Mayor Bloomberg and GIPEC President Leslie Koch kick off the demolition in Liberty Village.
Liberty Village is no more. Mayor Bloomberg supervised on a sunny Friday in early October while a giant grapple ripped into the former Coast Guard housing at the southern end of the Island and started to truck it away. Their removal makes room for eight new acres of open green space with a spectacular close-up view of the Statue of Liberty from the waterfront promenade that circles the Island.
Steve and Theresa Petersen were there, having driven from Michigan for
a last look at where they had lived as a Coast Guard couple with three
teenagers almost two decades ago. Mrs. Petersen had mixed emotions,
"very sad to see some place where you lived destroyed," but happy to
hear that the eight acres were being leveled for a park. The village
apartments, unused and not maintained since the Coast Guard left 11
years ago, did not meet current New York City building codes.
Demolition of the 10 apartment buildings of Liberty Village completes an initial phase; the wreckers have already done their creative deconstruction on three buildings in the middle of the Island - the Super 8 motel, the bachelor officers' quarters and the former elementary school. Materials from all the demolition is being recycled as much as possible, with the remaining rubble used to create the topography in the new parkland.
Demolition of the 10 apartment buildings of Liberty Village completes an initial phase; the wreckers have already done their creative deconstruction on three buildings in the middle of the Island - the Super 8 motel, the bachelor officers' quarters and the former elementary school. Materials from all the demolition is being recycled as much as possible, with the remaining rubble used to create the topography in the new parkland.