Linguist, lexicographer, writer, editor, broadcaster

Restoration of the Battery Maritime Building

I’m not claiming prophet status or anything (I think the rule for that is life plus 70 years. Or is it ten years dead? I dunno.), but it’s so nice to see someone else independently arrive at an idea and make it real. The Battery Maritime Building is one-of-a-kind. It’s old New York. When you walk through lower Manhattan, judging the buildings with a critical eye—sierras and forests composed of nothing but glass, granite, and concrete—and then see the Battery Maritime Building, you get a little charge in your spine. Or at least I do. It looks even better contrast with the barf-inducing Staten Island Ferry terminal (officially the “Whitehall Ferry Terminal,” I believe) nearby, at least before the terminal’s renovation. So I’ve always thought that the Battery Maritime Building needed to be renovated, turned into a gallery of non-chain food joints, art shops, coffee lounges, and the like. And, voilà, my wish is granted.

I swear, if I had had a billion dollars in 1993-94, the housing boom and the renovation of New York City would have happened 10 years earlier.