375 Pearl Street - Verizon Bldg (downtown) remake

[NYguy]

http://www.nypost.com/seven/09262007/business/downtown_tower_deal.htm

DOWNTOWN TOWER DEAL
VERIZON SELLS CHEAP TO TACONIC

http://www.nypost.com/seven/09262007/photos/biz042.jpg

375 PEARL ST.
Will get window wall.

By LOIS WEISS
September 26, 2007

Verizon is selling the majority of its building at 375 Pearl St. to Taconic Partners for the dirt-cheap price of $172.05 million.

Taconic and investment partner Square Mile Capital are buying a condominium interest in 930,000 feet of the 1.098 million foot structure, Taconic executives said.

"We saw it as a Taconic-style play: finding great bones at a good value and we put our foot to the metal to take it," said Taconic Partner Paul Pariser.

The group is scooping up the 32-story tower, next to Murry Bergtraum High School and rising over the city's downtown Civic Center, for $185 a foot at a time when land and even air rights in Manhattan have soared, in some cases, to over $500 a foot.

Taconic has hired Cook + Fox, architects of the the Bank of America Tower at One Bryant Park for design work and will spend up to $100 million to add as many as six elevator cabs, install new HVAC, new electricity, bathrooms and completely strip and reskin the limestone structure. The new design will also include 360-degree window walls.

Taconic will own the ground retail area along with floors 2-7 and 11-32. Verizon will retain floors 8-10 and cellar space for its "mission critical" switching facilities.

Bill Shanahan, Rob Stillman and Bob Alexander of CB Richard Ellis pitched the former New York Telephone property to a select group of developers on behalf of Verizon.

The deal is expected to close in December.

[212]

Hm!
First please remove the obnoxious Verizon sign.

[RandySavage]

Great news... that building is one the City's ugliest and most skyline-blighting (from Brooklyn).

[JacobNYC]

Oh you can't be serious. This is an early christmas present for ALL new yorkers.

[lofter1]

Good news for NYers --

But WHAT will these new owners actually do with their space in this thing?

It's in a terrible location -- blocks from any subway -- and even when the 2nd Avenue Line eventually gets down that way the nearest stations will still be way far off.

[londonlawyer]

Awesome!

[Derek2k3]

Isn't this only like 2 blocks down from the Chambers Street-Brooklyn Bridge stop at the Municipal Building. It takes like 5 min. to walk there. The area is pretty dead but the tenants will have great views in every direction.

[lofter1]

Those are some long blocks (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=375+pearl+street,+new+york,+ny&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=30.875284,58.535156&ie=UTF8&ll=40.710947,-74.002318&spn=0.007205,0.014291&z=16&om=1) -- and cold & nasty ones come wintertime :(

[ablarc]

^ More evidence that the Second Avenue Subway is being built in an unsatisfactory alignment.

[ZippyTheChimp]

Those are some long blocks (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=375+pearl+street,+new+york,+ny&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=30.875284,58.535156&ie=UTF8&ll=40.710947,-74.002318&spn=0.007205,0.014291&z=16&om=1) -- and cold & nasty ones come wintertime :(It's closer to the subway than 10th Ave in the 50s. The SAS Chatham Sq station will be about 1000 ft away.

I don't see the big deal with the subway. Verizon workers commute there every day.

[Skylimitone]

I don't think the subway would be a big deal either. The re cladding should be interesting with Cook + Fox as the architect.

[ZippyTheChimp]

The building has high ceilings, 16 - 17 ft.

[krulltime]

Hurray for New York! This is a Verizon buliding I would never missed.

[TREPYE]

http://www.nypost.com/seven/09262007/business/downtown_tower_deal.htm

DOWNTOWN TOWER DEAL
VERIZON SELLS CHEAP TO TACONIC

http://www.nypost.com/seven/09262007/photos/biz042.jpg
.

Oh, Please go all the way with this eyesore POS monstrocity --that exemplifies how bad NYC treats it waterfront-- and decontruct it.

[Archit_K]

Not bad, consider it a facelift for One Brooklyn Bridge Plaza... I don't understand why Verizon is selling majority of it's bldg. 4 little or nothing. Does this mean the Verizon logo will be removed?

[212]

Is Verizon looking to unload any more properties? If Verizon would also sell its building in Hell's Kitchen for re-cladding, it'd deserve a Pritzker Prize for single-handedly fixing the Downtown and Midtown skylines. (Keep the Soho one ... it's kind of interesting.)

[BigMac]

dtiddy on Flickr
October 14, 2007

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2332/1570664869_46506f18f0_b.jpg

[NYguy]

^ Even more horrid close up.

Here's an aerial shot from newyorkharborbeaches.org

http://newyorkharborbeaches.org/image/beach13img02.jpg

[NYguy]

Still waiting on renderings for this...
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Taconic+shines+up+Pearl+for+tenants.-a0170235983

Taconic shines up Pearl for tenants.

Real Estate Weekly
Oct 17, 2007
Daniel Geiger


When Taconic Investment Partners purchased 375 Pearl Street from Verizon for a reported $172 million, the deal--as much of a homerun value as it seemed--stoked the curiosity of some brokers who wondered what kind of tenants the building would draw.

