From The Villager
Venerable, but crusty, smokestacks being razed
By: Lincoln Anderson
March 06, 2002
Demolition workers taking down two 200-ft.-tall smokestacks at Gansevoort St. on Monday had a visitor.A towering presence along the Greenwich Village waterfront for decades, the twin smokestacks of the decommissioned Gansevoort Peninsula incinerator are being razed to make way for a maintenance shop for Department of Sanitation garbage trucks that park on the peninsula.
Although one would think that such large objects' disappearance wouldn't go unnoticed, not everyone seems to have been aware the demolition was underway.
However, the Department of Sanitation said it notified the Hudson River Park Trust, which hopes to build a park on the peninsula in a few years, a year ago of the plan to raze the smokestacks.
Workers have already brought the chimneys down to about 100 ft. from their original 200-ft. height. The demolition started about three weeks ago. In another two weeks, the 'stacks will be down to about the level of the former incinerator plant's roof, at which point construction machines can safely pull the rest of the chimneys down.
When the Hudson River Park was being planned, some early ideas called for the smokestacks to be left up as a monumental vertical element. But, according to Arthur Schwartz, chairperson of Community Board 2's waterfront committee, at a recent public hearing on Segment 5 of the park, which contains Gansevoort, there was no interest expressed in keeping the smokestacks. The current plan is for an open space, possibly with a mix of ballfields and passive recreation space.
The incinerator, or Gansevoort Destructor Plant, has been out of service for several decades after burning municipal garbage was banned over concern about toxic emissions.
But the smokestacks, in their own way, held a sentimental value for some, like the fireboat stationed at the end of the peninsula.
"There's no Bloomfield St. sign here," noted one Sanitation worker on the pier last week, referring to the unmarked street on the peninsula's north edge. (The peninsula's west edge is the remnant of Thirteenth Ave.) "So the Fire Dept. guys would tell the mailman, 'Turn right at the 'stacks.' "
Sanitation is footing the $800,000 cost of the demolition. The agency is also currently demolishing smokestacks or old incinerators at W. 57th St. and E. 74th St. Three different city garbage districts, serving the Village, Chelsea and Midtown/Union Sq. area, currently park their trucks on the peninsula, and are to leave under an agreement so that a park can be developed there. But a new garage must be found first. Schwartz said there now may be a site available on W. 29th St., which had been off-limits because it was near where Mayor Giuliani wanted to build a West Side stadium.
Regarding environmental concerns, John Pamplone, a D.O.S. spokesperson, said all necessary steps have been taken and that asbestos removal was part of the work contract.
However, Schwartz called the plant "an asbestos nightmare. It's probably a toxic site. Most of the land under incinerators is toxic. So it's going to take a lot of work to clean up the site."
Zack Winestine, a filmmaker and Village preservationist, said he was concerned about dioxins being released into the air in the Far West Village community.
Schwartz said he favors removing the chimneys and was happy, at least, that D.O.S. was paying for the work, since that's one more thing the Trust won't have to pay for out of its overstretched budget. However, he did say he wished Community Board 2 had been informed of the demolition.
Alex Dudley, the Trust's spokesperson, said the Trust hadn't been told about the demolition, but that he, too, is happy the smokestacks are coming down since it will help free up space at the future site of a park on the peninsula.
Winestine for one, said he'll miss the venerable, if garbage-encrusted, 'stacks.
"I think it's a real shame," he said. "A lot of people are unhappy about it. They definitely were landmarks. They were almost a gateway to the Far West Village in a sense."
©The Villager 2003
