Markeshia Ricks Photo
Fang and Eckstut of Perkins Eastman, who’ll lead Long Wharf 2.0 study.
The team that designed and planned a $2 billion transformation of a mile and a half stretch of Washington D.C.‘s Southwest waterfront has been tapped to create a strategic development and economic plan for the city’s Long Wharf District.
Global architecture firm Perkins Eastman will take on the task of reimagining the 352 acres east of the train tracks to the harbor, bounded by Water Street, New Haven Harbor, and Union Avenue that make up the Long Wharf District. The district also includes Sargent Drive, the Long Wharf Nature Preserve, and the land around Hamilton and Water Streets east of Wooster Square.
City officials announced the choice of Perkins Eastman during a press event Tuesday held at the renovated New Haven Village Suites in the Long Wharf District.
They and principals from Perkins Eastman refrained from giving details about any preliminary ideas for a district that simultaneously boasts too much traffic congestion and extensive underutilized space.
“We have no plans,” said Stan Eckstut, senior principal for EE&K, which is a Perkins Eastman company. “We have lots of experience and what we’ve learned is” no formulas, no prototypes.”
When pressed about whether residential development might be in the vision for Long Wharf, Eckstut demurred.
“We don’t really know what the answer is today because we’re just beginning,” he said. “That’s what we’ve learned from our experience. This is unique and one of a kind and we’re going to all figure it out together.”
Eric Fang, an associate principal with EE&K, said that whatever plan comes forth in about nine months, it will be both sustainable and pragmatic. The plan also will include community input, which planners have started gathering. Over two days, Fang and Eckstut have met with members of the Hill South Community Management team as well as property and business owners in the district.
Eckstut said the plan will be built around two big ideas: that the harbor is one of the greatest anywhere but has not fully realized its potential; and that the unique mix of what is in the district — corporations, emerging tech businesses, a theatre — all make it a destination worth enhancing.
“We’re looking to add more use, more activities to this place that is so unique,” he said. “We want to build upon the opening of the new maritime center and start to make it even more of a harbor destination. The goal would be to try to marry land use development and water planning together with all public infrastructure with an emphasis on the public realm because that’s what creates the value.”
New Haven applied for and received a $950,000 state grant last year, half of which has been used to put in curbing, sidewalks, and the state’s first protected, two-way cycle track. . The other half of the grant will be used to cover the cost of developing the strategic development and economic plan for the district.
Harp.
Mayor Toni Harp, who floated the idea of securing state funds to write a new vision for Long Wharf when she first ran in 2013, said that going forward she hoped the plan would include “repurposed buildings and a comprehensive economic plan, improved streetscapes and landscaping, new transportation features and a beautiful Long Wharf Park.”
Piscitelli.
Michael Piscitelli, a city deputy economic development administrator, said Perkins Eastman will be responsible for figuring out a plan that works for the existing businesses, works with the existing public infrastructure such as the cycle track and the boathouse which will be finished by next fall, and the adjacent neighborhoods like the Hill and Wooster Square. He said there would be a number of community meetings before a plan is finalized but expected that recommendations could be forthcoming as early as June 2018.
“The bones of the district are very important,” Piscitelli said. “The businesses that are here today are very important. This early work is about complimentary activities. What will support [existing businesses] and help them to grow because there is space to infill and it has to work together.”
Wharton.
Jonathan Wharton, a City Plan Commission alternate member who lives in the City Point section of the HIll, said that Perkins Eastman’s work in other places like New York City and Washington, D.C., and the principals’ willingness to listen to ideas from residents, impressed him and other neighbors. He said he looks forward to seeing how the plan will not just better integrate the abutting neighborhoods but connect with Union Station and the exits at I‑95.
“This is long overdue,” he said of the plans to study Long Wharf. “The potential here is tremendous.”