"It's north of the Brooklyn Bridge," one broker who does deals downtown told REW in the kind of statement that leasing experts familiar with that area take as self explanatory. The Brooklyn Bridge is considered a border to Lower Manhattan's core office district and anything north of it is thought of as off the beaten track.

It's as much of a psychological barrier as anything else because Pearl Street runs uninterrupted underneath the bridge, meaning the areas north and south aren't actually cut off from one another.

Taconic expects interest from the types of tenants who have come to other parts of downtown seeking value but have been stymied by the district's shortage of available large blocks of office space and the recent uptick in rents for its class A space.

375 Pearl Street, which was a long time home for Verizon offices and a switching station, will be renovated to the point where Taconic says it will essentially be commensurate to ground-up office construction.

In fact, Ari Shalam, Taconic's senior vice president and director of acquisitions, said that the building's overhaul would be similar in scope to the one being conducted by the Blackstone Group on 1095 Avenue of the Americas, Verizon's former headquarters in midtown, which is undergoing a complete makeover.

Like 1095 Avenue of the Americas, among the most dramatic upgrades that 375 Pearl Street will receive is a new glass skin that will eliminate the thin vertical strips of windows and clunky facade that now sheathe the 32-story building and choke off its soaring views.

Shalam said the building could draw tenants in creative industries such as media and publishing that have flocked to downtown neighborhoods in order to escape midtown's soaring rents.

Verizon plans to retain some of its space at 375 Pearl Street in the form of a condo interest on the entire building's 3rd floor so that it can continue to operate a switching station.

[MidtownGuy]

This is a reclad I definitely look forward too. Just not green this time, OK?

[NYatKNIGHT]

Not black either.

[lofter1]

and no patches of yellow :(

[Ebola]

I know it has been said many times before, I guess, but this is by far the shittiest tower in all of NYC. When ever we look at the WTC from Brooklyn, we'll see this POS. The remake best be good; if the building even looks slightly decent when the remake's complete, NYC's DT skyline from the Brooklyn Bridge angle will be improved ten-fold.

[Optimus Prime]

It would be pretty cool if they used the WTC's glass, I think. Not that I want the whole city to be clad in the same glass, but doing it on this building might have a nice bookend effect. With Cook&Fox I would expect to see something in the black-grey-white range, though. Which is better than green!

[Jake]

What can we realistically hope for? It's not like they have much to work with. :p

[kz1000ps]

^ True. My guess is that whatever sheaths the elevator core will hardly be any better than what it's covered in already.

As for glass color, I could go for 7 WTC's. This building is an ugly, heavy mass, and glass like 7's would make it visually lose tons of weight and keep the eyes from dwelling on it for too long.

[MidtownGuy]

yeah, that elevator core is hideous, what were they thinking by facing it right in the view of every person entering Manhattan from the bridge?

[ablarc]

What can we realistically hope for? It's not like they have much to work with. :p
Where you been, Jake?

Welcome back.

[ZippyTheChimp]

If Verizon would also sell its building in Hell's Kitchen for re-claddingNot a Verizon building; owned by AT&T. The two properties Verizon sold were primarily office buildings, not equipment buildings like at 10th Ave.
(Keep the Soho one ... it's kind of interesting.)Soho?

[lofter1]

You know ^ near Federal Plaza -- in that vast area South of Houston (which nowadays seems to encompass anything downtown)

[ZippyTheChimp]

Oh, that one.

Also an AT&T equipment building.

[Jim856796]

The current look of this building is a 1960s modern style even though it was built in 1976. I don't even know what the building will look like after its facelift.

[lizbeth li]

The subway walk is windy and uphill, so it's not pleasant even if it's short, this at least in cold weather. A bigger problem of making the building upscale is the Alfred E. Smith housing project across Pearl and the school on the side, with plenty of kids hanging, and the very dead and dark area under the bridge. Not to mention the bridge itself, which will be in many people's living rooms. Having lived on the other side in Southbrdige Towers, I am incredibly aware not only of bridge traffic but on-ramp accelerating traffic, including 18-wheelers. Southbridge itself seems stuck in some endless condo battle, so this area won't get upscaled soon. There is another factor in all this, not merely the "psychology of the bridge." The people on the East Side here are very different than the further downtown yups or the West Side ones. You have all the court buildings here, you have the prisons, many municipal services (and employment), and whatnot, so Fulton St. and the Seaport are very heavily Hispanic and black, the shops very downscale, etc. Buidling luxury apartments here in a scarce market is a no-brainer, but if things turn then this can be a bad idea. Of course, in terms of the architecture, ANYTHING is better than this building. Are they going to blow through the walls for more windows? I always thought the place just cement for equipment and was even surprised it was an office building. Jesus. This is my first post and I find reading this site great.

[BrooklynRider]

I think that the Manhattan Bridge is much noisier than the Brooklyn Bridge with the addditional train traffic. Three new high-end towers were recently completed in closer proximity to the Manhattan Bridge (on the Brooklyn side) than Verizon is to the Brooklyn Bridge. The retail on the Brooklyn side is pretty scarce as well.

[lizbeth li]

I think that the Manhattan Bridge is much noisier than the Brooklyn Bridge with the addditional train traffic. Three new high-end towers were recently completed in closer proximity to the Manhattan Bridge (on the Brooklyn side) than Verizon is to the Brooklyn Bridge. The retail on the Brooklyn side is pretty scarce as well.

