Best of 2005 Awards

West Midtown Ferry Terminal

Project of the Year: Marine

In step with the redevelopment of Manhattan's waterfront and the region's renewed investment in water-based transit, the New York City Economic Development Corp. in 2001 embarked on an effort to construct an intermodal ferry terminal on the West Side.

The varied and complicated efforts that went into the new facility at Pier 79 on West 39th Street - and the resulting terminal that opened earlier this year - garnered top honors in the marine category and made the Best of 2005 jury's short list for overall project of the year.

The new $40 million terminal has six ferry slips, a new ticketing hall and passenger gangways, and an 18-ft.-wide public walkway connecting the facility to the Hudson River Park esplanade. Getting there, however, required a long road, with the project team engaging in a lengthy run of coordination, permitting, and approvals with various public agencies.

A 21-month design phase began in February 2001, with a marine engineering team led by Han Padron Associates of New York discovering that the river was too shallow to support the planned vessels. That required quite a bit of dredging.

"With the dredging, it's not just adding a building," one juror said.

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On land, the team faced other complications. The pile-support system was inadequate. The site was above two of the Lincoln Tunnel's three tubes, limiting work in the area. And two of the tunnel's massive art deco ventilation towers were nearby as well.

The construction team - led by Skanska USA Building, based in Parsippany, N.J., and Madnet Corp. of New York - had to follow stringent requirements on pile driving and allowable vibrations issued by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey because of the proximity to the tunnel. The terminal instead uses the structural grid of an existing concrete platform, which required the team to reinforce its pile system.

All of that work took place as existing ferry and bus operations continued at full steam on the adjacent Pier 78.

William Nicholas Bodouva + Associates, a New York-based architect, designed a symmetrical 30,000-sq.-ft. curtain-walled terminal that wraps around the two tunnel vents, punctuated by a 200-ft.-long glass façade along the water's edge, as well as semicircular glass vestibules on the north and south sides. The new terminal offers views of the river and New Jersey's shore.

"It's just beautiful," one juror said.

Pilkington Planar Systems of Nanuet, N.Y., built the curtain wall that combines ceramic glass fritting and mechanical sunshades, as well as a 200-ft.-long perforated metal screen along the riverfront façade.

Meanwhile, the HVAC infrastructure offers environmentally friendly features, such as an underfloor plenum system for heating and air conditioning that combines with a window design that allows natural river breezes to ventilate the hall.

The facility has two stories featuring ticketing, cafés, and passenger waiting areas, as well as a diving board-style open platform jutting out diagonally above the water on the north side of the terminal.

To allow for continuous public access along the western waterfront, the team built an elevated 200-ft. walkway along the exterior of the terminal, running above the two gangways leading to the vessels and flanked by undulating perforated steel panels on the river side. Thomas Balsley Associates, a New York-based landscape architect, designed green-shaded areas on the north and south sides of the terminal accessible to both ferry passengers and the noncommuting public.

Key Players

Owner: N.Y.C. Economic Development Corp., and Department of Transportation

Construction Manager: Skanska USA Building; Madnet Corp.

Architect: William Nicholas Bodouva + Associates

Marine Engineer: Han Padron Associates

Mechanical Engineer: Joseph R. Loring & Associates

Structural Engineer: Thornton Tomasetti Group

Geotechnical Engineer: URS Greiner Woodward Clyde Consultants

Landscape Design: Thomas Balsley Associates