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…)

Credit: ma.com

Developer had already obtained Landmarks’ approval for building at 83 Walker Street in June 2011. On May 9, 2012, the City Planning Commission is reviewing Abra Construction’s proposal to build a nine-story residential building on a vacant lot at 83 Walker Street in the Tribeca East Historic District. The narrow, nine-unit building would be 100 feet and 11 inches tall with no setback. The lot’s C6-2A zoning regulations limit the maximum base height for new buildings at 85 feet. The zoning resolution would also require that the height of a new building on the vacant lot be no greater than 81 feet, which is the height of the lowest abutting building. In order to construct its noncomplying building, Abra requested a special permit to modify the zoning resolution’s bulk regulations for buildings within historic districts.

Abra in June 2011 obtained Landmarks approval for the Morris Adjmi-designed proposal, which would feature a contemporary interpretation of cast-iron architecture. (read CityLand’s coverage here). Landmarks issued a certificate of appropriateness for the  proposal on July 28, 2012. Manhattan Community Board 1 recommended approval of the special permit by a vote of 41-0-0. Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer (more…)

Building owner in district obtained permit to build rooftop addition prior to Landmarks approval. On January 17, 2012, Landmarks held a public hearing on, and later designated, the East 10th Street Historic District in Manhattan’s East Village. The district encompasses a row of 26 buildings from 293 to 345 East 10th Street between Avenues A and B.

Many of the buildings were built speculatively to attract wealthy residents after the opening of Tompkins Square Park in 1834. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, to accommodate a growing working-class immigrant community, many of the buildings were converted into multi-family apartment buildings and the block’s vacant lots were developed with tenement buildings.
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Opponents concerned about project’s impact, lack of new full-service hospital, and use of park space. On November 30, 2011, the City Planning Commission held a public hearing on Rudin Management Company Inc.’s proposal to redevelop the former St. Vincent’s Hospital complex into a 450-unit mixed-used project. The project site includes two parcels in the West Village. The East Site parcel comprises the western half of the block bounded Sixth and Seventh Avenues and West 11th and 12th Streets and is occupied by St. Vincent’s eight-building campus. The Triangle Site, a triangle-shaped parcel across Seventh Avenue to the west of the complex is occupied by materials handling and gas storage facilities, and a raised landscaped area. The O’Toole Building to the north of the site was once part of Rudin’s development plans, but will now be used as a comprehensive health care center.

The existing buildings on the East Site consist of approximately 763,114 sq.ft. of floor area, and Rudin’s proposal would consist of approximately 635,290 sq.ft. of floor area. The project would include converting to residential use the Nurses’ Residence and the Smith and Raskob Buildings on West 12th Street and the Spellman Pavilion on West 11th Street. Rudin would construct a new sixteen-story building on the site of the Link and Coleman Pavilions facing Seventh Avenue, and a ten-story building would replace the Reiss Pavilion on West 12th Street at the East Site’s northeastern edge. Five four- and five-story townhouses would replace the Cronin Building at the southeastern edge of the site on West 11th Street. The project would provide 11,200 sq.ft. of ground floor retail space, and 25,094 sq.ft. of space for medical offices. A 152-space underground parking garage would be accessible from West 12th Street.  (more…)

Large expansion of Riverside/West End Historic District would encompass 338 buildings. On October 25, 2011, Landmarks heard testimony on the proposed Riverside/West End Historic District Extension II. The district would abut the northern end of the original Riverside/West End Historic District and include 338 buildings between West 109th and 89th Streets and Broadway and Riverside Drive. A handful of buildings along the west side of Broadway between 89th and 94th Streets would also be included in the extension.

The proposed district was calendared in November 2010 along with the Riverside/West End Historic District Extension I, which was the subject of a Landmarks hearing in March 2011, and the West End Collegiate Historic District Extension. 8 CityLand 45 (April 15, 2011).

The area encompassing the proposed district was developed between the late 1880s and 1920s. The first wave of development consisted primarily of three and four story row houses. After the opening of the Broadway subway line in 1904, larger apartment buildings were constructed in the area, as well as French Flat-style apartment buildings. The neighborhood saw the construction of high-rise apartment buildings in the years following World War I, with setbacks mandated by the 1916 zoning resolution. According to Landmarks, except for a small number of modestly scaled residential and institutional buildings, new construction in the area essentially ended after 1929.  (more…)