Boundary map for Special Hudson Square District

Trinity Church proposed that 18 blocks be rezoned to allow residential uses and accommodate the Church’s future development project near Duarte Square. On August 20, 2012, the City Planning Commission certified Trinity Church’s proposal to create the Special Hudson Square District in Manhattan. The Special District would include 18 blocks generally bounded by West Houston and Canal Streets, Avenue of the Americas, and Greenwich Street. Trinity Church controls approximately 39 percent of the lot area within the proposed Special District. The area’s M1-6 zoning permits manufacturing and commercial uses, but prohibits residential uses and does not set maximum building heights. The stated goals of the Special District include permitting the expansion and new development of residential, commercial, and community facility uses while promoting the retention of commercial and light manufacturing uses.

Under the proposal, the area’s underlying M1-6 zoning would remain, but the Special District regulations would permit residential uses, provide incentives to create affordable housing, and establish building height limits and setback requirements to reinforce existing neighborhood character. The Special District would include a residential development goal of approximately 2,200 new residential units. The proposal would also establish two subdistricts with individually tailored regulations in the southern portion of the Special District. (more…)

23rd Regiment Armory in Crown Heights

Department of Homeless Services operates a 350-bed men’s shelter in head house of landmarked Armory. On August 14, 2012, the City Economic Development Corporation issued a request for proposals from developers interested in leasing and reusing a 50,000-square-foot drill hall space in the 23rd Regiment Armory at the corner Bedford and Atlantic Avenues in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. The National Guard completed the Romanesque Revival-style Armory in 1895. The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the building as an individual landmark in 1977. Since 1982 the Department of Homeless Services has used the Armory’s five-story head house as a 350-bed homeless shelter. EDC is seeking proposals to develop “neighborhood-serving uses” in the adjacent drill hall and enhance community access to the space. The selected developer would control the drill hall space through a triple net ground lease, which would require the developer to be responsible for operating expenses, insurance, repairs, and property taxes.

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If one were to draw a circle a mile in radius with the hub being Washington Square, and time-traveled back 50 years to 1962, included within the circle would be a low-rent failing commercial district along Lower Broadway; a darkened, empty loft factory area south of Houston Street; a bleak Hudson River waterfront in the shadow of a deteriorating West Side Highway; an industrial meatpacking district dead in the daytime and a slaughterhouse at night; an empty High Line sprouting weeds above and blighting the streets below; and a Union Square so dangerous and empty that it was one of the City’s most notorious needle parks.

New York University chose at that moment to move its Bronx campus to Washington Square, an oasis benefitting from the adjacent Italian community and the glorious housing of the West Village. NYU now calls the area closest to Washington Square its core, and wants to expand by building on land within the superblocks immediately south of the Park. The City should approve that plan.

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NYU superblock development as originally proposed. Credit: NYU

Modifications include reducing building heights and below-grade space, and eliminating the proposed commercial overlay for the “Loft Blocks” and hotel use in the “Zipper Building.” On June 6, 2012, the City Planning Commission modified New York University’s proposal to expand its Greenwich Village campus. NYU’s proposal included developing four new buildings on two superblocks divided by Bleecker Street and bounded by West 3rd Street, West Houston Street, Mercer Street, and LaGuardia Place. The southern superblock contains three landmarked 30-story buildings designed by I.M. Pei and used for NYU faculty housing (Silver Towers 1 and 2) and middle-income affordable housing (505 LaGuardia Place). The superblock is also occupied by a supermarket at the corner of Bleecker Street and LaGuardia Place, and NYU’s Coles Gym along Mercer Street. The northern superblock is occupied by NYU’s two, nearly 600-foot-long, Washington Square Village apartment buildings, and a one-story retail strip along LaGuardia Place.

NYU estimates that the project would take 19 years to complete. The project’s first phase would focus on the southern superblock. NYU planned to replace the supermarket with a 178-foot tower providing space for a public school and an NYU dormitory. Coles Gym would be replaced with the “Zipper Building,” a block-long building featuring a four- to five-story plinth with six staggered towers in a zippered pattern that rise (more…)

Public Design Commission rejected Comptroller’s recommendation for more efficient design review process.  The New York City Public Design Commission (formerly known as the Art Commission) reviews permanent works of art, architecture, and landscape architecture proposed on or over City-owned property. The Commission is composed of 11 unpaid members, eight of whom are appointed by the mayor, and includes an architect, landscape architect, painter, and sculptor, as well as representatives of the Brooklyn Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the New York Public Library.

The City agency with jurisdiction over the property on which a proposed project is located must submit its design to the Commission. Prior to submitting a proposal to the Commission, applicants must ensure compliance with the regulations of (more…)