Javits Plaza v3.0

I've written about Jacob Javits Plaza—the public space at the corner of Lafayette and Worth Streets in Lower Manhattan—many times. First was about Martha Schwartz's design on my weekly page; then in 2007 I did an analysis and history of the space for grad school; most recently I contributed an article to The Architect's Newspaper about Michael Van Valkenburgh's redesign. Before Schwartz's design the plaza was occupied by Richard Serra's Tilted Arc, which makes Van Valkenburgh's design the third installment since 1981, not counting the interim "design" between the demolition of Serra's sculpture in 1989 and the completion of Schwartz's plaza design in 1997. The plaza is not yet open to the public (a couple guys were applying some chemical of sorts to the stone paving when I walked by and snapped these photos yesterday), but it looks like any day now it will be complete and this corner of Lower Manhattan may finally be free of controversy.