Wait until Tony Soprano and his team of pissed off celebrities sees this! All the controversy surrounding the Sanitation Department's Tower o' Garbage in Hudson Square has deflected attention from the project's smaller component: a new salt shed to store, uh, salt. Everywhere else in the city, salt sheds are fairly spartan affairs, but not down on Canal Street. Given the prominence of the site, the salt shed was given a $10 million budget, and after renderings were revealed last year, Dattner Architects was sent back to the drawing board to come up with something more "sculptural" with an "iconic presence." Tomorrow night the new design will be revealed to Community Board 2's Landmarks Committee, but why wait? All is revealed in the photo gallery above.
Mind blown yet? Well, this being a salt shed, the structure is modeled after salt crystals, with the building's volume (home to a big salt mound) enclosed in a series of angled, vertical planes. Also, it kind of looks like a big boulder, hence our nickname suggestion, Rock Hudson. Got something better? We're all ears. As expected, not everyone is thrilled with this design. One neighborhood activist forwarded along some concerns:
1. The shed should not have an open driveway, and the entire site, including the driveway, should be completely covered to prevent salt from escaping.
2. The gates along Spring and Canal Streets should have no openings so as to prevent airborne salt.
3. The rolling door should be located away from the residential buildings on Spring Street and away from the Holland Tunnel Air Ventilation Ducts. DSNY should consider locating the rolling door along West Street, since it would improve accessibility for loading and unloading and minimize harm to humans.
4. The width and height of the rolling door should be minimized to prevent airborne salt. Sadly, we don't have any interior renderings, but we're guessing Superman II might be a good frame of reference. Take this, snow!
· Hudson Square's Latest 'Taj Mahal of Salt' Renderings Revealed! [Curbed]
· Tower o' Garbage coverage [Curbed]
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