‘Intermodal’ Transit Hub With Dutch Roots Opens

Dubbed “New York City’s first 21st century intermodal transportation hub,” by Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe, the Peter Minuit Plaza opened on Thursday, along with the New Amsterdam Plein and Pavilion inside.
‘Intermodal’ Transit Hub With Dutch Roots Opens
NEW AMSTERDAM: The New Amsterdam Plein and Pavilion opens in Lower Manhattan on Thursday. (Amal Chen/The Epoch Times)
Evan Mantyk
5/12/2011
Updated:
10/1/2015
<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/PeterinuitPlaza.jpg" alt="NEW AMSTERDAM: The New Amsterdam Plein and Pavilion opens in Lower Manhattan on Thursday. (Amal Chen/The Epoch Times)" title="NEW AMSTERDAM: The New Amsterdam Plein and Pavilion opens in Lower Manhattan on Thursday. (Amal Chen/The Epoch Times)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1804114"/></a>
NEW AMSTERDAM: The New Amsterdam Plein and Pavilion opens in Lower Manhattan on Thursday. (Amal Chen/The Epoch Times)
NEW YORK—Dubbed “New York City’s first 21st century intermodal transportation hub,” by Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe, the Peter Minuit Plaza opened on Thursday, along with the New Amsterdam Plein and Pavilion inside. The new hub is located in front of the Staten Island Ferry Terminal at State Street and Whitehall Street in Lower Manhattan.

The new transit hub is “converting an intersection traveled by 150,000 residents and visitors daily into Lower Manhattan’s newest and most dynamic destination for cultural activity, entertainment, and enjoyment,” said Benepe, according to the Parks and Recreation Department.

The plaza’s design is being touted for weaving together park and city amenities with various modes of transportation. It seamlessly connects the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, the M15 Select Bus Service, the 1 and R subway trains, the Battery Bikeway, and pedestrian pathways. A new taxi stand has also been added along the eastern edge of the plaza.

“The completion of this project concludes nearly a decade of work to rebuild Whitehall Ferry Terminal and create a new subway station, transforming the area into a world-class transit hub,” said Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan.

Harking back to when New York was known as New Amsterdam, the plaza takes its name from the enterprising director of the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam who, tradition has it, in 1626 purchased Manhattan Island from a group of Lenape Indians for $24 worth of trinkets and beads.

But the name of the plaza is just the beginning of the Dutch connection. At the north end of the plaza is the award-winning New Amsterdam Plein and Pavilion, which was made possible through a historic $2.3 million gift from the Kingdom of the Netherlands on the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s arrival into New York Harbor. Hudson is a Dutch hero, and “plein” means platform in Dutch.

The Plein and Pavilion were conceived by the Battery Conservancy to create an outdoor living room for spontaneous and scheduled activities, public markets, seating and shade, and a gleaming, white state-of-the-art pavilion.

The pavilion is designed by Ben van Berkel of UNStudio, Amsterdam.

“This is a site where history meets the future,” said van Berkel. “It is steeped in a sense of a shared past and looks directly toward the harbor where Henry Hudson sailed, but it is entirely focused on the future by virtue of its role as a modern transportation hub within the constantly changing scene of Lower Manhattan.”

The Parks Department designed the stone-paved civic platform, known as the Plein, with walkways featuring engraved quotations from Russell Shorto’s acclaimed book, “The Island at the Center of the World,” which details the Dutch origins of New York City.

A carved bronze map of a 1660 plan for New Amsterdam by renowned sculptor Simon Verity and his partner, architect Martha Finney, marks the entrance to the Plein and provides a glimpse of the historic evolution of Lower Manhattan.

Every midnight, the New Amsterdam Pavilion will glow with an array of colors in tribute to Dutchman Peter Minuit, whose name translates to “midnight.”
Evan Mantyk is an English teacher in New York and President of the Society of Classical Poets.
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