Explore Jersey City's Vibrant Hub - Journal Square

At seven o 'clock in the morning, the PATH train was transporting the first batch of commuters at Journal Square Station. Bank clerks in suits and ties and art college students carrying drawing boards were separated here and poured into the sky corridor wrapped in glass curtain walls. This square, once famous as the Jersey Journal printing house, has now become the most dramatic vertical community experimental field in the New York metropolitan area - historical industrial relics and future luxury collide here, forming a unique slice of life on the west bank of the Hudson River. Exploring the heart of Jersey City - Journal Square is an urban adventure that traverses the intersection of history and modernity. As the transportation hub, cultural center and emerging business district of Jersey City, this place combines the charm of old architecture with contemporary vitality, and is worth an in-depth exploration.

Historical Evolution

In the 17th century, this square area was the site of the farm and estate of the original settler Bergen. After the railway station was put into use in 1912, the original Jersey Daily office was demolished. It was not until 1923 in the 20th century that the current Square was formed, which was named "Journal Square". The Journal Square also has its own cultural golden age. The cinemas it contains, such as Loew's Jersey and Stanley Theatre, were once prosperous. In 1960, Kennedy delivered a campaign speech here, but they gradually declined after the 1960s. However, The history of Journal Square has never truly vanished; instead, it has been woven into the contemporary texture. In 1975, the Journal Square Transportation Center (JSTC) opened, and in 2010s, Journal Squared, a mixed-use development, was approved and successfully built. Nowadays, Journal Square has already been a popular and vibrant area, with new residential and commercial developments.

Apartment & Residential Development

In recent years, the "Journal Square 2060" plan has been promoting large-scale residential and commercial projects - such as the three skyscrapers of Journal Squared three blocks to the north rising from the ground, rewriting the city skyline. This complex of buildings designed by Handel Architects is like a crystal matrix. Among them, Journal Squared has 53 floors, Journal Squared 2 has 68 floors, and the latest building in 2024, Journal Squared 3, has 58 floors. These three apartment buildings in Journal Square have broken the height record in Jersey City. Meanwhile, the most disruptive innovation lies in the sky garden system. The shared amenities and social spaces of the three buildings are located on the rooftops and are interconnected, providing the people living here with an unparalleled, unique and luxurious lifestyle.

Transportation

The transportation hub of the Journal Square is like a precise gear. At eight o 'clock in the morning, the PATH train transported the crowd to the World Trade Center in Manhattan at intervals of around three minutes. If you work on Wall Street and live in Journal Squared, then during the morning rush hour on weekdays, your travel route will be: enter the elevator by facial recognition from the lobby of Journal Squared, go directly to the platform via the sky bridge, and you will be at the Wall Street cafe after 8 minutes. Moreover, the shared transportation network has woven more capillaries. In front of the charging pile matrix of the apartments around many squares, Zipcar electric vehicles are neatly lined up. When scanning the QR code to unlock the vehicle, the system automatically pushes the best route of the day. The Citi Bike lanes laid along Newark Ave allow you to reach six different cultural districts in ten minutes by bike, efficiently enjoying the cultural scenery of the city.

Flavor Corridor

Journal Square is also an amazing area to explore dining, shopping and entertainment options. At noon, Newark Ave transforms into a food United Nations. At Taste of Bangladesh, the curry pomfrets stewed in earthenware POTS are steaming with the aroma of fennel. The owner, Karim, shows a video of his hometown Chittagong fishing Port on a tablet: "Our spices are airlifted from Dhaka every week, just like the PATH train transporting office workers." The LoDG Coffee at the corner is filled with the aroma of blueberry wine from Ethiopian sun-dried beans. When night falls, the craft brew bar at Ed & Mary's begins to emit an amber sheen. The winemaker from Brooklyn pours Imperial Stout into oak barrels, and the projection art on the wall changes with the alcohol content.

Conclusion

When dusk bathed the Hudson River, the towers of Journal Square gradually lit up. The cooking studio in Urby wafted the aroma of garlic, a string quartet was held in the sky garden of Journal Squared, and the residents of The One picked late-ripening tomatoes on the roof. At this moment, the Journal Square is like a multi-faceted prism - reflecting the faint light of industrial history, focusing on the energy of contemporary life, and diffusing the infinite possibilities of the future community. When the PATH train once again breaks through the twilight, the steel carriages are filled not only with commuters but also with a vertical community's redefinition of urban life: between the sky and the railway tracks, between memory and the future, Journal Square is writing a brand-new chapter of urban civilization in the 21st century.