old:
Unfortunately, as you can see, Hurricane Sandy (October 26, 2012) damaged some of them, knocking out the glass and electrics on the luminaires. Many businesses in the Seaport were severely damaged and have not yet reopened, though Pier 17 had by late February.
The Howard Hughes Corporation, which owns the Seaport, has announced plans to gut Pier 17 and enclose it in glass, adding several upscale stores (thereby removing even more of the slowly fading urban grit that had held sway before the Rouse makeover).
What will become of the Seaport’s now-30 year old faux gaslamps? Will they give way to newer lamps, or be repaired?
2/22/13