By Gus Saltonstall
There are few Upper West Side projects West Side Rag receives more questions about than the redesign and restoration of the West 79th Street Rotunda Complex in Riverside Park.
The $150 million project began in the first half of 2022, bringing car lane closures on a southbound exit of the West Side Highway, detours for pedestrians and bikers, bus route alterations and more, all in and around the area of the West 79th Street entrance to the West Side Highway. The city’s Department of Transportation said the project would take four years, meaning work would be complete in 2026.
The goal of the project is to modernize a deteriorating three-level Rotunda structure opened in 1937 that was designed to move car traffic on and off the West Side Highway from 79th Street and Riverside Drive, while also enabling pedestrians and bikers to access Riverside Drive and Riverside Park.
The Rotunda has three levels: the West Side Highway, the West 79th Street traffic circle and Pedestrian Plaza, and the underground garage and New York City Parks Department facilities.
The city also refers to a section near the Rotunda as the “West 79th Street Bridge over the Amtrak,” as the Amtrak Empire Line runs under Riverside Park, and at points, below the West Side Highway, including at 79th Street.
The “West 79th Street Bridge over the Amtrak,” which is the roadway directly in front of the traffic circle, is also part of the renovation work.
The rehabilitation work is aimed at restoring the Rotunda’s structural integrity, which had not been significantly renovated since 1975, preserving historically important elements such as the plaza-level fountain and existing masonry work, and increasing accessibility in compliance with ADA standards.
When West Side Rag reached out to the DOT last week for an update, the city agency sent us a “Renewing the Rotunda Newsletter” dated Fall 2024. A DOT spokesperson said that despite the date, the newsletter was just published this spring and is the most recent update on the project.
Here’s what the fall newsletter reported:
Activities Completed Last Quarter
- Installation of new steel beams on the roadway level.
- Cleaning and painting of steel beams and columns on the garage level.
- Construction of the Stage 1 deck on the roadway level and bridge over Amtrak, which includes installing formwork, a reinforcing bar, and placing concrete.
Ongoing Activities
- Construction of new ADA-compliant ramps from West 79th Street to the plaza level, and then to the waterfront.
- Cleaning and painting of plaza level columns.
- Repair of the granite facade.
Upcoming Activities
- Stage 1 roadway work, including the bridge over the Amtrak tracks, is anticipated to be completed in early 2025.
- Stage 2 roadway work is expected to begin in spring of 2025, including a new traffic configuration on the roadway level.
- Stage 3 full closure of the roadway level and exit ramp is scheduled for the summer of 2025, after which the roadway level will be fully reopened to motorists and buses, and the original M79 bus layover areas will be reestablished in the fall of 2025.
Despite the DOT spokesperson’s statement that the fall newsletter was the most recent update on the project, the “Rotunda Newsletter Spring 2025” had been sent out by a community liaison representing the construction entities involved in the project at the beginning of April.
The more recent updates in this newsletter included: the completion of the concrete deck on the south half of the traffic circle on the roadway level, the demolition of the existing garage on the garage level, and the successful digital scanning of the bronze turtle from the original fountain on the plaza level of the Rotunda, which will allow it to be installed on the renewed fountain at the end of the project.
The spring newsletter added that the traffic circle at the Rotunda will be fully closed in July or August to complete the construction on that level, which means you will not be able to exit the highway, if you are traveling south, for a period at 79th Street.
You can check out the full Rotunda Newsletter for the spring of 2025 — HERE.
The 79th Street Rotunda work will cover other features such as repainting bike lanes, upgrading public bathrooms, restoring masonry work throughout the facility, and replacing the stairs to the pedestrian plaza.
Neither the newsletter nor the DOT spokesperson confirmed whether 2026 is still the expected completion date for the project, but neither the “upcoming activities” section in the the fall or spring project newsletters referred to a date past 2025 for any sort of work.
If you have additional questions about the Upper West Side project, you can email renewingtherotunda@gmail.com
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Thank you for this very helpful update – greatly appreciated!
So will the boat basin restaurant reopen? That is the most important question! Given recent inflation I’m assuming it will be $20+ for a burger, but nothing beat eating outside by the water on a nice day, even if the food was worse than what my uncle made on his grill in suburbia and the prices were high.
Pier I was always better anyway….
not remotely close to true lol
So agree. That ‘pier’ restaurant has no atmosphere. Very big box. The opposite of the Rotunda in every way.
And I think the Pier I cafe is SO much better then the 79th st Boat Basin cafe ever was. Yes, the tile work was nice, but the food was awful. And, they did not serve FF, only little bags of chips. A deal breaker for me.
