The Springs Mills Building.

Green glass skyskraper was built on L-shaped lot between 1961 and 1963. On April 13, 2010, Landmarks voted unanimously to designate the Springs Mills Building at 104 West 40th Street as an individual City landmark. The Springs Mills linen company hired the firm of Harrison & Abramowitz to construct a 21-story building on an L-shaped through-block lot in 1961. The architects submitted building plans just before the City implemented its comprehensive overhaul of the zoning resolution.

The building’s main entrance is located in its slender 40th Street frontage, accessed through a small plaza. The structure’s wide base occupies the lot’s southern portion along 39th Street and includes setbacks at the sixth and twelfth floors. The building’s thin tower features a tinted green glass curtain wall in the form of an elongated hexagon and divided by aluminum mullions. The building is slightly wider at the center of the lot than at either of its frontages, allowing natural light to reach the structure’s interior.

(more…)

Green glass skyskraper was built on L-shaped lot between 1961 and 1963. On April 13, 2010, Landmarks voted unanimously to designate the Springs Mills Building at 104 West 40th Street as an individual City landmark. The Springs Mills linen company hired the firm of Harrison & Abramowitz to construct a 21-story building on an L-shaped through-block lot in 1961. The architects submitted building plans just before the City implemented its comprehensive overhaul of the zoning resolution.

The building’s main entrance is located in its slender 40th Street frontage, accessed through a small plaza. The structure’s wide base occupies the lot’s southern portion along 39th Street and includes setbacks at the sixth and twelfth floors. The building’s thin tower features a tinted green glass curtain wall in the form of an elongated hexagon and divided by aluminum mullions. The building is slightly wider at the center of the lot than at either of its frontages, allowing natural light to reach the structure’s interior. (more…)

Accessory garage’s 1973-issued certificate of occupancy permitted transient parking as secondary use. On March 10, 2010, the City Planning Commission approved Central Parking Systems’ application for a special permit to convert an existing 213- space accessory parking garage at 159 West 48th Street in Manhattan into a 220-space public parking garage. Central Parking would also provide 23 bicycle parking spaces.

The garage occupies six floors and the roof of a seven-story building with ground floor retail. The facility was built in 1973 as an accessory parking garage for an office building located at 1185 Sixth Avenue. Its certificate of occupancy permits transient parking as a secondary use. In October 2009, Buildings issued Central Parking a notice of violation for operating the garage as a public parking facility contrary to its certificate of occupancy. (more…)

Nation’s largest mass transit project will double NJ Transit’s commuter rail capacity into Manhattan. The City Council approved the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s applications related to the $8.7 billion Access to Region’s Core (ARC) passenger rail project. Jointly sponsored by the Port Authority and New Jersey Transit, the project’s goal is to double the capacity of NJ Transit’s commuter rail service into Manhattan by building a rail tunnel under the Hudson River connecting to an underground rail station adjacent to Penn Station.

The Port Authority submitted an application for a special permit to construct the new rail station, six station entrances, and four fan plants to provide emergency ventilation. The rail station will be 150 feet below grade at the terminus of the proposed tunnel along West 34th Street between Ninth and Sixth Avenues. The Port Authority will build the entrances along West 34th Street near intersections with Eighth, Seventh, and Sixth Avenues, and the four fan plants will be located from Eleventh through Sixth Avenues. (more…)

Developer plans two hotels with 354 rooms on platform above Amtrak. SCW West LLC applied for a special permit to allow development of two hotels on a platform to be built over two active, below-grade Amtrak rail lines and a vacant through-lot located west of 10th Avenue in Manhattan. The special permit sought to include the platform’s area into the calculation of lot area. SCW proposed a 12-story, 118-foot tall, 203-room hotel on West 43rd Street and a 9-story, 90-foot tall, 151-room hotel on West 44th Street. The 20,000-square-foot site lies partially within a residential zone and the Special Clinton District preservation area, but may be developed entirely for hotel use since over half of it is within, and the remainder lies adjacent to, a manufacturing zone.

At a September 13, 2006 public hearing, no speakers appeared in opposition; however, Community Board 4 voted against the special permit, noting that the design was too commercial and that floor area should be shifted from the 12-story hotel to the 9-story hotel, allowing both buildings to conform to neighborhood character. The board opposed the hotels’ plans to accept tour bus bookings and the inclusion of parking, arguing that it would create congestion. Anthony Borelli, speaking for Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, spoke in favor of the proposal and commended SCW for its willingness to work with the community.

The Commission approved, commenting that the hotels would not impede use of the rail line and Clinton’s streets could accommodate the project’s traffic, especially since neither hotel would include banquet halls or meeting facilities. Amtrak must still approve the platform’s structural design and its ventilation system.

ULURP Process
Lead Agency: DCP,Con.Neg.Dec.
Comm.Bd.: MN 4,Den’d, 32-0-1
Boro. President: App’d

CPC: 505-513 West 43rd Street (C 060334 ZSM – special permit) (Oct. 11, 2006). CITYADMIN