Past, Present, Future: The South Street Seaport Looks Back...And Ahead

New York’s South Street Seaport is offering a glimpse of the city’s history in “Seaport Past & Future," a free public exhibit that is running through next summer. It shows the changes that the Seaport has gone through over the centuries, and how they’ve affected both the city and the surrounding region. Multi-media demonstrations and scale models show the area through the years, culminating in an architectural model of the plans for a new, revitalized South Street Seaport.
One of the neatest features of the exhibit: Archival materials that show visitors the same views over time, so members of the public can see what’s changed and what’s remained the same.
The vision for the new Seaport, sponsored by General Growth Properties, includes hotels, shops, restaurants, residential housing and increased pedestrian use, as well as the conversion of the former fish stalls of the Fulton Fish Market into a specialty market. The plan will also rehabilitate the infrastructure of the pier and platform, as well as open site lines to New York Harbor and The Brooklyn Bridge.
Tying into the city’s East River Esplanade Project, part of a plan to "green” (the new buzzword, and you must use it as a verb to be truly hip) the city’s waterfront, setting aside five acres of space along a promenade has been proposed.
The exhibit is located at 191 Front Street, near John Street; check out southstreetseaport.com for more information.