I can't picture the area you're talking about and each area is different. Some upscale places get panache by being near factories and the like, this loft working-class pretense of the rich. Maybe the area you are referring to has this feel (like Dumbo). The area around the Verizon building has kind of no working-class feel and if it did, that went out with the fish. It is really a no man's land without real identity, and in this sense the noise and bother of the bridge (not the beauty, not if you are right next to it) might not seem so cool. I'm just guessing and I did say if the market was hot anything could sell.

[BrooklynRider]

Yes, the area I was referring to is DUMBO. Sorry, I didn't state it outright in my previous post.

[zinka]

Mentioned in today's Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/02/realestate/commercial/02makeover.html

[BrooklynLove]

re verizon skin makeover - YES YES YES!! finally, a re-skinning that i think we can all embrace. this news makes my day. :):):):D:D:D

[kliq6]

Yes this building badly needs a new skin. The new owner probally will try and get Verizon out once complete as well, or atleast partial in hopes of attracting a more wide range base of tenants

[macreator]

a re-skinning that i think we can all embrace

I hope so. That's what I thought about the Sixth Avenue Verizon Building. I couldn't have imagined last year that a developer would be able to actually make the new building design look just as bad as the old building design.

I hope we see a skin here that is interesting and not just a glass box. Some masonry would be nice.

[BrooklynLove]

the bar is set REAL low for this makeover - the developer is working from a current skin that is about as bad as it gets. this building looks like a tunnel ventilation shaft right now for goodness sake. ick.

[Derek2k3]

^funny but true.

[smackfu]

What's this mean from the first post? "The new design will also include 360-degree window walls." Cladding the whole thing in glass?

[alonzo-ny]

Not glass, window walls.

[BrooklynLove]

^so basically floor-to-ceiling wall-to-wall windows then? ala top floors of oro building in downtown brooklyn?

[Ed007Toronto]

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/14/open-a-new-window-a-tower-with-a-view/index.html?hp

[BrooklynLove]

great link. thanks. this is sounding very promising.

[lizbeth li]

I thought from the above discussions the building was going residential and condo, but the article is about it's becoming an office building, which might have more promise.

[Stern]

Though the 32-story telephone company tower is not truly windowless, it might as well be. There are three-foot-wide slits running up and down the structure, some with glass in them. But, like the windows of the World Trade Center, these do little more than offer a tantalizingly small slice of what could have been an extraordinary panorama.

Perhaps the NYTIMES Tower will one day have a similar fate...

[ZippyTheChimp]

but the article is about it's becoming an office building, which might have more promise.


Telco equipment buildings have large floor to floor heights - about 16 ft.

Easier to convert to modern office space.

[Stern]

I do like the sound of this...

He said he had instructed the designers to be “as creative as you wish.”

Hopefully we get something more like this...

http://static.flickr.com/35/117177822_3324c261c2_o.jpg

Before...

http://www.aviewoncities.com/img/paris/kvefr0312b.jpg

Than the same-old recladding, like this...

http://i.pbase.com/o4/55/435155/1/54954031.VerisonBuilding.JPG

[macreator]

Let's hope this developer puts his money where his mouth is and follows through with a really creative design. Let's avoid a simple glass box at all costs. Throw in some curves, cross bracing, something! :)

[jesse sideman]

in the article linked above - near the end it says that the new owner is looking to sell the sign space currently occupied by the hideous verizon logo to some other company. if this is done i won't care how beautiful the architecture of the new building is. it's all about how that sign destroys the skyline from this side. it's as though verizon just up and signed new york. no other corporation's logo would make it any better. it's not times square. please. no new sign. is there some way we can petition and stop this from happening?

[BrooklynLove]

pool money from interested people, buy the ad space, and put up nada.

[Fahzee]

....sell the sign space currently occupied by the hideous verizon logo to some other company. if this is done i won't care how beautiful the architecture of the new building is....

You honestly think that a sign will negate beautiful architecture?

sheesh.

[stache]

I think a sign can ruin a building too -

[Stern]

It can also make the building ie. Met Life.

[stache]

I thought the old Pan Am sign was very glamorous.

[scumonkey]

I thought the old Pan Am sign was very glamorous.

Word! :)

[lizbeth li]

I'd like to see huge art murals on brutalistic buildings. We had a visiting gigantic donkey in a boat several stories high and many feet wide at Brown on the SciFi building (a slab of hideous poured concrete about 15 stories high), and it became an absolute favorite of the campus and enhanced the otherwise dreadful building. But the art has to be good if it's so big.

[BrooklynLove]

rendering supposed to be out this month, right?

[BrooklynLove]

please don't let this one die. anyone hear any updates? renderings? give me something please ...

[BrooklynLove]

i took it upon myself to do a little poking around on this - found 2 encouraging pieces of info:

1) financing in place
http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS217409+03-Jan-2008+BW20080103

2) filing for shed permit of use during "facade restoration" (rejected as of 4/2/08)
http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/JobsQueryByNumberServlet?requestid=5&passjobnumber=110122563&passdocnumber=01

[londonlawyer]

I do like the sound of this...



