When Trinity Church announced its redevelopment plans for 76 Trinity Place, we were less than thrilled that two remarkable pre-war buildings would be coming down. Even worse, initial renderings showed the successor to be a conventional glass design that would loom over Trinty Church and its historic churchyard. Now that we've accepted this callous treatment of history as business-as-usual, we can move on to the more redeemable aspects of the Pelli Clarke Pelli-designed project nearly fully-risen at the site.
In summer 2016, Trinity Church completed the demolition of its 25-floor, Gothic Revival-style parish house to make room for a $300 million tower to hold 27-floors of commercial office and community space. Established in 1698, the church oversees more than $2 billion worth of real estate assets and sought to upgrade the organization with new state-of-the-art offices. According to the architects, Trinity’s offices will occupy the building's uppermost three floors and the floors below will be leased to other tenants. A ten-floor podium will be dedicated to community and public gathering spaces.
View from Broadway with Trinity Church and its cemetary grounds
Earlier plans called for condos instead of speculative office space and earmarked the first six or seven floors to Trinity's functions. They include space for its priests, administrative staff and executives, and a sound studio the church uses to produce webcasts and musical recordings.
In 2013, Trinity solicited designs from two architecture firms, COOKFOX and Pelli Clarke Pelli, for the new building. While COOKFOX's slender, biophilic design was far more attractive and contextual, the church went with Pelli, a firm best known for their Modernist corporate design (think One Beacon Court) rather than their historic sensitivity. According to Downtown Expres, when the church showed Pelli's plans to that local Community Board 1, board member Joel Kopel said, "Tourists come here from all over the world and the last thing we need is another building that looks like it's on East 59th Street."
Rendering showing podium and pedestrian bridge
A recent visit to the through-block site shows the steel frame is nearly at its pinnacle and the lower floors are being enclosed in an elegant glass and bronze-colored aluminum. Pelli Clarke Pelli explains the glass on the lower public floors is more transparent to allow for better visual connection with the church and community, while the façade in the tower is more reflective to minimize heat gain. They go on to explain, "The façade of the tower is a unitized curtain wall with patterned frit on various panels and low-iron laminated glass. Sunshades are composed of painted custom aluminum metal and provide a striking and elegant accent to the windows." Additionally, the tower is aiming for LEED Gold certification and will have systems in place to minimize damage from flooding.
New rendering showing view from the reopened pedestrian bridge
Saved from the chopping block is a delicate, 85-foot-long cast iron pedestrian bridge that crossed Trinity Place. While leading to a construction site today, by late 2019 it will resume its function as a connection between the parish building and the churchyard/sanctuary. According to the New York Times, the bridge was completed in 1989 after a parishioner was struck by a truck on Trinity Place in 1985. "With the nearest crosswalk more than 200 feet away, at Rector Street, it was all too tempting — even for the most faithful Episcopalians — to jaywalk across Trinity Place to reach the parish hall," explains the paper.
74 trinity as of early November (CityRealty)
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New Developments Editor
Ondel Hylton
Ondel is a lifelong New Yorker and comprehensive assessor of the city's dynamic urban landscape.
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