Rendering of proposed building for 39-41 West 23rd Street. Image credit: COOKFOX Architects

The proposed building would be located in a commercial district on a present-day parking lot.  On April 23, 2015 the City Council Subcommitee on Zoning and Franchises held a public hearing on 39 West 23rd Street, LLC’s proposal for a residential tower at 39-41 West 23rd Street in the Ladies’ Mile Historic District of Manhattan.  The proposal would build the tower, made of two building segments reaching a maximum height of 278 feet, on a through-lot between West 23rd and West 24th Streets.  The tower would feature 43 residential units, 800 square feet of ground floor retail space, and an underground parking garage for fifty vehicles and twenty-nine bicycles.

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Councilmember Dan Garodnick led the questioning on the One Vanderbilt proposal. Image credit: William Alatriste / New York City Council

Representatives of the project and the Department of City Planning spoke during a four-hour hearing.  On April 13, 2015 the City Council Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises held a public hearing on One Vanderbilt, a proposed 1,450-foot commercial tower in East Midtown, as well as an accompanying proposal to rezone five blocks of Vanderbilt Avenue to create the Vanderbilt Corridor.  The building will be located adjacent to Grand Central Terminal, bounded by East 42nd Street to the south, East 43rd Street to the north, Madison Avenue to the west, and Vanderbilt Avenue to the east.  The rezoning intends to facilitate commercial development on the west side of Vanderbilt Avenue between East 42nd and East 47th Streets, and designate Vanderbilt Avenue between East 42nd and East 43rd Streets as a public pedestrian space.  As a part of the overall proposal, project applicant SL Green will invest $210 million in transit and infrastructure improvements to Grand Central.

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Areas under study by the Department of City Planning for inclusion into the Special West Chelsea District. Area “A” is currently slated for expansion. Image credit: DCP

Proposal extends Special District bulk regulations and clarifies language in the zoning text.  On January 13, 2015 the City Council Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises voted to approve the expansion of the Special West Chelsea District. The proposal was designed by the Department of City Planning and Manhattan Community Board 4 to expand the district by one partial block between West 15th Street to the north, West 14th Street to the south, 9th Avenue to the east, and 10th Avenue to the west in order to reinforce the residential character of West Chelsea. The proposal was approved by the City Planning Commission on December 17, 2014.

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Diagram of rezoning area in the Special Clinton District in Manhattan. Image credit: CPC.

Council-approved developments in Special Clinton District will achieve 39 percent affordability across a range of Area Median Incomes. On June 26, 2014, the City Council unanimously voted 48-0 to approve applications which would facilitate the development of two new mixed-use buildings, the rehabilitation of another building, and creation of three new community gardens in the Special Clinton District in Manhattan. The joint applications were proposed by the Clinton Housing Development Company, the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, Taconic Investment Partners and Ritterman Capital. The project area is generally bounded by West 51st Street and West 53rd Street between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues.

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Rendering of proposed addition to Rockefeller University. Image credit: Rafael Viñoly Architects.

Council Member requests Rockefeller University to consider Community Board 8 and Borough President conditions. On April 23, 2014, the City Council Land Use Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises heard an application by Rockefeller University for a special permit and related actions to allow the expansion of its campus. Rockefeller University, located on the east side of York Avenue between East 64th and East 68th Streets in Manhattan and founded in 1901, is the first institution in the United States devoted solely to biomedical research.  Rockefeller University is proposing to build a new structure that would serve its existing population and provide the modern bio-medical research space necessary to recruit and retain top researchers and faculty. The proposed expansion of the Rockefeller University campus includes a two-story research building, one story- interactive conference center in a demapped airspace over the Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) Drive, and a one-story building for a recreational facility. Rockefeller University is located on the southern end of a large medical and academic corridor in Manhattan, which includes New York Presbyterian Hospital, Hospital for Special Surgery, Memorial Sloan Kettering, and Weil Cornell Medical College. (more…)