Solar Carve Tower Rendering. Image Credit Studio Gang Architects.

After consistent objections from community board and former City Council Speaker, developer drops controversial FAR request and is approved. William Gottlieb Real Estate can now move forward with development of Studio Gang Architects’ “Solar Carve” Tower, a ten-story structure that will occupy 40-56 Tenth Avenue, the full block between West 13th and 14th streets in Manhattan. William Gottlieb originally sought additional floor area to offset prohibitive construction costs resulting from poor subsurface conditions at the site, 10% of which is occupied by the High Line itself. Had the developer’s initial request for an FAR variance been granted, the proposed “Solar Carve” tower would have been 34% larger than allowed for by local zoning requirements. (read more…)

Chelsea Market exterior at 75 Ninth Avenue, Manhattan. Credit: Chelsea Market.

See below for update.

Affordable housing contribution would be used by nearby Fulton Houses if floor area bonus utilized. On October 25, 2012, the City Council’s Land Use Committee approved Jamestown Properties’ modified expansion plan for Chelsea Market at 75 Ninth Avenue in Manhattan. The Market is a complex of 18 different buildings occupying the entire block bounded by West 14th and West 15th Streets and Ninth and Tenth Avenues. A section of the High Line Park cuts through the Market along Tenth Avenue. The expansion would facilitate the growth of Chelsea Market’s creative and media office use, as well as provide financial and practical benefits to the High Line.

The proposed expansion plan includes a 240,000-square-foot office space enlargement for 85 Tenth Avenue and a 90,000-square-foot enlargement at 75 Ninth Avenue for hotel use. The plan also extends the Special West Chelsea District to include the entire Chelsea Market block. The Special West Chelsea District was created in 2005. 2 CityLand 83 (July 15, 2005). The inclusion would facilitate the proposed expansion by retaining the block’s M1-5 zoning designation, and by allowing an increase in the maximum floor area ratio on the site from 5.0 to 7.5 FAR upon Jamestown making a financial contribution to the High Line Improvement Fund. Jamestown also promised to provide the High Line with amenities such as public restrooms and a freight elevator. (read more…)

Image: Courtesy of Morris Adjmi Architects

Project approved after height was further reduced by eight feet. On July 19, 2011, Landmarks approved Taconic Investment Partners’ revised proposal to build a four-story addition above a low-rise Moderne-style building across the street from the High Line at 837 Washington Street in the Gansevoort Market Historic District. Taconic first proposed a seven-story addition in November 2010, which it then reduced and resubmitted to Landmarks in April of 2011. The Commissioners generally praised the Morris Adjmi-designed torqued glass and steel tower, but expressed reservations about approving such a large and visible addition to a contributing building in a historic district. 8 CityLand 62 (May 15, 2011).

At a June meeting, Taconic presented a plan nearly identical in design to the previous iteration, but with floor heights reduced to create a building eight feet shorter than the prior proposal. Architectural consultant Bill Higgins explained that the vertical steel beams would now be visible through the storefronts of the existing building, which demonstrated the interplay between the new addition and existing building.  (read more…)

City can now negotiate to acquire northern section of High Line in order to complete 1.45-mile elevated park. On July 29, 2010, the City Council approved a proposal by the Department of Citywide Administrative Services and the Department of Parks and Recreation to acquire the remaining portion of the High Line elevated rail line and associated easements. This section, currently owned by CSX Corporation, begins at West 30th Street between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues and runs west before turning north and terminating at West 34th Street. It also includes the “spur,” which extends east off the main structure at West 30th Street and terminates above the intersection of Tenth Avenue and West 30th Street. The easements associated with the structure generally extend below and above the High Line and include property owned by the MTA and the Convention Center Development Corporation. (read more…)

Image: Joel Sternfeld ©2000, courtesy of Friends of the High Line.

Acquisition of the High Line’s third section would allow the City to complete contiguous 1.45-mile elevated public park. On May 12, 2010, the City Planning Commission heard testimony on the Department of Citywide Administrative Services and the Department of Parks & Recreation’s proposal to acquire the northern portion of the High Line elevated rail line from CSX Corporation. This section branches out from Tenth Avenue and 30th Street — a portion referred to as the “spur” — and runs east along the perimeter of the Hudson Yards on West 30th Street before turning north up Twelfth Avenue and terminating below grade at West 34th Street. The acquisition would facilitate the transfer of ownership to the City and permit the development of the High Line’s third and final section.

The High Line is a 1.45-mile elevated steel and concrete rail line built in the 1930s to deliver meat and other goods throughout Manhattan’s lower west side. Trains stopped running along the High Line in 1980, and nearly twenty years later community activists formed Friends of the High Line in order to preserve the High Line and advocate for the construction of a publicly accessible park on the structure. (read more…)

Property owner claimed that a complying development was difficult because the High Line crossed the lot. Romanoff Equities applied to BSA for a variance to construct a twelve-story, 215-foot tall office building at 437 West 13th Street, a site occupied by a portion of the High Line. The original design included cantilevering a portion of the building ten feet over the High Line and using the first three floors for retail space.

Residents and preservation groups opposed the proposal, while others supported certain aspects of the application. Manhattan Community Board 2 approved the proposal but recommended that Romanoff reduce the total floor area. The City Planning Commission submitted a letter stating that it supported the height and setback waivers, but objected to the original proposal’s total floor area, the extension of retail uses above the second floor, and cantilevering any portion of the building over the High Line.

During the hearing process, Romanoff modified the proposal to a ten-story building with a two-foot cantilever that would not extend over the High Line, and agreed to use only the first two floors for retail. Romanoff still needed a variance because the project included a noncomplying retail use and exceeded the M1-5 district’s permitted floor area and minimum setback and rear yard requirements. (read more…)