Chelsea Piers
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Chelsea Piers, officially Chelsea Piers Sports & Entertainment Complex, is a series of sports and entertainment buildings constructed on four adjoining piers on the West Side of Manhattan in New York City. It is located in the Chelsea neighborhood, on the northern edge of Greenwich Village and the Meatpacking District.
It includes film and television production facilities, a health club, a spa, the city's largest training center for gymnastics, two basketball courts, playing fields for indoor lacrosse and soccer, batting cages, a rock climbing wall and dance studios. In addition there is an AMF Bowling center, a golf club with multi-story driving range, and two full sized ice skating rinks.
The complex also includes a marina for mooring private boats.
George W. Bush fraternity brother Roland W. Betts is the principal owner.
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[edit] History
[edit] Gansevoort Peninsula
Historically, the term Chelsea Piers referred to the luxury liner berths on Manhattan's west side from 1910 to the 1930s.
Most of the major trans-Atlantic liners of the day docked at the piers and they played pivotal roles in the RMS Titanic and RMS Lusitania disasters.
With luxury liners such as the Titanic becoming bigger and bigger, New York City was looking for a new luxury liner dock in the early 1900s. The Navy, which controlled the location and size of piers, refused to let any piers extend further into the North River (the navigation name for the Hudson River south of 30th Street). Ship lines were reluctant to build north of 23rd Street because of infrastructure (including the High Line Rail line) and a train station at 23rd Street and the river was already in place.
New York City solved the problem in an unusual way -- it actually took away a block of land that was once part of Manhattan.
The land was 1837 landfill that extended Manhattan to 13th Avenue (Manhattan). The controversial decision included condemning many businesses. The city was unable to condemn the West Washington Street Market and was left to remain landfill. The market ultimately closed and the dock was converted to a sanitation facility that was used to load garbage barges headed for the Fresh Kills Landfill. The only section of 13th Avenue that remains is now a parking lot for sanitation trucks. The landfill is now called the Gansevoort Peninsula.
[edit] Terminal Design
The new piers were designed by the architectural firm of Warren and Wetmore, which has also designed Grand Central Terminal. The piers replaced a hodgepodge of run-down waterfront structures with a row of grand buildings embellished with pink granite facades and formed the docking points for the rival Cunard and White Star lines.
[edit] Lusitania and Titanic disasters
While every trans-Atlantic ship of the era visited the piers, the two most memorable moments for the pier with the Lusitania and Titanic.
The RMS Lusitania left its Cunard Pier 54 before being torpedoed and becoming the rallying cry for American involvement in World War I.
The RMS Titanic was destined for the White Star pier 59 when it sank. Survivors were rescued on the Cunard RMS Carpathia. The Carpethia dropped off of the Titanic lifeboats at Pier 59 before going back south to Pier 54 where it unloaded the passengers and survivors. Thousands of people assembled at the dock to greet the ship.
In July 1936, the Chelsea Piers were the point of departure for Jesse Owens and the United States Olympic team as they left for the Summer Games in Berlin, Germany.
[edit] Cargo terminal
After New York moved its luxury liner piers to the New York Cruise Terminal between West 46th and West 54th Street in 1935 to accommodate bigger ships such as the RMS Queen Mary and the Normandie, the pier became a cargo terminal. During World War II the piers were used to deploy troops.
The piers had a catstrophic fire in 1947 that destroyed some of the south piers. New construction resulted in new cargo piers used by the United States Lines and Grace line.
[edit] Westway demolition plans
In the 1980s, plans circulated to replace the West Side Elevated Highway with an at grade highway going along the West Side south of 42nd Street. The plan called for the highway to run over demolished piers. Pier 54 was actually demolished in 1991 although the archway entrance (along with the White Star and Cunard signage) was retained. The plan (dubbed the Westway (New York) was abandoned after court cases said the new highway would jepordize striped bass.
[edit] Recreation usage
Following the demise of Westway, development of the West Side Highway evolved into two parts: a public/private partnership that evolved into the upper piers being used for recreational purposes. The southern piers are now part of the Hudson River Park while the northern piers make up the Chelsea Piers Sports & Entertainment Complex.
Construction of Chelsea Piers Sports and Entertainment Complex began on July 12, 1994 in ceremonies attended by New York Governor Mario Cuomo, New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger.[1]
[edit] Factoids
- Law & Order and Law & Order: Criminal Intent are filmed in studios located on Chelsea Piers.
- On September 14, 2004, a road leading to Pier 62 was renamed "Law & Order Way".[2]
- Sky Rink has the only year-round ice skating rinks in New York City.
- Twenty-five movies have been filmed at Chelsea Piers.
- Just north of the complex is Pier 63 which is the site of a number of historic boats.
