Confucius Plaza

20 Confucius Plaza | also 1 Bowery | Chinatown | built 2016

Open on the map6 entries

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

1. 1863

   Stephen Foster makes his last home in a Bowery lodging house on the future Confucius Plaza site

   A fire reported on December 29, 1851 destroyed 15 Bowery and several neighbors. The lodging house that replaced it was Stephen Foster's last residence in 1863 and 1864. The block's buildings at 1-29 Bowery were demolished in 1954, clearing the way for Confucius Plaza.

   “Replacement was lodging house home of Stephen Foster, 1863-4, his last residence (NYT June 19, 1921).”

   Source: National Register nomination

2. 1973

   The city builds Confucius Plaza at the foot of the Manhattan Bridge for Chinatown's growing population

   A permit was filed in 1971, ground was broken in 1973 and the project finished in 1975. The City's Education Construction Fund built the tower, a school and shops over more than a million square feet covering six acres. It answered the population boom in Chinatown that followed the immigration law changes of the 1960s.

   Source: National Register nomination

3. 1974

   May 16

   About 250 protesters stop work at the Confucius Plaza site over the exclusion of Asian construction workers

   Asian Americans for Equal Employment led the protest against the contractor, DeMatteis Corp., which refused to hire Asian construction workers for the building. Demonstrators entered the site and forced a work stoppage, and some activists were arrested. An agreement signed on July 10 had the company hire 27 minority workers, and in 1977 the group renamed itself Asian Americans for Equality.

   Source: aafe.org

4. 1975

   Horowitz & Chun's superblock opens its shops to the street

   Henry L. Horowitz and Wei-Foo Chun, who formed their partnership in 1964, designed the complex. The National Register nomination calls it one of the last Lower East Side superblocks and one of the few that works, because its plaza-level shops open onto the sidewalk and it includes community services such as a public school.

   Source: National Register nomination

5. 1976

   A 15-foot bronze Confucius by Liu Shih is presented to Chinatown in front of the complex

   The Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association presented the statue of the philosopher, sculpted by Liu Shih, as a token of appreciation and to mark the American bicentennial. It stands in front of the complex and has become one of the most visited landmarks in Chinatown.

   Source: Wikipedia

6. 1978

   Apartments sell for $2,000 to $3,000, and a 1978 documentary finds the residents mostly Chinese

   When the development was completed in the mid-1970s, apartments sold for $2,000 to $3,000 with carrying charges of about $200 to $300, and all were sold before construction ended. A 1978 documentary, Chinatown, Inc., reported that 85 percent of family households were Chinese.

   “…purchase price of the apartments were going for $2000 to $3000 with the carrying charges being around $200 - $300.”

   Source: Wikipedia

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• 16 Bowery1 entry
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All 93 buildings with stories in Chinatown