Restored Riverside Drive Staircase Reopens on 106th Street; ‘It’s Gorgeous!’

By Tracy Zwick

Sixteen months after an SUV careened down the stairs at Riverside Drive and 106th Street, causing structural damage and revealing existing weaknesses in the century-old foundation, the staircase reopened last Friday.

“It’s gorgeous!” enthused City Councilmember Gale Brewer, noting how the designers meticulously sourced new stone from the same Maine quarry as the original granite. The iron handrails, one of which was completely taken out by the SUV, were replaced with clean-lined reconstructions of the originals, updated to be ADA compliant. New concrete foundations were installed, and two sections of the northern cheek wall, destroyed in the wreck, were restored.

Brewer confirmed that the project was entirely funded by an anonymous local donor. “It’s fabulous that people in the neighborhood feel so strongly about the park and are willing to support it. It’s what neighbors should do!” she said.

Merritt Birnbaum, president and CEO of Riverside Park Conservancy, said the project cost in the “mid-six figures,” and took just under four months to complete once work began late this summer. For the previous year, just about one-fourth of the staircase, which provides access for pedestrians from 106th Street to Riverside Park, was open, with the rest deemed unsafe and cordoned off. 

The recognizable bronze equestrian sculpture of German-American General Franz Sigel sits atop the staircase. That sculpture, by Austrian-born artist Karl Bitter, was installed several years after the staircase was built around 1900, so has its own foundation and came out of the SUV wreck unscathed. 

According to Birnbaum, the SUV itself “didn’t cause so much damage as it revealed underlying structural challenges in the foundation of the stairs. The risers were sitting on a pile of rubble.” One challenge in the preservation and reconstruction was the absence of original blueprints or architectural records. “So it really was a puzzle,” Birnbaum said, adding: “I’m so proud of how quickly we were able to solve it, in partnership with the Parks Department and Margaret Bracken in particular, the landscape architect and chief of design and construction who led the project from start to finish.”

The project began once funding was secured, with an exploratory study last January that revealed the extent of the pre-existing deterioration. “We also needed to understand the trees in the area and be sure we were protecting the tree roots,” Birnbaum added, assuring WSR that there was no impact on the surrounding natural landscape. With some “bureaucracy,” like “getting the permits to close the bus stop” out of the way, work began late last summer, and the stairs became entirely closed to the public. Because the project was privately funded, there was no need for competitive bidding or myriad additional layers of public scrutiny, which Brewer credits for the speed with which it was completed. 

A sign will be posted onsite soon, discussing the renovation and the stone, which is variegated in tones of mauve and grey, and which Birnbaum said will change color slightly over time as it ages and continues to blend with the original granite. Both Brewer and Birnbaum were quick to point out the addition of two quiet, octagonally-based cast iron bollards at the top of the stairs, just to the north and south of Franz Sigel –  to prevent vehicles from entering the area in the future.

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