Embedded Files
South Street Seaport also sustained major damage from Hurricane Sandy. The receding waterline not only left enormous damage in its wake a neighborhood already crippled since 9/11, but also exposed the deep-rooted issues that have long plagued the 12-square-block neighborhood. In a talk that AIGA NY organized with designer Ruedi Baur early on in the creative process, he showed work that had been done by the organization that he founded in Geneva, Civic City. Their projects centered on the identity of places, and on tools to activate overlooked places. This was extremely relevant to the issues facing Seaport, and influenced AIGA NY’s approach to the site, one of three that were addressed in the grant-supported DESIGN/RELIEF project.
South Street Seaport also sustained major damage from Hurricane Sandy. The receding waterline not only left enormous damage in its wake a neighborhood already crippled since 9/11, but also exposed the deep-rooted issues that have long plagued the 12-square-block neighborhood. In a talk that AIGA NY organized with designer Ruedi Baur early on in the creative process, he showed work that had been done by the organization that he founded in Geneva, Civic City. Their projects centered on the identity of places, and on tools to activate overlooked places. This was extremely relevant to the issues facing Seaport, and influenced AIGA NY’s approach to the site, one of three that were addressed in the grant-supported DESIGN/RELIEF project.
As the maritime industry slowly disappeared over decades in the second half of the 20th century, the Seaport’s culture changed from a working waterfront to a tourist destination. This transformation was punctuated by the recent building of Pier 17 and the contested move of the fish market. The area is historically rich with its old piers, ships, and handsome architecture that reflect a bygone era of maritime commerce. Since its shift to tourism, a bounty of visitors dominate the area through summer, while its relative isolation causes issues in the local economy during the off season, often resulting in vacant storefronts.
The abandoned Fulton fish market at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge. The fish market, which was the most important wholesale east coast fish market in the United States for almost two hundred years, relocated to Hunts Point in the Bronx in 2005.
Engagement
In this project, it was particularly important to gain the trust of the community and gather a deep understanding of the community itself. The design teams in the seaport achieved this through ongoing observation of community meetings, charrette workshops, and block parties, coupled with conversations with residents, business owners, and other stakeholders in order to shape our understanding of the Seaport.
Through all this observation, it was impressed upon the teams that the community had an untapped desire to be heard by New Yorkers and recognized for all its rich history. Some historical places of significance, landmarked within the Seaport Museum building collection, remain fairly invisible to the general public. These spaces, while abandoned and slated for redevelopment, still remain alive in the minds of locals who know and love them. With that context in mind, DESIGN/RELIEF in the Seaport became about giving the neighborhood visibility and highlight the community’s resilient spirit.
Community activists at a CB2 meeting.
Opening of Catch—&—Release, January 11, 2014.
Concept
The centerpiece of the project was Catch—&—Release, which started as a temporary interactive space, located under the FDR. Community members were invited to take a moment to reflect on their Sandy experience, and to recognize the help they’d received from others in their community. They raised messages of gratitude using a rope and pulley system, materials echoing the vernacular maritime culture. The messages accumulated and became a visual symbol of human bonds within the community, and were memorialized in a book after the exhibition came down.
Images from the interior of Catch—&—Release. People in the Seaport community filled out thank you cards and hung them using a rope and pulley system. At bottom right, Yeju Choi describes the project to visitors at its opening on January 11, 2014.
A second phase of Catch—&—Release was proposed that would find residents and local business owners who remember the now defunct spaces vividly, and present their stories through audio tours, web distribution, and maps that visitors and residents can use. This shared understanding of the community’s assets would have delivered a cultural product that enhances the Seaport’s sense of place, its visibility at large, and an engaging way to experience its history. This work concluded with an interactive audio tour and a website.
At left: Catch—&—Release exterior. At right, before the community charrette.
Conclusion
Many lessons were learned during AIGA NY’s engagement with the seaport. This project in particular underscored the consequences of doing design research and design at the same time, as well as the complexities of navigating multiple constituencies within a community. Ultimately AIGA/NY occupied space and accepted funding from Howard Hughes Corporation, the real estate developer central to the Seaport and reviled by many in the community there after being invited to submit a proposal and then becoming one of several cultural organizations participating in the Seaport Culture District project in 2015–16. AIGA NY was able to catalogue and disseminate these projects (including this document) in part because of this funding, in addition to mounting two exhibitions. This dilemma is not unique to AIGA NY, but rather a part of all organizations that need outside funding to fulfill all or part of their mission. Still, that extension from the Seaport project, both in terms of space and money, was irreconcilable for some board members and participants in subsequent programming in the South Street Seaport.
Design/Relief: South Street Seaport Storyteller agreement, November 6, 2013
Design/Relief: South Street Seaport Press release, October 27, 2014
Credits
Credits
Project lead designer: Yeju Choi
Community outreach strategists: Francesca Birks, Josh Treuhaft
Storytellers: The Public Society (part 1), B. Tyler Silvestro (part 2)
Part 2 interviews and documentation: Yeju Choi, B. Tyler Silvestro
Editing: Yeju Choi
Transcribing: B. Tyler Silvestro
Website concept, design, and development: Yeju Choi, Mathew Suen
Special thanks to: Richard The
Sound mixing: Napat Snidvongs
Space design and construction: Yeju Choi, Chat Travieso, Heechan Kim, Chris Fox
Community charrette plan and production: Francesca Birks, Josh Treuhaft
Publication concept and design: Yeju Choi
AIGA NY Design/Relief program director: Laetitia Wolff
AIGA NY Design/Relief project board: Willy Wong, Glen Cummings, Manuel Miranda
AIGA NY Director of Operations: Stacey Panousopoulos
AIGA NY Design/Relief intern: Taylor Kuhn
Community partners
South Street Seaport Museum, Ali Osborn and Gideon Finck at Bowne Printers, Old Seaport Alliance, NYC Community Board 1, Out To See, New Amsterdam Market
Special thanks
Barbara Mensch, Charles Deroko, Frank Mineo, Gary Fagin, Jack Putnam, Kit White, Naima Rauam, Zette Emmons, and many others, for opening their doors and sharing their inspiring memories and thoughts with us; Robert LaValva of New Amsterdam Market and Claire Weisz of WXY for introducing us to this wonderful community and supporting the project
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