City Takes Over Governors Island
Building 110
Building 110
Building 110
Nolan Park
Plaster damage in Nolan Park house
Leak damage
Ballroom, Officers Club
Officers Club
Officers Club meeting room
Building 550, now the Harbor School
Harbor School
Harbor School vegetable gardens
Interior of Harbor School
Building 400, the biggest on the Island
Interior of Building 400
Building 400
Officers Row
Porch detail
Officers Row
Scaffolding on Castle Williams
Fort Jay restoration work
Peeling paint
Chapel
Officers Row, interior
Officers Row, interior
Ballroom
Floor damage in dining room of Officers Club
Castle Williams
In anticipation of the city takeover of Governors Island and mindful of NYU’s publicly expressed interest in re-using some of the buildings on the Island as part of their planned expansion, the Conservancy’s Peg Breen and Alex Herrera toured the island looking at the physical condition of the island’s historic buildings. We looked at the exteriors of course but we focused on the interior conditions of the buildings.
While most of the building exteriors look good with some exceptions such as deteriorated porch elements, some of the interiors were in poor condition.
Houses both on Nolan Park and along Officer’s Row had fallen plaster and water damage evident throughout the first and second floors. The interior of the largest building on the Island, Building 400, is in deteriorated condition. The ornate rooms of the Officer’s Club have suffered noticeable moisture and leak-related deterioration. The club has a new roof that has hopefully solved the water problem but the damage to the interiors has not yet been addressed
There have been capital budget problems in the last couple of years. Even a brief afternoon tour demonstrates very clearly the need for more funding, and even more important, the need for permanent uses.
The buildings with new uses such as building 110, now housing artists’ work space and a visitor’s center have undergone recent interior renovations and are in excellent condition.
Building 550, now housing the Harbor School has also been restored and rehabilitated. It is a model of how successfully and attractively these buildings lend themselves to new uses.
The buildings described above are all in a city historic district. A section of the Island is a National Historic Monument and there is work underway there on the two historic forts. The French style portal into Fort Jay with its crowning sculptural group is undergoing masonry repairs and cleaning. Portions of the interior and exterior of Castle Williams are undergoing hazmat abatement.
While we welcome the new park to be created on Governors Island, we hope there is equal emphasis on maintaining and finding uses for the incredible collection of historic buildings, which define the character of Governors Island.