Hopefully we get something more like this...

http://static.flickr.com/35/117177822_3324c261c2_o.jpg

Before...

http://www.aviewoncities.com/img/paris/kvefr0312b.jpg

Than the same-old recladding, like this...

http://i.pbase.com/o4/55/435155/1/54954031.VerisonBuilding.JPG

I truly doubt it. Europeans care about aesthetics. Americans do not, as is evidenced by certain people who criticise me for wanting New York to look "pretty" like London and Paris. A cheap glass facade a la MD&S what did on 1095 6th will likely be tacked on.

[BrooklynLove]

even that would be a huge step up from the current facade

[BrooklynLove]

here we go - shed permit approved -

http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/WorkPermitDataServlet?allisn=0001798755&allisn2=0001491099&allbin=1001389&requestid=8

[lofter1]

Hopefully this view will be improved before too long ...

***

[ZippyTheChimp]

^
How could they miss?

[scumonkey]

How could they miss? They could get Gene Kaufman to design the new skin:eek:

[BrooklynLove]

i get to sit on my couch in my undies while watching beekman tower and this reclad go down side by side. loving it.

[lofter1]

/\ scary image :eek:

scary thought \/



They could get Gene Kaufman to design the new skin


but I hear GK might be freed up (http://www.wirednewyork.com/forum/showpost.php?p=224602&postcount=169) soon

[BrooklynLove]

/\ scary image :eek:

well at least i'm keeping it G rated ... for now.

[BrooklynLove]

shed starting to go up today - in a big way - massive shed to support the full building scaffold i guess - big ol hoists and the like on site.

[antinimby]

Bring it on. The faster the better!

[BrooklynLove]

this went up on taconic's website recently. description of facade work not sounding so promising anymore ...

http://www.taconicinvestments.com/portfolio/375_pearl_street.html

[londonlawyer]

http://www.nypost.com/seven/05132008/photos/bus0a.jpg

TACONIC'S DOWNTOWN CROWN
NEWLY REVEALED PLANS WILL TRANSFORM PEARL ST. EYESORE INTO GEM X MARKS THE. . .: 375 Pearl St. will expose X-shaped concrete braces (inset).


May 13, 2008 -- DOWNTOWN'S next new office tower won't be at Ground Zero but at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge, where Taconic Investment Partners is poised to spectacularly transform one of Manhattan's least popular skyscrapers.

This page shows the first image of 375 Pearl St. after a $350 million planned redesign. Architect Richard Cook of Cook + Fox will strip off the limestone and reclad all 32 floors with a glass curtain wall that will reveal mighty, X-shaped concrete support beams from top to bottom.

In addition to its second skin, 375 Pearl will also get a double-height lobby, an outdoor plaza, all-new heating, ventilation and air conditioning system and other improvements, as well as conversion of three former air-conditioning shafts to office space.

Ever since my colleague Lois Weiss first reported Taconic's $172 million purchase of 375 Pearl St. from Verizon last fall, speculation has run wild over what the new owners would do with the monolith Verizon used mainly as a switching center.

It was considered a blight since it opened in 1975, when former New York Times architectural critic Paul Goldberger called it "disturbing."

But redevelopment will make it one of the area's distinctive towers, visible from afar thanks to its location amid low-rise neighbors.

Splendid harbor and skyline views are one reason why Taconic co-CEO Paul Pariser and CB Richard Ellis' Bob "Mr. Big" Alexander, the leader of a CBRE leasing team, are confident the transformed tower will draw tenants.

What Taconic actually bought was a condominium - 1.15 million square feet of the building's total 1.3 million.

While Verizon is keeping floors 8-10, Taconic has all the floors above and below them, each with 42,000 square feet, generating rare contiguous blocks of 924,000 and 210,000 square feet.

The tower boasts minimum 14-foot slab-to-slab floor heights, with several floors of 23-foot heights - ensuring room for modern fiber optics.

Alexander says 375 Pearl will likely appeal to advertising, publishing and other media firms as well as be well suited for government-related uses.

Pariser needs to sign a "big gorilla company" as an anchor tenant before starting any construction on the redesign.

But unlike at most buildings of its size, 375 Pearl can get going with a relatively small commitment of 250,000-300,000 square feet.

[Ebola]

All I can say is "Oh my God!" Is that the old, crummy tower by the Brooklyn Bridge that we used to mock?

We were hoping for something OK, but we got something much better than we could dream of for this tower.
It pretty much screams out Richard Rogers.
It may go from being my most hated skyscraper to perhaps one of my top five most loved.

I'm beyond happy that they decided to erect a modern glass curtain wall that will reveal the building's strucutre and cover the entire building; I was hoping that they would do EXACTLY that. Is someone reading my mind? Well, I always hope for more visible structure, like beams and bracing, ect. What a WIN for lower Manhattan. I hope this gets done and ASAP.

[Stern]

Another boring reclad.

[kliq6]

Its boring but a massive improvement over what is their now. In order to market it to real tenants and not verizon switchboards, light had to be let in. It will still be hard to rent out with G zero and the other Midtown sites being more attractive both in location and financially.

[Fabrizio]

Renderings are always iffy but this is in no way just another boring reclad.

That could be said for the old ATT on 6th, but this seems more than a reclad... it is really a re-thinking.... a building completely transformed.

Exposing those "X-shaped concrete support beams from top to bottom" sounds like a great route to take. This could be very beautiful.

[BrooklynLove]

excellent. now get it done taconic.

