In 2008 Landmarks approved for the same NoHo site a similarly sized building that was to be clad in limestone. On May 11, 2010, Landmarks approved DDG Partners’ revised proposal to build an eight-story residential building at 41 Bond Street in Manhattan’s NoHo Historic District Extension. In 2008 and 2009, the lot’s former owner had obtained a certificate of appropriateness from Landmarks and a use variance from the Board of Standards & Appeals in order to build a similarly sized, limestone- clad structure at the site. The owner started construction, but sold the property before completing the project. DDG Partners requested an amendment to the certificate of appropriateness.

At a hearing on May 4, DDG Partners’ Peter Guthrie stated that the building’s front facade would be clad entirely in bluestone. Guthrie said the utilitarian character of bluestone would better connect to the neighborhood’s history than the previously approved limestone facade. The design included recessed windows with planted window boxes, and a planted roof canopy. The rear facade would consist of a glass curtain wall divided by bluestone with sliding glass opening to small balconies, which would also feature plantings. (more…)

Proposal includes options for single- and multi-tenant building on site currently occupied by the Hotel Pennsylvania. On February 8, 2010, the City Planning Commission certified Vornado Realty Trust’s application to build a 2.05 million sq.ft. office tower at 15 Penn Plaza in Manhattan. The site is across the street from Madison Square Garden and Penn Station, and is currently occupied by the Vornado- controlled 1,700-room Hotel Pennsylvania. Vornado would demolish the hotel to build the tower, and it intends to construct an as-of-right building if it does not obtain approval for the proposed project. In order to increase development flexibility and ensure that it can begin construction as soon as possible, Vornado’s application included two different building plans. It originally proposed two building scenarios that would have provided 2.84 and 2.65 million sq.ft. of floor area respectively. 6 CityLand 7 (Feb. 15, 2009). The reduced certified proposal, however, showed two buildings that would each total 2.05 million sq.ft. of floor area. According to Vornado, the designs cannot be blended, and it intends to build one or the other of the proposed options.

A single-tenant, 67-story building option would feature a ten-story, 218-foot tall base with a tapered tower rising to 1,190 feet and no setback along the Seventh Avenue frontage. The tower proposal would provide 2.04 million sq.ft. of office space and 12,000 sq.ft. of retail space on the ground floor. (more…)

HPD-sponsored project will create 600 permanently affordable housing units, convert P.S. 51 into residential housing,and build a new school on the project site. On March 3, 2010, the City Council approved the Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s proposal to allow the Gotham Organization Inc. to develop a 1.15 million sq.ft. mixed-use project that will occupy most of the block between West 44th and 45th Streets and Tenth and Eleventh Avenues in Manhattan. The project site is currently occupied by two parking lots, Shamrock Stables, a vacant warehouse, and P.S. 51, a 276-seat elementary school. An open rail cut with below-grade tracks used by Amtrak’s Empire Line occupies the site’s easternmost portion. In 2001, the City’s Economic Development Corporation proposed to construct a television production facility, known as Studio City, but the project never materialized.

Gotham will build four residential structures on the site and convert P.S. 51 into a residential building. The School Construction Authority will build a 631-seat public school to the south of the existing school, which will front West 44th Street and be partially funded by Gotham. The entire project will provide approximately 1,250 residential units, 600 of which will be permanently affordable.

On the site’s Eleventh Avenue western edge,  Gotham will develop a residential building with a seven-story base that wraps around West 44th and 45th Streets and a tower that rises up to 31 stories. Twenty percent of the building’s 675 units will be offered as affordable housing. Gotham will build a mid-block, fourteen-story building fronting West 44th and 45th Streets comprised entirely of affordable units. Two fourteen-story buildings to the east of P.S. 51 will be located on a platform built over the Amtrak rail tracks. Both buildings will be entirely affordable housing. Gotham will convert P.S. 51 into market-rate residential housing after it has completed all of the new construction and the School Construction Authority has completed the new school.

