Burj Khalifa.

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Really? It's a fairly historic building, which I personally find very interesting architecturally. The restoration and development of it will be great for the area and Jersey City in general. Your comment is akin to if you moved out to Yellowstone and demanded they top kill Old Faithful and build the American Burj Dubai on top of it... If you want the Powerhouse turned into a park, you're living in the wrong place.

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In a word: YES!

And make it a park.

Just so you know the facts.Thats not plywood its Densglass which actually comes in different colors according to its water resistance.yellow being the least and purple being the best.Plywood would have rotted in the first year.

Did they use different colors for a funky affect,probably.

Give the thing a chance people.

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So if the Powerhouse isn't restored and used as a shopping/performance center, what should it be used for? Do you want it knocked down or something? I bet half the people on this forum want the government to spend millions of dollars restoring it, and then build a bunch of high-end apartments and studios in it to rent to struggling artists for $200 a month... It's absurd to me to see so many people on this forum who are against any sort of project that will bring economic benefits to the area. Not to mention it brings new things for the people living around it to experience. These kinds of projects should be encouraged, not fought against.

As for the "misplaced dilettantes" - I'm sure you don't know 1/1000th of the steps and processes that are required to make a project such as this happen. You're calling these developer amateurs, which is very far from the truth. All of these people complaining about how slow it's going are just ignorant. I wish it could move faster as well, but there are many complicated problems that are very challenging and time consuming to solve. It doesn't happen overnight, but when it does, it's going to be a great thing for Jersey City.

So then the purpose of the Powerhouse is to "revitalize" the area????
Perhaps to bring in some real estate developers and maybe even a Mall??????????

WOW woudn't a couple high rise housing projects be exciting and novel for the now desolate Jersey City Waterfront.


At least the Baltimore renovation made some SENSE.
The Jersey City job is just a masturbatory exercise to move money to developers aided and abetted by a couple of misplaced dilettantes.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=h ... n%26sa%3DN%26tbs%3Disch:1

Indeed..., looks like covered with adds. From a functional standpoint they might have achieved the revitalization they wanted though - I haven't visited the place. The Distillery in Toronto is a great example of harmonious development. Hopefully they will be able to strike the right balance here. Maybe historical zoning consideration will prevent "tagging" such as in Baltimore.

Just looked at the on in Baltimore. Yuck.

The stabilization of the Powerhouse is on schedule.

The $40 million relocation of the electrical equipment which powers the PATH signal system will be an approximately 3 year project.

Then the Cordish Companies ( www.cordish.com ) will redevelop the property - you ought to visit their "Powerplant" on the Inner Harbor in Baltimore.

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I guarantee you that it will move at LEAST as fast as the Embankment...with probably the same result as the Betz Brewery preservation.

The stabilization of the building is a big deal and it will last several years. The tower is cracked at the top and needs to be reinforced. About 80 tons of soil have been hauled out already.

Yes, the color scheme is over the top on purpose as it's adaptive reuse that's being done and not just preservation. I think the last thing anyone would want would be to turn the PH back to what it was, which was a coal-fired powerplant. The colors are a bit whimiscal but I think most people get that it reflects the potential of what could be as opposed to what it's been in the past.

Another big issue is the Port Authority substation that powers the PATH train that needs to be moved from the west part of the building. Sounds easy but it's not. Lots of bureacracy and negotiations with adjacent landowners. FYI, the PA owns 51% of the building, the remainder is owned by the city.

The PH is envisioned to be something like Chelsea Market, or Baltimore's PowerPlant Live where you have retail space cheap enough to rent by locals but where you also have one or two anchor tenants. The building will be just like any other retail center in that it needs to be self-sustaining, meaning it needs to make money to survive. But unlike the Newport Mall, the hope is that it will attract more quirky, creative and artisansal type of tenant and clientele.

Of course, all of this remains to be fleshed out but it is an exciting project that I wish the knuckleheads at the city council could get behind. Yeah, it won't happen immediately but these kinds of projects are far and few between.

Sheesh some of you guys are really demanding. Let the city develop. I personally find it to be an exciting time to live in this city. New condos, yes, but there are also restaurants and bars opening up left and right. I can think of 3 that opened up just in the past month, and 3 more that will be opening up in the next month or so.

After only living in JC for two years It seems like another time to ask WHEN? WHEN? WHEN? WHEN? Besides a bunch of ugly condos going up all the time, nothing interesting or creative retail wise happens around here....for the most part.

Am I wrong?

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I completely agree! Let's let that building have some local flavor - does anyone know if they are extending a hand to any local businesses interested in moving in there (maybe tax breaks or something?)???? I would hate to see it become just another chain store filled mini-mall in a cool building.

In the mean time, I like the boarded up windows....at least it seems like they're doing SOMETHING (helping bolster against more rain damage I guess), as opposed to just the sign out front while the building continues to rot.

Whatever is ultimately done with the Powerhouse should hopefully be interesting and have a bevy of entertainment/retail options and not just bland prosaic ESPN fare.

http://limelightmarketplace.com/


http://gothamist.com/2010/05/04/limelight_1.php

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The plywood isn't really shoring up the building - you would have to go inside, to see what kind of framing is being erected to stabilize the exterior walls and any remaining interior floors, which help distribute dead loads. The vented plywood panels seal the building from birds, wind driven rain, etc.

We might not all agree on painting the panels - I suspect that was done to get people's attention in a positive way, and keep the Powerhouse from looking like just another boarded up building. Myself, I like it - they contrast playfully with the building's muscular brickwork.

Please, everyone support the Powerhouse being restored and adaptively re-used! From all my years in historic preservation I can say there are very, very few industrial buildings of this caliber surviving in the metro area!

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Oh, I guess you must see it as an artistic statement. I wonder if one of the many talented artists from the PAD came up with the color scheme.

For the people who live right there, it's gone from bad to worse. They could have shored the place up without obnoxious day-glo colors. It really adds to the historical value of the place, don't you think?

well if it looks different, it MUST be bad, right? It's colorful, so it's a "taxpayer waste". Now I understand.

Seriously, until they actually DO something with it, is it so bad they keep the place shored up with something that isn't just plywood? (even if it's painted plywood!?)

You know, those yellow panels and the little blue doors make all the difference. Now it really looks chic enough to attract a Quiznos. I hope they help hold the bricks up.

Any money spent, up to and including $100, seems like money well spent.


Betweeen the Embankment and the Powerhouse tourists will be coming from world wide to visit Jersey City. Jersey City has a lesson for all..."THIS is how to waste taxpayer money."

What do you think of the Powerhouse Stabilization Project? Is this money well spent?

I hope they put in a pilates studio and dog yoga.

There's even a rumor that HARROD'S will be moving in.

I heard they're putting in a Whole Foods.

Ohhh, I hope they open a Duane Reade, an Athlete's Food and a Blimpie's...maybe a good dollar store for Chinese utensils and no-brand cookies.

Big question is who will win the burger franchise, MacDonalds or Burger King?

And no historic preservation would be complete without a Chinese take-away.

I hope all the workers wear hard hats.

Looks like they're doing some work on the windows?