Fulton Street in the Financial District is undergoing a $38 million multi-phased revitalization, intended to transform the street into the Fulton Street Corridor, the essential link between the World Trade Center site and the East River. Improvements to Fulton Street include a replacement of the 150-year-old water main, renovated sidewalks and signs, and a sequence of small green spaces, a tiny emerald necklace strung across Lower Manhattan. In the discussion of the revitalization project at the Center for Architecture’s November 20th event, the focus was on the $15 million Storefront and Façade Restoration Program. The storefront and façade restoration aspect of Fulton’s revitalization aims to highlight the diversity of architectural periods and styles of the buildings on Fulton Street that are now hidden by what O’Connor calls a “cacophony of signage.”

Fulton Street, pre-makeover, is described by Forgotten NY as a “crazy quilt of mom and pop businesses, souvenir tourist traps, historic cast iron and late 19th Century buildings.” The architectural hodgepodge and historic landmarks – plus it’s prime location and high rate of pedestrian activity – earned it a special mention in Mayor Bloomberg’s 2002 Vision for Lower Manhattan. Bloomberg conceived of a revamped Fulton Street that would serve as a “thoroughfare that stretches from river to river,” a major artery in the Financial District second only to Broadway. The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation responded to Bloomberg’s vision and granted $38 million of HUD money to make it into a reality.

At the Center for Architecture, Keith O’Connor of the NYC Department of City Planning contextualized Fulton Street by speaking first of the population demographics in Lower Manhattan – primarily young, public transit-dependent male workers – and how those demographics are changing. Lower Manhattan is the fastest growing residential community in New York City; the Downtown Alliance’s figures (pdf) show a 59% increase in units of residential housing from 2003.

Ali Ruth Davis from the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Economic Development detailed the specifics of the three tiers of restorations. Notably, the lowest level allots up to $15,000 of LMDC funds without any financial requirement from tenants. Second and third tier improvements are larger-scale and do require a match of 2 to 1. With so much simultaneous and easily accessible storefront updating, Allen Swerdlowe of New York New Visions (the coalition that developed the seven principles for rebuilding Lower Manhattan) voiced a concern over “wiping the patina clean.” If the cacophony of signs is completely muted, what happens to the distinctions between Fulton Street and South Street Seaport? If they vanish, will this essential link become merely an unremarkable thoroughfare between two primarily tourist destinations?

Perhaps. But the good bones of Fulton Street’s diverse building stock protect it from becoming overly conventional. Davis’ outreach has primarily been to tenants, who only need a nod of approval in the form of a signed Letter of Intent from property owners and a License Agreement further down the road.  Wouldn’t it be strange if the tenants themselves, using government money to do all the drudge work, end up being the cause behind rising rents for the last affordable street in the neighborhood?

Fate is in the hands of the preservationists, the Tyra Banks of this revitalization/makeover. Even with a conscientious design team detailing design standards in the form of a ninety page document (pdf) and design review panels (page 6 of pdf), can complex layers of the built environment be stripped of their unsavory parts without losing all of the character they hold? What will happen once the glasses are taken off, lipstick applied, the flurry of activity ceases and the chair is swiveled round to face the mirror?

From its beginnings as a path paved by the foot traffic to the Fulton Ferry in the early 1800’s, Fulton Street has developed organically. This next step is a massive facelift, a coordinated design update overseen by a panel and executed by a team designated by the program.  But it is still primarily on the tenant-based, groundfloor level, though there is still room for the project to creep upward if more Tier 1 and Tier 2 projects are applied for and approved. The layered architecture and Fulton’s fateful location between two big commercial developments could result in a beautiful asset to Lower Manhattan and its growing residential and tourist population. Fulton Street’s mom and pop nature seems destined to change with the infusion of money invested in the street, but if it is as vacancy-riddled and unappealing as O’Connor made it sound, it may be for the best.

Neighborhoods grow and die, and in the case of Fulton Street, government monies are being forked over to ensure the former. To what end remains unclear.  Ambitions to lower vacancy rates, emphasize architectural history, help the current tenants, exist as a promenade for tourists, or serve/attract residents were all mentioned. Time will tell if it is possible for each and all of these wishes to be realized.


Rachel Aland is a project associate of Urban Omnibus. She lives in Brooklyn. Top photo: 144 Fulton Street, photo by Flickr user epicharmus.