Squares and Plazas

The Meatpacking District: A Community Vision for Gansevoort Plaza

New York, NY (2005)

Client: Meatpacking District Initiative (MPDI), funded by The Open Planning Project

Manhattan’s newest historic district, the Meatpacking District, is known for unique wide streets lined with distinctive Belgium pavers, and low rise buildings. Still a working district, recent changes in land use have brought in major fashion houses and boutiques, cutting-edge restaurants, nightlife, and hotels.

Gansevoort Plaza is a wide open cobblestone intersection in the heart of the Meatpacking District.

The district’s problems today are principally a result of its success, and the tremendous growth and development it has seen since the mid 1990’s. Traffic, congestion, declining pedestrian safety, noise, and worsening neighborly relations are all burgeoning problems recognized by residents and local leaders as threats to the area.

Process
PPS worked with business owners, residents, and community leaders to define the problems, identify best practices, and formulate a vision for what they want their neighborhood to be. PPS held a community workshop and conducted observations – which included traffic counts, pedestrian counts, activity mapping, time lapse video, parking analysis and surveys – and used the findings to create a community-based vision for the district’s future.

Gansevoort Plaza has the potential to become a flexible public space and could quickly be transformed into a liveley piazza.

Findings
The district’s biggest opportunity lies in Gansevoort Plaza, a broad and chaotic intersection of five streets of varying width and direction. Traffic moving through the cobblestone plaza is confusing and dangerous, pedestrians create their own crossing patterns as they see fit, and despite the wide open space, there is no opportunity for people to gather, or even sit. PPS recommended creating a plaza that has the flexibility to host temporary events, and traffic calming measures that would safely channels vehicles through the area.

There are no pedestrian amenities in the area, and no place to sit.

PPS found that an over-supply of taxis, wide streets and confusing traffic patterns resulted in unnecessary late-night congestion, as well as dangerous pedestrian-vehicular conflicts. Recommendations for improving these conditions include narrowing some streets, creating dedicated loading zones, and creating drop-off and pick-up areas.

As a result of this study and visioning process, community leaders created the Greater Gansevoort Urban Improvement Project (GGUIP). GGUIP has hired the Regional Plan Association and Sam Schwartz Company to model traffic impacts and the feasibility of the community’s vision. GGUIP expanded the study zone, to ensure that they can make the most positive impact on traffic in as large an area as possible.

PPS’s project partners included MPDI, Transportation Alternatives, Community Board 2 Transportation Committee, and several elected officials. This project was part of the NYC Streets Renaissance Campaign, a movement to re-imagine the streets of New York City as lively public places.