[ZippyTheChimp]

I think it depends on how exposed (visible) the X-braces will be.

[Scraperfannyc]

To my eyes, this is going from an eyesore to something decent. This Verizon building is more of an eyesore than the one at Bryant Park, for which the reclad was probably a nothing more than a simple way of erasing the building's Verizon trademark look.

[kliq6]

This project is moving ahead, they have a Cm firm onboard.

[kz1000ps]

I like the premise a lot. It sure beats any expectations I had for it.

Here's hoping they use glass like 7 WTC's on it.

[Ebola]

I'm not fully sure about something like 7WTC's glass on this one because it has a good amount of reflection. With this tower, we want to see the detail of the bracing, so perhaps something very clear may work, but that may look too dull; doing something like lighting up the bracing from the inside would really make this project even better, but of course that sounds like it will cost extra money to do and nutjob environmentalists would be against it, but I say light em' up as bright as possible. What I think we really need is at least one building like that one in Texas which has a clear border of neon light around the edges, and I'm hoping that we'll see something like that with at least one of the WTC Towers, and with any luck all of them. Getting rid of the old facade is the best thing that could happen, and I believe that the lower Manhattan skyline will be near perfect when it happens.

[ramvid01]

I think if the reclad looks about half of what it looks in the rendering it would be a huge upgrade over what it is there now.

I really expected no more than a all glass reclad in a terrible color like always, but if the cross-vracing can be seen with great clarity at least the building will be slightly be more interesting.

[Stern]

I highly doubt the cross bracing will be anything more than slightly visible. Other than Perry West I'm yet to see a building with a clear fascade as depicted in the renderings; and we all know this project will not get a fascade like Perry West. It most likely will end up like Citigroup Queens which has a similar treatment. I wish they would have put some external treatment tracing the structural elements as they did with Hearst and Rogers will do with 3 WTC and SilverCup West, even a tension rod exteral cross bracing like the NYTIMES would have looked nice.

[Fabrizio]

The rendering seems to show a window treatment tracing the cross bracing.

--

[Stern]

I see it now. That immediately puts it far and above all the other reclad jops, it'll have somewhat of a lattice effect. That said I would've loved to see some sort of structural change, I think the AXA revamp for one in Paris would've looked great for this site. Albeit the shape and layout of this building is different but some setbacks, and some extension of somekind would have been nice. That said this is thus far the best reclad proposal and it is a vast improvement over the old. Who knows perhaps with Gehry's flamboyant Beekman Place the simple if somewhat boring design will act as a nice counterpart and create a nice skyline composition.

[antinimby]

It hints at Piano's NY Times but without the latter's slender, shapelier body.

It appears that the architect even attempted to add a bit of an architectural extension to the top.

Not bad considering what they had to work with. All in all, a positive improvement. http://wirednewyork.com/forum/images/icons/icon14.gif

[BrooklynLove]

i cruised by the site today for some peaks. shed that's there now is pretty much what has been there for a few weeks now. but it does like they've already started removing some of the facade in a place about halfway up on the north facing wall. yippee!!

[antinimby]

They're not going to do anything until they land a big tenant.

[BrooklynLove]

they are already doing though ...

they have financing already as well.

[antinimby]

Pariser needs to sign a "big gorilla company" as an anchor tenant before starting any construction on the redesign.

But unlike at most buildings of its size, 375 Pearl can get going with a relatively small commitment of 250,000-300,000 square feet. ;)

[TREPYE]

http://www.nypost.com/seven/05132008/photos/bus0a.jpg

Architect Richard Cook of Cook + Fox will strip off the limestone and reclad all 32 floors with a glass curtain wall that will reveal mighty, X-shaped concrete support beams from top to bottom.



The facade is NOT in good hands with these Cook+Fox folks. :cool:

[BrooklynLove]

AN - i'm going to go with what my eyes are telling me over what the Post is telling me. go look at the building in person - they're already taking down parts of the facade.

[Mostock3]

I believe the panels that have been taken off are for Verizon. The CM has not started anywork yet and probably will not to year end.

[antinimby]

^ Like he said.

Also BL, the work you are seeing so far is like the foundation they were laying down over at Gehry's Beekman.

You saw how the site with the finished foundation sat until the behind-the-scene financials were worked out.

It's the same thing here.

[BrooklynLove]

i'm still iffy on it - doesn't make sense that they'd get a shed permit, put up the shed and take out a huge portion of stone facade panels halfway up the building w/o any imminent plans to start full on work.

[Mostock3]

Remember that Verizon is keeping 3 floors which are located on floors 8-10, which is about where those panels are removed. They are probably going to install generators or some type of cooling equipment so not to be on the same systems as the balance of the building.

[ZippyTheChimp]

The building was always mostly administrative space, but it does have telecom equipment that can't easily be relocated. My guess is that due to technological size reduction, a point was reached where everything could be consolidated onto 3 floors.

FCC requires that telecom switches have backup power apart from mixed-use building systems. And while the rest of the building will be vacant while it's being gutted, the 3 Verizon floors will be operational.

[kliq6]

Similar to 1095 AA where verizon still was operating while recladding and renovation took place

[Peteynyc1]

There is a small blurb in the NY Post today that doesnt seem to show up online. It reads:
"Taconic Investment Partners is rethinking its plans to completely reclad the now near windowless Verizon building with a new glass curtain wall and make other expensive upgrades....Taconic expects its plans to reskin the building will move forward if it finds an anchor tenant of 200,000 to 300,000 feet."

