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Construction Begins on Glass Pavilion at World Financial Center

By Julie Shapiro | February 13, 2012 5:04pm

BATTERY PARK CITY — A sweeping all-glass pavilion will soon begin to rise outside the World Financial Center.

The 55-foot-tall pavilion, featuring about 400 curved glass panels, will become the new main entrance to the World Financial Center, as part of the Battery Park City office complex's $250 million renovation.

Officials with Brookfield Office Properties, owner of the World Financial Center, broke ground on the new entrance Monday morning.

"The World Financial Center's stunning new front door on West Street will provide workers, visitors and residents with a comfortable and seamless connection to all subways and the other vibrant areas of Lower Manhattan," Mitch Rudin, president of Brookfield's US commercial operations division, said in a statement.

The 8,000-square-foot pavilion will open in the fall of 2013 on the west side of West Street just south of Vesey Street. It will connect the World Financial Center to a pedestrian tunnel beneath West Street that will ultimately go all the way through the World Trade Center complex to the new Fulton Street Transit Center, as those projects are completed over the next several years.  

The pavilion is just one piece of Brookfield's larger renovation of the World Financial Center, which will also include new high-end boutiques, a dining terrace overlooking the Hudson River and a fresh-foods marketplace. The new shops and restaurants are scheduled to open by the summer of 2013.