The New York Aquarium plans a $150 million face-lift that includes a shimmering aluminum exterior, a giant shark exhibit and access from the Coney Island boardwalk for the first time, according to an article by Joseph de Avila in today's edition of The Wall Estate Journal.
The city and the Wildlife Conservation Society, the nonprofit that runs the aquarium, announced the renovation in 2009 and part of the funding will come from the city, which so far has committed $49 million. But the aquarium must raise tens of millions of dollars from private donors to help fill the gap, the article said.
The aquarium currently draws 750,000 people a year and Steve Sanderson, president and chief executive of the Wildlife Conservation Society, projects that it will draw a million people a year by the time the renovation is complete in 2015.
The aquarium is a part of the Bloomberg administration's push to rejuvenate Coney Island and develop it into a year-round destination. Earlier this year, Luna Park made it debut on land previously occupied by Astroland. It was Coney Island's first new amusement park in decades.
The aquarium's new plans call for adding a 1,000-foot spiral ramp with a facade made of sparkling aluminum squares that will wrap around the building's rooftop. The ramp will lead to a new roof deck overlooking the ocean and will have tanks featuring local species.
The architecture firms Edelman Sultan Knox Wood and the Portico Group, along with the Wildlife Conservation Society's design team, oversaw the planning.
The renovated portion of the aquarium will take up 50,000 square feet of space and will be named "Ocean Wonders: Shark." It will house a 500,000-gallon tank that will hold 40 sharks, sea turtles, rays and thousands of schooling fish. Work on the building is slated to start in 2012 and be completed in 2015.
After a series of discussions with the Wildlife Conservation Society, the city's Public Design Commission signed off on the renovation plans in October. Previous plans were amended in part because they lacked ocean views and needed to create a more appealing connection from the building to the boardwalk, said Domenic M. Recchia Jr., the council member who represents the neighborhood. He pushed for those changes to be made.
Mr. Recchia remembers visiting the aquarium as a child and being struck by the aquarium's lack of ocean views. "It was always frustrating to me," Mr. Recchia said. The new plans for the building "had to bring the aquarium to the ocean."
An article by Matt Chaban in today's edition of the observer.com, however, notes that design waters for the project had beeen a bit choppy:
"Back when plans for revitalizing Coney Island were just taking shape in 2006, the New York Aquarium held a dramatic architecture competition for a new facility. A stunning design by Philadelphia firm WRT and Barcelona architects Cloud 9 was chosen, looking like a breeching whale scooping up krill in its canopied mouth."
"That plan," however, Mr. Chaban noted, "was fed to the sharks. As funds ran short two years later, it looked like the aquarium would build a new shark tank and little more. The renderings that emerged a year later were for a garish amusement, the sort of design a second grader might come up with after a visit to the boardwalk. Now, final plans for the aquarium have been approved, and while they are not nearly as expansive or impressive as those first proposed, the result is a facility satisfying as a day at the beach. It is a fitting addition to the reinvigorated boardwalk, nothing too complicated nor demure. A sweeping walkway sheathed simply in a shimmering aluminum curtain has been added, sort of Gehry-lite."
"Though it has been surpassed in size over the year's, the New York Aquarium remains the nation's oldest, having opened in 1896," according to Mr. Chaban.
"The aquarium is a part of the Bloomberg administration's push to rejuvenate Coney Island and develop it into a year-round destination," Mr. Chaban noted.
The city and the Wildlife Conservation Society, the nonprofit that runs the aquarium, announced the renovation in 2009 and part of the funding will come from the city, which so far has committed $49 million. But the aquarium must raise tens of millions of dollars from private donors to help fill the gap, the article said.
The aquarium currently draws 750,000 people a year and Steve Sanderson, president and chief executive of the Wildlife Conservation Society, projects that it will draw a million people a year by the time the renovation is complete in 2015.
The aquarium is a part of the Bloomberg administration's push to rejuvenate Coney Island and develop it into a year-round destination. Earlier this year, Luna Park made it debut on land previously occupied by Astroland. It was Coney Island's first new amusement park in decades.
The aquarium's new plans call for adding a 1,000-foot spiral ramp with a facade made of sparkling aluminum squares that will wrap around the building's rooftop. The ramp will lead to a new roof deck overlooking the ocean and will have tanks featuring local species.
The architecture firms Edelman Sultan Knox Wood and the Portico Group, along with the Wildlife Conservation Society's design team, oversaw the planning.
The renovated portion of the aquarium will take up 50,000 square feet of space and will be named "Ocean Wonders: Shark." It will house a 500,000-gallon tank that will hold 40 sharks, sea turtles, rays and thousands of schooling fish. Work on the building is slated to start in 2012 and be completed in 2015.
After a series of discussions with the Wildlife Conservation Society, the city's Public Design Commission signed off on the renovation plans in October. Previous plans were amended in part because they lacked ocean views and needed to create a more appealing connection from the building to the boardwalk, said Domenic M. Recchia Jr., the council member who represents the neighborhood. He pushed for those changes to be made.
Mr. Recchia remembers visiting the aquarium as a child and being struck by the aquarium's lack of ocean views. "It was always frustrating to me," Mr. Recchia said. The new plans for the building "had to bring the aquarium to the ocean."
An article by Matt Chaban in today's edition of the observer.com, however, notes that design waters for the project had beeen a bit choppy:
"Back when plans for revitalizing Coney Island were just taking shape in 2006, the New York Aquarium held a dramatic architecture competition for a new facility. A stunning design by Philadelphia firm WRT and Barcelona architects Cloud 9 was chosen, looking like a breeching whale scooping up krill in its canopied mouth."
"That plan," however, Mr. Chaban noted, "was fed to the sharks. As funds ran short two years later, it looked like the aquarium would build a new shark tank and little more. The renderings that emerged a year later were for a garish amusement, the sort of design a second grader might come up with after a visit to the boardwalk. Now, final plans for the aquarium have been approved, and while they are not nearly as expansive or impressive as those first proposed, the result is a facility satisfying as a day at the beach. It is a fitting addition to the reinvigorated boardwalk, nothing too complicated nor demure. A sweeping walkway sheathed simply in a shimmering aluminum curtain has been added, sort of Gehry-lite."
"Though it has been surpassed in size over the year's, the New York Aquarium remains the nation's oldest, having opened in 1896," according to Mr. Chaban.
"The aquarium is a part of the Bloomberg administration's push to rejuvenate Coney Island and develop it into a year-round destination," Mr. Chaban noted.
Architecture Critic
Carter Horsley
Since 1997, Carter B. Horsley has been the editorial director of CityRealty. He began his journalistic career at The New York Times in 1961 where he spent 26 years as a reporter specializing in real estate & architectural news. In 1987, he became the architecture critic and real estate editor of The New York Post.
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