[scumonkey]

^
:eek:

[BrooklynLove]

maybe they'll just knock it down ... :cool:

[Luca]

They don't call it a credit crunch for nothing. "Spending and hoping" is just not an option right now for many developers.

[NYC4Life]

This remake will certainly compliment the downtown skyline as a standout, along with Beekman to the west and Trump Soho further North.

[kz1000ps]

Giving Up the ‘Ugliest Skyscraper’ Title

CITY ROOM
May 23, 2008, 9:24 am
By Jake Mooney

There are people who say you have to stand next to the Verizon building at 375 Pearl Street to appreciate how ugly it is — its blank presence at street level, its disconnection from any human scale. There are others who say the offensiveness of the tower, built to house communications equipment, stems from the way it overshadows the Brooklyn Bridge when viewed from afar, acting as a drab, yet commercialized, backdrop (topped with a light-up Verizon sign ).

It is worth noting that no one seems to be defending the building, completed in 1976, from these charges.

The announcement by Taconic Investment Partners, which bought the building from Verizon in January, that the building would be “reclad,” its off-white limestone facade stripped away and replaced with glass, seems to have received an unambiguously positive reception.

This week, for Dispatches in The City section, I spoke with several preservationists in an effort to see if any thought the building — near Chinatown, a short distance from City Hall, the Municipal Building and 1 Police Plaza — is worth saving in its current state. None did.

Andrew Dolkart, a Columbia University professor, said 375 Pearl was his pick for the worst in the city.

Plenty of people considered Edward Durell Stone’s art museum at 2 Columbus Circle to be ugly. Yet that building, which turned out to have lots of vocal defenders, became the subject of a preservation furor amid an ultimately successful push to revamp it. What, I wondered, was the difference?

“They were all wrong!” Simeon Bankoff, executive director of the Historic Districts Council, a preservation group, said of people who called 2 Columbus Circle unattractive. Besides, proponents of the building’s original design argue, its ugliness or prettiness is beside the point. It was, said John Jurayj, co-chairman of the preservationist Modern Architecture Working Group, a major statement from a major architect, and one that came at a pivotal time amid shifting architectural tastes.

Mr. Dolkart, who said he initially had doubts about 2 Columbus Circle’s value, said it was arguments like those that had won him over. But he had not heard similar arguments about 375 Pearl. He said, for example, that he had never heard of its designers, even though he prides himself on his knowledge of obscure architects. Mr. Bankoff, when told of the building’s vintage, said: “Ooh. Not particularly good years for architecture.”

Mr. Jurayj said the Verizon building’s shortcomings contrasts with other modernist design successes downtown. He was reluctant to criticize the design of 375 Pearl too harshly — slamming an architect’s best efforts seems wrong, he said — but he praised Chatham Towers, two concrete apartment buildings nearby on Park Row, for what he called the quality of their detailing and the humaneness of their scale. He said the towers deserve consideration for city landmark status.

“You can sort of see the difference” between Chatham Towers and 375 Pearl, Mr. Jurayj said. “But I don’t know that I particularly want to articulate the difference.”

Mr. Jurayj also noted that the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission is considering Silver Towers, I. M. Pei’s concrete apartment complex, for historic designation, and said the commission deserves credit for “not falling prey to limited visions of what beauty is and what taste is.”

Interestingly, other communications-related buildings in the city, built for the phone company and others, are highly regarded architecturally. Two such buildings, both in the Art Deco style, were designed by the architect Ralph Thomas Walker: the Verizon Building (formerly known as the Barclay-Vesey Building) at 140 West Street, and the former Western Union Building at 60 Hudson Street.

Those buildings were built before World War II, Mr. Jurayj said, adding, “So much changed after the war, in terms of construction technology and ideas about spending and profit.”

There is, as Mr. Dolkart notes, one consequence to the renovation of 375 Pearl Street. If all goes well, he may have to find another choice for the worst-looking skyscraper in New York.

He did not name other contenders. But can you?

To get the discussion started, I’ll nominate one building I can see from The Times building on Eighth Avenue. It is the Westin Hotel between West 42nd and 43rd Streets. Paul Goldberger, writing in the New Yorker, wondered if it is the city’s ugliest, though Herbert Muschamp, in The Times, disagreed.

Readers' comments continued here: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/23/giving-up-the-ugliest-skyscraper-title/

[BrooklynLove]

Remember that Verizon is keeping 3 floors which are located on floors 8-10, which is about where those panels are removed. They are probably going to install generators or some type of cooling equipment so not to be on the same systems as the balance of the building.

looks like the hole has widened a bit - another column of panels worth i think

[BrooklynLove]

There is a small blurb in the NY Post today that doesnt seem to show up online. It reads:
"Taconic Investment Partners is rethinking its plans to completely reclad the now near windowless Verizon building with a new glass curtain wall and make other expensive upgrades....Taconic expects its plans to reskin the building will move forward if it finds an anchor tenant of 200,000 to 300,000 feet."

this article from today's nytimes seems pretty clear that taconic plans to move forward with the complete reskin once verizon vacates. the article doesn't make any indication that such plans are dependent on first finding a tenant.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/nyregion/thecity/25disp.html?_r=1&ref=thecity&oref=slogin

"The renovation, Mr. Shalam said, will begin sometime after Verizon, which sold the building to Taconic in January but holds a lease on it, moves out, most likely after the end of the year. The work, which will open panoramic views and modernize the structure for office tenants, has always been part of the plan, Mr. Shalam said. Tenants, he explained, want to be able to see outside, and there will be more of them after the renovation than now, with switching equipment currently occupying more space than it eventually will."

