"Battery Park City and the Authority are not just about the buildings – it’s about the character of the community that has developed over time. Public space has had a new renaissance in New York City, but here in Battery Park City is where it started."
Rising from the scenic lawns of Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Park, below the junction of River Terrace and Warren Street, The Pavilion occupies a unique position in the landscape, as if negotiating a common ground between the greensward and the city beyond. Because the structure has no walls, both the park and the hubbub of downtown are eminently visible through its posts. The Pavilion is crowned by a handsomely crafted square wooden roof, supported along its edges by twelve thin wooden pillars and at its center by four Doric style brick columns. Between the columns is an upraised platform girded by a bank of low stone steps, which provide ground-level seats for people-watching, hiding from the sun and looking out on the great lawn below. With its pared-down, classical elegance and appealing mix of styles, The Pavilion is a functional and symbolic waystation and a gracious response to the architectural cacophony of the surrounding city.
