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…)
Developer plans to convert West Chelsea warehouse to a pre-K though 12 private school. On October 19, 2011, the City Planning Commission approved Avenues World Holdings LLC’s proposal to convert a ten-story warehouse into a 1,635- seat private K-12 school, known as Avenues: The World School, in West Chelsea. The Cass Gilbert-designed building occupies the western side of Tenth Avenue between West 25th and West 26th Streets, and is within Avthe boundaries of the Special West Chelsea District and the West Chelsea Historic District. The warehouse is across the street from the Elliot- Chelsea Houses and the High Line runs along its western facade.
Avenues World Holdings’ proposal includes adding a rooftop gym and renovating the recessed loading bay docks lining the building’s ground floor along Tenth Avenue. Avenues World Holdings would open the loading bays by removing overhead security doors to create two colonnades and increase circulation space for students. To accommodate the gym’s 25-foot high ceiling, Avenues World Holdings would need to increase the building’s height to 144 feet. (read more…)
- Proposed rooftop additions for three former factory buildings at 515 through 521 West 26th Street in Chelsea. Image: Courtesy of Murdock Young Architects.
Commissioners found additions’ visibility appropriate for Chelsea and the nearby High Line. On February 9, 2010, Landmarks approved 513 West 26th Street LLC’s proposal to construct rooftop additions on three, conjoined former factory buildings at 515 through 521 West 26th Street in the West Chelsea Historic District. The brick factory buildings, built between 1911 and 1921, vary in height from nine to three stories.
The applicant’s original proposal, presented on October 20, 2009, included three rectangular additions partially concealed by raised parapets and set back ten feet from the front facade and flush with the rear facade. As originally proposed, the additions featured translucent, glazed curtain walls of fritted glass which would be visible from several vantage points, including the High Line.
Shea Murdock, from Murdock Young Architects, argued that visible additions were appropriate for the location because there would be dialogue between the activity inside the glass structures and the activity on the High Line. (read more…)
- West Chelsea Historic District. Image: Courtesy of NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission.
Property owners unsuccessfully petitioned for exclusion. On October 23, 2008, after contentious hearings at the Landmarks, Public Siting, & Maritime Uses Subcommittee, the full Council voted to approve the designation of seven more blocks for the West Chelsea Historic District.
When the matter was before the Landmarks Preservation Commission, several property owners in the area expressed opposition to the proposal, or asked that their property be carved out of the district. 5 CityLand 78 (June 15, 2008). At the Subcommittee hearing on October 2nd, a representative of the New York Terminal Warehouse Central Stores testified that the owners had planned to sell the property to Related Companies, developer of the nearby Hudson Yards project, for apartment conversion, and now stood to lose over $100 million. He called the designation “a political effort to stop development.” James Pastreich, owner of properties at 547 West 27th and 554 West 28th Streets, pleaded with Subcommittee Members to exclude the 28th Street site, which currently houses a bar. Pastreich wanted to use his air rights to build a six-story building at the site. (read more…)
- Proposed West Chelsea Historic District. Image: LPC.
New York Terminal Central Stores, Real Estate Board, and Cedar Lake Ballet testified against proposed designation. On May 13, 2008, Landmarks heard testimony on a proposal to designate a seven-block portion of West Chelsea as a historic district.
Located between West 25th and West 28th Streets, from the West Side Highway to Tenth Avenue, the proposed West Chelsea Historic District would protect brick industrial buildings dating as far back as 1885, some of which housed the operations of industrial giants such as the Otis Elevator Co. and Cornell Iron Works. The buildings represent some of the earliest examples of reinforced concrete construction and modern industrial design. (read more…)