[NYC4Life]

Glad this one is moving foward. This building is just dreadful. Brooklyn Bridge's postcard will look much more photogenic with the new makeover.

[MidtownGuy]

Hooray, that thing has been a scab on the view you get walking across the bridge. If they give it really nice glass I will be doubly happy.:):)

[pianoman11686]

It'd be nice if they could expand it as well. Even with a nice reclad, it'll still look squat.

[NYC4Life]

It'd be nice if they could expand it as well. Even with a nice reclad, it'll still look squat.

As long as they can get rid of that hideous Verizon sign, i'll accept anything this building's future holds.

[spyguy999]

http://img77.imageshack.us/img77/7581/pearl1cj0.jpg
http://img92.imageshack.us/img92/3490/pearl2kg4.jpg

[BrooklynLove]

oooooooooo glaaaaaaaaassy

[JCMAN320]

Very Nice; sexy building!! (In Borat voice).

lol I mean I know it's not amazing, but reclading whats currently there, it is a ginormous improvement.

[BrooklynLove]

ladies and gentlemen, we have lift off

http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/JobsQueryByNumberServlet?requestid=7&passjobnumber=110185157&passdocnumber=01

[MidtownGuy]

Obviously a huge improvement in the skyline shot.

[krulltime]

Yes! Windows! Glass! Windows! Glass! Windows! :) This one has to be one of the most important developments in the city.

[BrooklynLove]

le chaim to that

[BrooklynLove]

Last Action: APPLICATION ASSIGNED TO PLAN EXAMINER 06/03/2008 (F)
http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/JobsQueryByNumberServlet?requestid=5&passjobnumber=110188626&passdocnumber=01

REMOVAL OF FACADE AS PER PLANS FILED HEREWITH. NO CHANGE IN USE, EGRESS OR OCCUPANCY.

:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

[Derek2k3]

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3264/2559786083_5a826fc5e5_o.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2420/2559786077_d1f633eb8a_o.jpg

Hopefully next up will be Javits and maybe someday Southbridge Towers and all that public housing.

[lofter1]

Gehry's Beekman tower will rise between the two Southbridge blocks (at center left, just above "PIER 17") in this shot:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3264/2559786083_5a826fc5e5_o.jpg

[stache]

That should be interesting. :cool:

[BrooklynLove]

after bb park and the numerous additions to the lower manhattan skyline, the difference between the before and after for those 2 shots is going to be more dramatic than rookie barry bonds and 2008 steroidal barry bonds.

[NYC4Life]

Quite an angled shot with much of the skyline out of frame. The same shot with the new remake will be quite impressive..


http://img115.imageshack.us/img115/9869/45475895jn2.jpg

[Stern]

after bb park and the numerous additions to the lower manhattan skyline, the difference between the before and after for those 2 shots is going to be more dramatic than rookie barry bonds and 2008 steroidal barry bonds.

lol.

http://kermittheblog.files.wordpress.com/2007/07/barry_bonds.jpg

http://images.wikio.com/images/p/39c1/barry-bonds-case-could-hinge-on-a-single-word-knowingly.jpg

[ManhattanKnight]

^Pretty much the same shot but looking in the opposite direction (backwards):

http://img512.imageshack.us/img512/7051/lowermanhattan799dpihvd4.jpg
Hagstrom's New York City 5 Borough Atlas. Fifth Large Scale Edition (1998)

That view had a way of popping up in strange places:

http://img48.imageshack.us/img48/360/herculescarddx2.jpg

My laundry room charge card (2001).

***

[BrooklynLove]

stern - i just choked on a cracker :D:D:D:D

next up:
compare rookie -> roidal cranium growth between barry and sammy.

[Derek2k3]

That was my laundry card at Pratt too.

[BrooklynLove]

Wut up party peoples. This past week the area of removed limestone panels on the West facing side increased by about 2.5 times.

Do it. Now.

[antinimby]

Developer hopes to add windows and life to Verizon tower

http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_274/tower.jpg


By James S. Woodman
August 1 - 7, 2008 (http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_274/developer.html)

Since its completion in 1975, New Yorkers have openly scoffed at the virtually windowless skyscraper at 375 Pearl St.

Neither exterior beauty nor interior comfort were much considered in planning the monolithic structure near the Brooklyn Bridge. The building’s hulking presence has been said to overpower the bridge from afar, and, even worse to many bloggers, its towering Verizon logo can appear as the bridge’s unasked-for corporate sponsor.

With the digitization of telecom, 375 Pearl St.— which has become almost an icon of 1970s dull architecture — can no longer be excused as an infrastructural necessity; computers have rendered obsolete the bulky switchboards that the building once furnished. Faced with a dwindling need for large-scale switchboard storage space, Verizon sold 375 Pearl last year for the shockingly low price of $173 million, which amounts to no more than the cost of the bare land on which the building stands.

