St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church
St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, destroyed on 9/11.
St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, destroyed on 9/11.
After weeks of bad news, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey can finally declare a victory at ground zero.
The authority has reached a tentative agreement to help rebuild St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church on Liberty Street, clearing the way for the long-stalled work to begin on the foundation walls at the south end of the 16-acre site.
If the agreement with the church is approved by the authority’s board on Thursday, officials say it would count as a significant step forward for the $16 billion reconstruction effort, which has been plagued by delays and cost overruns.
The deal would resolve the future of the congregation of the tiny whitewashed church, which was crushed in the collapse of the trade center’s south tower, and would allow a number of other projects to proceed, including the foundation walls for a bomb-screening center for buses, trucks and cars entering the site.
But it is an expensive victory for the Port Authority, which has agreed to give St. Nicholas $20 million to build a larger church at the northwest corner of Greenwich and Liberty Streets and a nondenominational hall for visitors to ground zero. Since the church would be built in a park over the screening center, the authority has also agreed to pay up to $40 million for a blastproof platform and foundation.
Still, the Port Authority identified St. Nicholas as one of 15 issues that had to be addressed before the reconstruction effort could regain momentum. Three weeks ago, the authority acknowledged publicly for the first time that the transit hub and other elements at ground zero faced delays of up to a year or more and cost overruns in the billions. The authority said it would issue a new timetable and budget in September.
"We’re bringing a proposal to the board that will resolve one of the 15 fundamental issues presented in our assessment last month and will allow us to continue to move forward in the rebuilding of the site,” Chris Ward, the authority’s executive director, said in a statement on Wednesday afternoon.
After years of uncertainty, church leaders said they were elated. Many of the 70 families that were members of St. Nicholas currently worship at SS. Constantine and Helen Cathedral in Downtown Brooklyn.
“It’s welcome news,” said Nicholas P. Koutsomitis, an architect who prepared the master plan for St. Nicholas. “They’re running it through very, very quickly. I hope the rest of the schedule for the job gets the same kind of attention.”
Mr. Koutsomitis, who is also the chairman of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocesan Cathedral of the Holy Trinity on the Upper East Side, said that the church’s design was incomplete, but that in keeping with Greek Orthodox tradition, the doors would face west, with the altar at the sanctuary’s east end, and that there would almost certainly be a dome, although not a “Byzantine extravaganza.”
“It has to be contextual,” he said. “The shape has to say Greek Church, but by the same token it has to be welcoming to people of all faiths, or no faith, from an architectural standpoint. It’s a tall order.”
For nearly 90 years, St. Nicholas occupied a narrow four-story building at 155 Cedar Street, just east of West Street. After the 9/11 attack, Archbishop Demetrios, primate of the Greek Orthodox Church in America, vowed to rebuild and quickly won support from Gov. George E. Pataki and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.
But until recently, negotiations have been sporadic. Recently, the authority agreed to put more cash into the deal, doubling its offer to $20 million. The two sides are still negotiating the exact dimensions of the new church. The authority has agreed to provide St. Nicholas with a parcel at Liberty and Greenwich Streets of up to 8,100 square feet, which is nearly seven times larger than the church’s original 1,200-square-foot lot on Cedar Street.
The church and visitors hall would also be far larger than the original, about 24,000 square feet.
The church, Mr. Koutsomitis said, wants to play an important role in the life of the rebuilt trade center by providing visitors with a place for quiet reflection. St. Nicholas has raised about $4 million, but the church will cost far more, and some city officials and Port Authority executives have urged that the project be scaled back. Ultimately, the design requires approval by the City Planning Department.
In any event, the tentative agreement will allow the authority to begin work on the vehicle screening center, whose entry ramps will sit under the block bound by Liberty, Cedar, West and Greenwich Streets. Indeed, the authority will vote on Thursday to approve a contract for the first phase of the underground perimeter walls for the screening center, which will also serve as part of the foundation on the south side of the trade center site.
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