Full closure of the exit will be fun…
very true — means the exit at 96th Street will be even more crowded than it already is (if you get off at 57th Street and enter the side streets to come back uptown, you will get charged the congestion pricing toll).
With 79th St being my home exit, your comment echoed my thoughts exactly. One slip-up, one moment of forgetfulness driving south and ‘HELLOOOOO CONGESTING PRICING’! LOL
What if you get off at 57th but make an immediate u-turn and then get off on the ramp directly on west 79th street?
I hope the next update includes plans for restaurant service on the midlevel space. The lights, umbrellas and stonework of the last restaurant were a huge part of my good weather atmosphere, and I can’t wait to get it back.
If the southbound 79th street exit is closed then drivers heading to the Lincoln Square area have to get off at 96th street or go into the congestion zone at 57th street and pay the $9 toll. Is there a plan to give residents in this area some temporary relief from the toll while the 79th street exit is closed? Otherwise, Riverside Drive from 96 to 72 streets is going to be a mess.
When drivers give the rest of us relief from the killing of 200 people each year, the noise of horns, the asthma caused by pollution, the blocking of building entrances, and the delays for emergency vehicles, then you can ask for relief.
You will want relief when your uber or lyft does not show up.
I’m with you on the air and noise pollution and double parking causing delays for.emergency vehicles. But if you aren’t using a car how goes a blocked entrance bother you? Surely you can still walk on the sidewalk to public transportation.
For the months that the 79th St exit is closed all that will get worse. Lincoln10023 and other who live in the area or are coming in for a performance will be on surface streets from 96th down.
What about the marina? Why is living on the water so difficult here?
I drive past the site all the time coming off the W
SHWY and it has looked completely stalled for a long time. Perhaps they are working more below, but it looks like it’s a long long way from being anywhere near done.
China could build this in a weekend.
North Korea – by lunchtime!
While shooting a perfect 18 in golf!
You mean President Trump! For us old timers, we remember when he bailed out Mayor Koch. He had Wollman I ce Skating rink completed much quicker, when the City failed us. 🙂
Trump never paid any of the workers.
Some were paid and some were convinced to do the work for free , , , for the people of NYC
Except the contractors who worked on Wollman got beat by Trump for hundreds of thousand of dollars. Fact.
Exactly! In construction, it’s all about the flow of money. That’s what determines the true schedule.
What about the boat basin?
Hopefully never. The boat basin renovation is a criminal enterprise stealing tax dollars ($150 million) from the poor to build a storage place for gasoline ⛽️ guzzling air polluting toys of the rich.
I hope there is a cafe on one side, and a fish and chips on the other side so the aromas do not mix. And given that price tag they could include a performance space for children to learn drama and perform, a dog training and spa section, a space for trios and classical quartets to practice, and an open screen for movies. So we can have some cultural enrichment on the way to our no cost kayak races.
All vending should be available to local small business only!
Until the 79th street exit becomes available again after its closure, the congestion tolls on the west side should be pushed to 55th street. And considering that they were installed after work on 79th began, that should’ve been done from the get go. Smh
Will there ever be a restaurant on the Riverside Park Side of all of this? We used to left to go there sit out on the Terrace look at the now defunct Marina and the river and just generally pass a few hours with a burger and drinks and salads. I miss it so much I hope it comes back.
I drive on/off the HH Parkway at 79th St several times a week, and I jog past the rotunda on the river side just as frequently. There is just nothing going on there. This is the problem with our city, with our state and with our country: We pay through the nose and we get nothing in return. This is a sclerotic, corrupt system. I’m not advocating for Republicans or Democrats. It’s deeper than that. The whole cesspool that Caro describes in the Power Broker (and he probably describes the rotunda in that tome as well, since I am pretty sure Robert Moses built it :-), it never really went away. It just adapted. We still have no-show union jobs, political patronage, and straight up theft. Somehow, we have to find the will and the courage to reform the system. I’m just fed up! 🙂
Will there still be a place to get hammered after work?
Those construction workers are so lazy— same with riverside park south and the whole elevated Henry Hudson highway. The whole thing is a blight to our natural waterfront parks and the city should demolish all of it immediately! The fact that these parks take years is ridiculous! Lazy!
4 years seems exorbitant for such a small area. This should have taken 1-2 years to complete. They put stadiums up in less time.
4 years for this work is ridiculous. And it will take longer because it always does. But the main reason is because you just never see any work being undertaken on this project. The site is always empty… no workers. Total scam of a project