The buyer, Taconic Investment, plans on transforming the looming symbol of impersonality into one of the most human-oriented, not to mention environmentally sound, skyscrapers in Manhattan. Taconic hopes to strip the building to its “bare bones” and convert it to office space by 2011.

Verizon is still using the building, but workers said they are aware of plans to relocate to the Verizon building on Vesey St. across from the W.T.C. The telecommunications company will keep three stories of the 375 Pearl St. building for its own operations.

The project’s architect, Cook + Fox Architects, the same firm that designed the new Bank of America Tower opposite Bryant Park, embraces what they call “biophelia,” the belief that people have an innate connection to nature. For skyscrapers, this philosophy entails providing an interior with maximum space and sunlight in order to create a more natural atmosphere. With this goal in mind, 375 Pearl St. would seem an unlikely candidate for Cook + Fox.

But Rick Cook, founder and partner of Cook + Fox Architects, believes 375 Pearl, with its 17-to-23-foot-high ceilings, is one of his most exciting projects yet, going as far as calling its completion a “moral mandate.”

“Because 375 Pearl St. was purposefully built as a telephone switchboard, it will actually be much better suited as an office building that most office buildings are,” Cook said in a phone interview. “It’s like buildings in Tribeca that were originally butter and cheese factories that now make for some of the best office space in the city because of their high ceilings.”

“When people look at 375 Pearl St. from the Brooklyn Bridge, they see a dead, lifeless building — you just don’t see anything there,” Cook added. “We want to turn it into a building that’s alive again.”

Taconic’s Doug Winshall said that renovation work will start as soon as the firm finds an anchor tenant ready to lease 200,000 square feet of space. He said he is not worried about the economy or the commercial office market because demand is still high Downtown and he expects his project to be finished long before the World Trade Center towers. Winshall hopes to attract arts, media and literary agency tenants.

With abundant natural light a top priority, Cook + Fox plans to have construction crews envelop the entire Pearl St. building with scaffolding, remove the limestone facade and replace it with “high performance, extremely clear” glass frontage.

Stripping away the limestone panels will reveal a network of crisscrossed steel trusses that the architects have utilized to create a main theme of the building’s facade, reminiscent of the Sears Tower in Chicago.

The clear glass that will clad these trusses conveys far more light than mirrored or tinted glass, which is more commonly used on glass-only buildings. This will allow views both out of and into the building. The purpose of the clear glass is not only for providing its occupants better sunlight and panoramas, but for the building’s exterior aesthetics as well.

By allowing people to see through into the cavernous floors of 375 Pearl St., the clear glass will be more than a mere front wall; it will allow visual infiltration into all sides of the building, creating a dynamic, somewhat frenzied facade.

Though it is possible to convert the building’s four 23-foot-high floors into multiple stories, Cook says that, to create a more desirable atmosphere, they will keep the tall ceilings for office space.

Mirrored or tinted facades are, however, more energy efficient because they reflect sunlight that would otherwise drive up cooling expenses. But Cook + Fox thinks it may have found a way to curb the energy inefficiency of its much-lauded clear glass. Using sensors to gauge the amount of natural light filling different parts of the building, a central computer will dim the building’s electric lights accordingly. The architects say this will reduce energy costs enough so as to compensate for the added cooling cost associated with non-mirrored or tinted glass.

In addition to these efforts to reduce sunray heat, Cook + Fox says the building has several other green features.
The fact that the skyscraper’s entire superstructure will be reused makes it an important example of recycling that New York could benefit from. Retaining the structure, Cook + Fox says, will save as much as 18,000 tons of steel and 40,000 cubic yards of concrete. All of the limestone stripped off in this process can be recycled into other construction jobs.

The building also may have a rainwater collection device installed on its roof that will supplement the building’s water supply for toilet flushing.

The key to making the city greener, says Gilbert, is in renovating existing buildings, like 375 Pearl St. This, he hopes, will set a standard for the rest of the city, especially as 375 Pearl St. is located only blocks from City Hall.

Though its proximity to the Civic Center adds to the value of 325 Pearl St., it is just north of the Brooklyn Bridge, in an area that’s largely forgotten about. While some consider it part of the Seaport, others aren’t aware of its existence or its name.

Winshall hopes the renovation will help to revitalize the enclave by creating dramatically more foot traffic between the Civic Center and 375 Pearl St. Its lobby, not more than a cramped waiting room, Cook hopes to transform into a much grander area, which will create the effect of “walking into a gallery.”

The lobby will be flanked, Cook hopes, with a ground-level plaza open to the public.

“For once the building will really engage the neighborhood,” Cook said.

http://www.downtownexpress.com/inside_dt_logo.gif

© 2008 Community Media, LLC

[BrooklynLove]

he expects his project to be finished long before the World Trade Center towers

There's something to be said for setting obtainable goals ...

[Derek2k3]

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3145/2786343102_9bdfaf667e_b.jpg
by Milton CJ (http://www.flickr.com/photos/miltoncorrea/)

[meesalikeu]

^ wow great shot.

it's kind of hilarious in that you could get some little kids and play a game of "which building stands out from the others?" with the picture. or where's waldo? heh. bring on the recladding!!!