When architect David West joined Costas Kondylis and Parteners LLP in 1995, its founder suggested that he become the firm’s expert on the City’s zoning resolution. West, now a partner, shepherds the firm’s zoning analyses, responding to nearly 300 yearly requests regarding what a site’s zoning will allow and handling the firm’s appearances before BSA, Landmarks and the Planning Commission. In the past few years, he worked on the Plaza Hotel’s complicated conversion, the complex path to City Council approval for Tribeca’s 200 Chambers Street project, and the final design for the mid-town development that used the Hirschfeld Theatre’s air rights.

West talked to CityLand about the City’s intricate land use process, the rise in “star” architecture and his next Tribeca battle.

Three-dimensional Zoning. To learn the zoning resolution, West said he sat down to read it “cover to cover.” He looks at the text with a different perspective than land use attorneys, seeing the text in its three dimensions. West said he knows what building form the text is trying to achieve and the type of architecture that a site will yield, moving beyond listing the site’s permitted uses and its allowable, maximum floor area. Although he, like other architects, gets frustrated with the zoning resolution’s complexity and nuance, he describes it as an amazing achievement. Its complexity allows the bulk of development in the city to be as-of-right, which West, who grew up in Los Angeles and studied architecture at Berkeley, noted is remarkable given the city’s density and height. (read more…)