Fashion Institute of Technology’s proposed academic building required street wall height and setback approvals. The Fashion Institute of Technology, a college of the State University of New York, applied to BSA for a special permit to construct a ten-story addition to its existing nine-story academic building on the south side of West 28th Street, between Seventh and Eighth Avenues. The 15,092 sq.ft. site is currently occupied by a walled-in courtyard and surrounded by FIT’s academic and student life facilities.

The design calls for a building with a 134-foot street wall that would set back eight feet, before rising to a maximum height of 144 feet. The plan includes creating between the existing building and the new structure a full-height atrium that would allow natural light to reach all floors of both buildings. FIT required a special permit because the site’s C6-2 zoning regulations permitted a maximum street wall height of 85 feet with a minimum twenty-foot setback, and because the building would penetrate the sky exposure plane. (more…)