In support of the project HPD submitted multiple applications, including requests to dispose of City-owned property and to rezone the western edge of the site from M1-5 to R10 and the mid-block portion to R8. The Inclusionary Housing Program provisions will now apply to the portion of the site rezoned to R10.

At the City Planning Commission’s hearing, teachers and parents of P.S. 51 students asked that rooftop recreational space be added to the new school because part of P.S. 51’s current playground space would be lost to the project. The Commission approved the plan with modifications, including restricting the disposition to the current project as proposed in order to prevent future inappropriately- scaled development.

At the Council’s Zoning & Franchises Subcommittee hearing, Melissa Pianko, vice president of development at Gotham, noted that Gotham will contribute $20 million to build affordable housing elsewhere in Manhattan and $15 million to help cover the cost of the new school’s construction. Residents with children at P.S. 51 supported the creation of a new school facility, but reiterated their concerns that it needed additional recreational space. Chair Mark Weprin explained that the proposed school was not part of the proposal being considered and that it would be considered as part of a separate application.

The Subcommittee unanimously approved the proposal, and the Land Use Committee and the full Council followed suit.

Review Process
Lead Agency:HPD,Neg.Dec.
Comm.Bd.: MN 4,App’d, 35-0-0
Boro.Pres.: App’d
CPC: App’d, 13-0-0
Council: App’d, 49-0-2

Council: West 44th Street/11th Avenue (C 100051 ZMM – rezoning); (N 100052 ZRM – text amend.); (C 100053 ZSM – spec. perm.); (C 100054 ZSM – spec. perm.); (C 100055 HAM – UDAAP) (March 3, 2010) (Architects: SLCE Architects).

Sanitation proposed to reopen marine waste transfer station near Asphalt Green and Bobby Wagner Walk. After the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island closed in 2001, the Department of Sanitation contracted with privately-owned transfer stations, landfills, and waste-to-energy facilities to dispose of residential waste. Sanitation now delivers a large percentage of waste to transfer stations within the City, where tractor- trailers pick up the waste and drive it to landfills in other states.

In 2004, Mayor Bloomberg announced a new 20-year solid waste management plan. The City’s marine waste transfer stations would containerize solid waste onsite, and private companies would transport it by barge or rail, thereby reducing truck traffic and long-term costs. The marine waste transfer station at East 91st Street, bounded by the East River to the north and east, Carl Schurz Park to the south, and FDR Drive to the west, would be redeveloped to containerize waste generated in Manhattan. Sanitation trucks would access the transfer station using an elevated ramp that crossed over Asphalt Green, a sports and recreational complex located between York Avenue and FDR Drive. (more…)

In a three-two decision, BSA found that side lot ribbon existed even though that portion of the zoning lot was not completely open to the sky. The owners of 846 70th Street applied to Buildings for a new 10ft. curb cut that would facilitate off-street parking in the front yard of their attached home. The home is one of 19 continuously attached homes in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn. Buildings granted the permit, finding that, when no more than two parking spaces are required, off-street parking for a residential building in an R4-1 district is permitted within any portion of the side lot ribbon, the 8-10ft. wide area that extends along the entire length of a retenside of a zoning lot. A neighbor appealed the decision to BSA.

The neighbor claimed that the Zoning Resolution expressly prohibited front yard parking for attached homes in an R4-1 district, and that Buildings incorrectly granted the permit since the parking space would be within an open area between the street line and the street wall of the attached home. The neighbor further claimed that parking was not permitted within the purported side lot ribbon, including the section that overlapped the front yard, because side lot ribbons could not exist on a zoning lot where an attached home extended the entire width of the zoning lot. Moreover, the neighbor argued that the framers of the Zoning Resolution intended to prohibit parking in front yards of attached homes in R4-1 districts since front yard parking for attached homes is prohibited in R4B and R5B districts, districts that typically produce attached rowhouses similar to those found in R4-1 districts. (more…)