VOLUME 29, NUMBER 14
PAC@WTC sells naming rights Technically, the board of the unbuilt performance space is merely expressing its appreciation to a generous patron, but the long-anticipated Downtown theater complex is now set to be named the Ronald O. Perelman Performing Arts Center at the World Trade Center, after the billionaire pledged $75 million to the project. Perelman said he hopes the eponymous preforming arts center will be a symbol of Downtown’s resiliency. “My hope and expectation is that the PAC will be more than a performance venue,” said Perelman. “It will represent the vitality and energy that has emerged in response to the tragedy of 9/11, and it will be a constant reminder of resilience and healing through artistic expression and community.” Until now, the long-stalled project had been more a symbol of the difficulties faced when trying to rebuild on the World Trade Center site. The preforming arts center was promised in the original 2002 master plan for the new WTC campus, but has yet to even break ground, because the site is occupied by a temporary PATH train station that had to remain in operation while the gigantic, $4-billion World Trade Center Transportation Hub was under construction. The extravagant concourse — nicknamed the Oculus for its long skylight, and the Stegosaurus for its spiny, skeletal look — was originally projected to open in 2009, but repeated delays put off its completion until this year. The temporary PATH station only closed last month, and no date has yet been set for its demolition. As recently as last year, the center’s president and director Maggie Boepple said that the space perelman pac Continued on page 27
JULY 14 – JULY 27, 2016
In memoriam After hit-and-run death in BPC, city DOT aiming to make greenway crossing safer
Photo by Colin Mixson
Travis Maclean stands beside the memorial to his wife Olga Cook on a light pole on the Hudson River Greenway near where she was struck and killed by hit-and-run driver while she cycled across the greenway’s notorious intersection with Chambers St. on June 11.
BY COLIN MIXSON The city says it will study ways to make a deadly Battery Park City intersection safer after a cyclist was killed by a hit-and-run run driver last month. Upper West Side resident Olga Cook was fatally struck by an allegedly intoxicated driver on the Hudson River Greenway at Chambers St. on June 11, leading Community Board 1 to call on the city’s Department of Transportation to install better signaling at the intersection, which is notorious among locals. Cook was an avid cyclist and triathlete, who cycled along the greenway bike path as part of her daily training regimen. That someone so accustomed to cycling in that area could be struck by a driver highlights how dangerous that intersection truly is, according to her husband. “If it could happen to her, it could happen to anybody,” said Travis Maclean. “She is the most intelligent woman I ever met.” Cook was heading northbound on the greenway — which paralcrossing Continued on page 10
also in this issue:
City tightens reins on cranes — p. 5
U.S. Supreme Court ruling could mean new trial for disgraced pol Shelly Silver
Downtown’s July Fourth pics — p. 2
See page 4
July Seaport Report — p. 6 Co-op backs off dog regs — p. 13
1 M e t r o t e c h • N YC 112 0 1 • C o p y r i g h t © 2 0 16 N YC C o mm u n i t y M e d i a , L L C