Work is continuing on Santiago Calatrava‘s St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in the Financial District. Located by the intersection of Greenwich Street and Liberty Street in the elevated Liberty Park, the structure will serve as the new home for the long-established church that was formerly located at 155 Cedar Street until it was destroyed on 9/11. Calatrava’s architectural concept for the church was inspired by Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia and Church of the Holy Savior of Chora. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is developing the project, which sits directly to the south of the original 16-acre World Trade Center complex.
St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church. Photo by Michael Young
St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church. Photo by Michael Young
St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church. Photo by Michael Young
St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church. Photo by Michael Young
Recent photos show the progress since our last update back in early September. The bare concrete walls on the two right-angled corners of the eastern elevation have been painted teal. Between these walls, the white plastic sheets that covered the cylindrical outline of the church have been removed, revealing a white metal structural framework. The same assembly can also be seen on the northern and southern sides. This will support a portion of the final curtain wall, which is depicted in renderings illuminated at night, much like the nearby Ronald O. Perelman Performing Arts Center. The construction fence around the western and main profile of the edifice is still standing, and a final set of staircases that lead down to Liberty Street is underway.
St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church. Photo by Michael Young
St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church. Photo by Michael Young
St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church. Photo by Michael Young
St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church. Photo by Michael Young
No formal completion date has been announced for the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church. However, based on the pace of construction, sometime in late 2021 or early 2022 is conceivable.
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I’m so happy to see the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church finally resume construction! It always depressed me that progress was silent on the Church, until recently. I can’t wait to see it further progress, but I’ll say that it so far looks pretty cool. However, I do wonder why the concrete walls were painted teal. I hope this is just for construction reasons… ?
It is to bad the church spent all its money to pay Samiago Calatrva to design something so boring. For the money they wasted and the state ended up giving taxpayer dollars to get this building complete. Very unfair to taxpayers whose money was used to complete.
A child could have come up with the final design. Maybe other developers will start to realize that unless a project has money to throw away, there is no sense hiring Santiago Calatrava as architect because of all the building he has designed in NYC look nothing like his original designs.
If you want to see Santiago Calatrava’s designs that were built as drawn and have an idea of what might have been here in NYC, look as the original designs compared to what eventually was built.
But when other starchitechs designed for Hudson yards those building were much more like the original versions.
It is very difficult, ( but not impossible) to build a new structure with ‘character’.. especially a church or the like..this here could be example 1A.
Looks like a nuclear power plant…in the hearth of Manhattan.
It does have that 3 Mile Island vibe..
IN COMPARISON WITH ORIGINAL CHURCH BUILDING IT S A VERY WEAK COLD DESIGN
Also there is no congregation left in the neighborhood-destroyed when the World Trade Center was built.
Easily the best Calatrava building since he first discovered fish skeletons. Imagine that: a Calatrava building that looks like …a building!
If I say it looks odd will I go to hell?
Calatrava te la clava.