Staten Island Ferry Whitehall Terminal
4 South Street | also 13 State Street | Financial District | built 1900
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1909
The city opens its first municipal Whitehall ferry terminal
After a 1901 ferry sinking killed four passengers, New York City took over the Staten Island ferry routes and began municipal service in 1905. Architects Walker and Morris designed a new terminal at the foot of Whitehall Street, and ferry service to Stapleton began there on May 27, 1909.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1956
A rebuilt terminal opens with a 16,000-square-foot waiting room
The Board of Estimate hired the firm Roberts & Schaefer in 1952 to replace the aging original terminal for $2.8 million. The new building, with three ferry slips and a large waiting room, opened on July 24, 1956.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1986
Mayor Koch picks Zeckendorf's plan for a 60-story glass-domed tower on top of the ferry terminal
The city chose a team headed by the Zeckendorf Company to redevelop the South Ferry site as South Ferry Plaza, a project priced at $384 million. Its centerpiece was a 60-story office tower of granite and glass built on top of the Staten Island ferry terminal, crowned by a glass dome holding an observation deck and a three-story restaurant. The terminal would be rebuilt with a waiting room twice its size, and the developer would lease the site from the city for 99 years.
Source: Internet Archive
- 1991
A fire guts the terminal's roof and ceiling
A major fire tore through the Whitehall Terminal on September 8, 1991, destroying its ceiling and roof. The damage set in motion an international design competition the following year, won by the team of Venturi Scott Brown and Anderson/Schwartz.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1992
After the fire, the city announces an architectural competition to rebuild the ferry terminal
The 1991 fire gave the city a spur to rebuild a terminal that was to have been renovated as the base of the 60-story South Ferry Plaza tower, a project that fell through in January 1991. In May 1992 the Economic Development Corporation said it would hold a design competition for a $100 million project to rebuild the Whitehall terminal and its plaza, seeing a chance to make a significant civic statement at Manhattan's southern tip. Construction was to start in 1994, and firms had until May 29 to submit their qualifications. Five firms were to be asked for designs, with a $30,000 stipend from the city.
Source: Internet Archive
- 1992
Venturi Scott Brown and Anderson/Schwartz win the terminal competition with a design featuring 120-foot clock faces
Venturi Scott Brown, teamed with Anderson/Schwartz Architects, won the commission to redesign the terminal. Its plan had a barrel-vaulted waiting room comparable in size to Grand Central's Main Concourse and an electronic harbor facade carrying clock faces 120 feet across, which would have been the largest in the world. Staten Island borough president Guy Molinari and critic Herbert Muschamp criticized the clock. A digital version fared no better, and the city dropped the clock altogether.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2005
A $200 million rebuilt terminal designed by Frederic Schwartz reopens
Construction on a new terminal began in September 2000 with a projected budget of $180 million. The finished building, designed by Frederic Schwartz of Anderson/Schwartz with engineers Robert Silman Associates and TAMS Consultants, opened on February 8, 2005, at a final cost of $200 million.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2011
Peter Minuit Plaza reopens outside the terminal with a pavilion by Ben van Berkel, a gift from the Netherlands
The plaza in front of the ferry terminal reopened in 2011 after the MTA rebuilt it, paying $22.1 million, with $1.4 million from the Department of Homeland Security. It includes the New Amsterdam Plein and Pavilion, designed by Dutch architect Ben van Berkel as an outdoor living room for markets and events. The Netherlands paid $3.2 million of the cost as a gift marking New York's 400th anniversary and the long relationship between the city and Holland.
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- Staten Island Ferry Whitehall TerminalWikipedia
- Whitehall Ferry TerminalPlace Matters
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