Solar Carve Tower Rendering. Image Credit Studio Gang Architects.
After consistent objections from community board and former City Council Speaker, developer drops controversial FAR request and is approved. William Gottlieb Real Estate can now move forward with development of Studio Gang Architects’ “Solar Carve” Tower, a ten-story structure that will occupy 40-56 Tenth Avenue, the full block between West 13th and 14th streets in Manhattan. William Gottlieb originally sought additional floor area to offset prohibitive construction costs resulting from poor subsurface conditions at the site, 10% of which is occupied by the High Line itself. Had the developer’s initial request for an FAR variance been granted, the proposed “Solar Carve” tower would have been 34% larger than allowed for by local zoning requirements. (read more…)
BSA granted a two-year special permit to allow CrossFit NYC to operate in the cellar level of an existing 31-story mixed residential and commercial building. The building, located on the corner of Columbus Avenue and West 67th Street, Manhattan, is partially within a C4-7 zoning district and partially within an R8 zoning district. Neither zoning districts permit the use of physical culture establishments. The building owner and CrossFit NYC, the lessee, appealed to Board of Standards and Appeals for a special permit to allow the development of their gym in the cellar of the building. CrossFit NYC planned to use the gym to hold classes, instruction and programs for physical improvement, body building, weight reduction, and aerobics. (read more…)
Eagle claimed huge sign visible from Queensboro Bridge was not an accessory sign. The Eagle Electric Manufacturing Company, in 1936, constructed a 1,950 square foot sign on the rooftop of its plant located at 23-10 Queens Plaza South, Queens. The plant is located in the M1-9/R9 Special Long Island City Mixed Use zoning district and within 200 feet of the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge. Eagle ceased operations in 2000; the plant where the sign is located is currently vacant. In 1999, the sign was leased to Atlantic Outdoor Advertising, Inc. and has since been used to advertise different products. (read more…)
Photo of Congregation Ohel Chabad Lubavitch-owned property located at 226-10 Francis Lewis Boulevard, Queens. Image Courtesy of Abba Refson.
BSA approval contingent upon several conditions, and restrictions of the hours of operation and access to gravesites. The Congregation Ohel Chabad Lubavitch owns the property at 226-10 Francis Lewis Boulevard, Queens adjacent to the Montefiore Cemetery where the Lubavitch spiritual leader Rebbe Menachem M. Schneerson and his predecessor Rebbe Yosef J. Schneerson are buried. Daily visitors numbering in the several hundreds use the property to access the graves of the Lubavitch leaders. In 1994 the Congregation purchased the property which comprises five adjacent buildings used by the visitors as a synagogue sanctuary and 24-hour per day access point to the gravesite.
The Congregation applied to the Board of Standards and Appeals for a variance to allow it to legalize and enlarge a synagogue and accessory uses at the property, and to waive the FAR, lot coverage, yard, and parking requirements. The Congregation’s initial application proposed to merge the five homes and legalize the operation of the synagogue and visitor’s center, while also providing accessory uses to visitors including synagogue services, prayer space, and a Shabbos house with overnight transient sleeping accommodations. The Congregation also proposed to connect the cellar, first story, and second story of the five homes, thereby increasing the FAR and lot coverage, and decreasing rear and side yards and parking space requirements, contrary to the existing R2A zoning regulations. (read more…)
View of the former gas station lot at St. Nicholas Avenue and 122nd Street. Credit: Google.
BSA granted use, area, and parking variances to permit construction of 13-story residential, commercial, and community facility building. Nicholas Parking Corporation and Ladera, LLC, owners of adjacent properties at 223-237 St. Nicholas Avenue, applied for building permits to develop a 169,192-square-foot, mixed-use building on St. Nicholas Avenue between West 121st and West 122nd Streets in Harlem. The project would include a FRESH program food store on the first floor and cellar, a preschool facility on the second floor, and 164 residential units on the remaining floors. Manhattan Community Board 10 disapproved of the project based upon the proposal’s lack of affordable housing.
On February 23, 2012, the Department of Buildings (DOB) denied the permit to build the project because the site sits partially within an R7A and an R8A/C2-4 zoning district. Part of the proposed FRESH program food store would extend 970 sq.ft. into the R7A district, which does not allow for commercial use. In addition, the proposal calls for only 30 of the 66 accessory parking spaces required by the Zoning Resolution to be off-site at a property one block away instead of on the site itself. Finally, the proposed lot coverage exceeds the maximum amount allowed by the Zoning Resolution by 689 sq.ft. on the corner lot.
(read more…)
