Kips Bay
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Kips Bay is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan. Like other neighborhoods in New York City, the boundaries of Kip's Bay are somewhat vague, but it is often considered to be the area between 23rd Street and 34th Street extending from the East River to Third Avenue. Often Kips Bay is linked to neighboring regions such as Murray Hill, Midtown East, or Gramercy.
Kips Bay was named after the Dutch farmer Jacobus Kip, whose New Amsterdam farm ran from Second Avenue and 35th Street to the East River. At that time, the river formed a bay which was named for him. This bay became reclaimed land, yet "Kips Bay" remains in the name of the area.
Kips Bay was also the site of the Landing at Kip's Bay, an episode of the American Revolutionary War and part of the New York and New Jersey campaign. About 4000 British Army troops under General William Howe landed at Kips Bay on September 15, 1776, near what is now the foot of East 33th Street. Howe's forces defeated about 500 American militiamen commanded by Colonel William Douglas. The American forces immediately retreated and the battle contributed to the British occupation of New York City soon afterward.
There are two large apartment buildings in the neighborhood named Kips Bay Towers, designed by architect I.M. Pei. Many businesses in the neighborhood use the name (Kips Bay Cinemas, Kips Bay Cleaners, Kips Bay branch of the New York Public Library). Built on a pier above the East River between 25th and 28th Streets are Waterside Plaza and the United Nations International School. There were plans to build additional above-water apartment towers in the 1980s, but environmental concerns doomed them. Today, the waterfront south of Waterside Plaza is Stuyvesant Cove Park.
The area is dominated by the institutional buildings of New York University, including the Tisch School of the Arts, NYU College of Dentistry, NYU School of Medicine, Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine and Bellevue Hospital Center teaching hospital. The Manhattan VA Hospital is also in Kips Bay.
Since the late 1990s, the area has been best recognized by a strip of businesses housed in a building located at 30th Street, which separated from the street by a driveway that runs parallel to 2nd Avenue. This strip is referred to as "Kips Bay,"[citation needed] which consists of an AMC/Loews movie theater, a Borders bookstore, a Crunch Fitness center, and a 24-hour Rite Aid pharmacy.
