Coves At The Edge

The plaza/cove idea was carried out in the north and south coves of Battery Park City.   On the other hand, the Plan's megastructures (with highways integrated underneath), so typical of the '60s, were supplanted by a gentler, incremental housing system based on the city grid and the street wall of Manhattan's neighborhoods.

The crucial role of planning in this area was explained in the 1966 Plan as follows:

The future of Lower Manhattan will be determined more by what people want and take collective action to get, than by unseen market forces whose cumulative impact is beyond the community's capacity to influence. The conclusion points to the critical role that planning can play and the importance of spelling out in the Plan the possible and appropriate goals.

The Plan was reprinted in its entirety in 2002 by The Princeton Architectural Press.