Manhattan Rentals in Battery Park City and Financial District Apartments
Seldom has the view from a landfill turned out as beautiful as that from Manhattan rentals in Battery Park City and Financial District apartments. Developed in the seventies from the dredging of the former World Trade Centers, this southwestern most area of Manhattan overlooks the Statue of Liberty and is a prime example of modern urban planning.
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According to the Encyclopedia of New York City, plans for Battery Park allocated 42% of the land for housing, 30% for open space, 19% for streets and avenues and 9% for commercial and office space. Essentially, a Battery Park apartment is in the center of Yuppieville USA. The streets, crowned with funky arches and public art are quiet and lined with well-polished cars. On weekends middle aged couples jog behind aerodynamic super strollers and play with toddlers on lawns along side the Hudson. Residents and tourists alike wander the esplanade enjoying the view, and trying to grab glimpses of the super rich on their yachts in the marina. At the same time, the terrain flat and undaunting attracts rollerbladers while adjacent Winter Garden draws art enthusiasts and super shoppers alike for public performances and retail distractions.
Seldom has the view from a landfill turned out as beautiful as that from Battery Park City. Developed in the seventies from the dredging of the World Trade Center, this southwestern most area of Manhattan overlooks the Statue of Liberty and is a prime example of modern urban planning. According to the Encyclopedia of New York City, plans for Battery Park allocated 42% of the land for housing, 30% for open space, 19% for streets and avenues and 9% for commercial and office space. Essentially, it’s Yuppieville USA. The streets, crowned with funky arches and public art are quiet and lined with well-polished cars. On weekends middle aged couples jog behind aerodynamic super strollers and play with toddlers on lawns along side the Hudson. Residents and tourists alike wander the esplanade enjoying the view, and trying to grab glimpses of the super rich on their yachts in the marina. At the same time, the terrain flat and undaunting attracts rollerbladers while adjacent Winter Garden draws art enthusiasts and super shoppers alike for public performances and retail distractions.
Due to the relatively recent construction of the area and its proximity to Wall Street, most buildings are modern luxury high rises, with all the bells and whistles. Doormen greet visitors, health clubs abound and elevators whisk tenants off to amazing views above.
Battery Park isn’t the only residential area downtown. Sandwiched between the above mentioned neighborhood and the South Street Seaport is the Financial District. Interestingly enough, as old office buildings are being vacated by businesses for more modern spaces elsewhere, owners of buildings in the area are redesigning some of these old corporate strongholds for residential use. Because this region of Manhattan was highly populated before New York’s nineteenth century city planning went into effect, buildings in this neighborhood are crammed into small spaces and tower over narrow streets where little sunlight trickles through below. As a result the challenges of converting spaces in these buildings will be immense but the creativity necessary to do so could result in really unique apartments.
Unfortunately (or fortunately, I suppose), there are certain parts of the financial district you could walk through at night and wonder if you are the only human being on the planet. The mass exodus of 9 to 5ers leaves streets empty and most restaurants and businesses sealed tight after hours. Developers are hoping that as the area becomes more residential, a greater variety of stores, supermarkets and movie theaters will pop up making the neighborhood more conductive to everyday living.
The South Street Seaport is located on the lowest east side of Manhattan’s southern tip. Once teeming with sailors carousing in saloons and brothels the closest you’ll get to the old days is finding some guy named Skip drinking old world beer at a neon trimmed bar. Actually, that’s not entirely true. In the late 1970s the same people who rebuilt Boston’s historic Quincy market came in and cleaned up the South Street Seaport restoring two blocks of old buildings and making way for one of the world’s biggest collections of historic ships – located at the South Street Seaport museum. Residentially speaking, the neighborhood is also an interesting mix of old and new. Here you’ll find a scattering of prewar walk ups amongst huge modern apartment complexes with addresses so cryptic that visitors wish they had tracking devices to find their way around. Seafood lovers will especially appreciate the proximity of the Fulton Fish Market famous for its early morning seafood selections and supplier to some of the best restaurants in New York.
Venturing out into the other parts of the city and its surroundings from any of these downtown neighborhoods is relatively easy via public transportation. Almost every major subway line in the city runs through downtown, ferries go to Staten Island and New Jersey as well as the Upper East Side and buses cover most areas in between, making the average resident’s weekday commute easy to navigate.
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