Renderings of the proposed complex at FDR Drive and 74th Street by Memorial Sloan-Kettering and The City University of New York/Hunter College. Image Credit: MSKCC and CUNY.

New Memorial Sloan Kettering/City of New York dual educational and hospital facility approved by City Council. On September 16, 2013, the City Council’s Land Use Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises held a public hearing on a proposal to develop a hospital and educational complex on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. The applicants were Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) and The City University of New York (CUNY)/Hunter College. The project site is located on 74th Street between York Avenue and Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) Drive, immediately north of the “medical corridor,” which includes Cornell Weill, New York Presbyterian Hospital, MSK, and Hospital for Special Surgery. The application would amend the zoning map to convert the current industrial zoning to support community facility development; amend the zoning text to allow contributions to public park improvement in exchange for additional floor area; provide special permits to waive certain height and setback requirements; and provide a special permit to increase the number of parking spaces in the MSK parking facility from 166 to 248. (read more…)

Extension includes 74 properties in two sections contiguous to Upper East Side’s original historic district. On March 23, 2010, Landmarks voted unanimously to designate the Upper East Side Historic District Extension. The extension consists of two distinct sections along Lexington Avenue, with one between East 71st and East 76th Streets, and the other between East 65th and East 63rd Streets.

The area first experienced a period of major development in the 1870s, spurred on by the opening of the Third Avenue and Second Avenue elevated rail lines in 1878 and 1880. Neo-Grec and Italianate-style architecture dominated this period of development. The construction of the Lexington Avenue Subway in 1911 triggered a second wave of development. Many existing rowhouses received exterior and interior alterations, and as apartment living became attractive to wealthy New Yorkers, developers began building large Beaux-Arts, Colonial Revival, and neo-Gothic apartment houses. The area’s development history, as well as the scale and character of properties within the extension, matched that of the Upper East Side Historic District, originally designated in 1981. (read more…)