Reply With QuoteBuild behind? Facadism often feels even more inegelant to me than pure demolition. Too many poor examples in Washington.
It's a nice passage of streetscape, even with the modern building. I'd keep them all --at least perhaps the front twenty feet-- and build big behind them. Could be a longish glass slab. Eighteen stories would be about right, the length of this assemblage.
Build behind? Facadism often feels even more inegelant to me than pure demolition. Too many poor examples in Washington.
[quote=krulltime]I really like this one...
Tribeca
1 York Street
Hi everyone, new here, GREAT SITE! Been looking for an apt, and using this site as a reference to view buildings....nice.....Going to look at above building this weekend, the only problem with this one is ALL the one bedrooms face the back of the building and only go to floor six....So for my million dollars i get no light and to see the wall of the other building!
Flower District Experiences a New Kind of Growth
By MICHAEL STOLER
March 2, 2006
It was less than a decade ago when the flower district, parking lots, and an assortment of small buildings occupied the corridor along Sixth Avenue between 23rd Street and 32nd Street. Today, a number of mixed-use residential and commercial developments are rising.
Last week, Herald Square Development purchased an entire block front on the west side of Sixth Avenue between 30th and 31st streets for $117.5 million, or $352 a buildable square foot. The development site is about 333,740 buildable square feet in size and now houses seven commercial office buildings and a parking lot at 106-108 W. 31st St. The chairman of Massey Knakal Realty Services, Robert Knakal, who represented the various sellers - the Lavan family and Asher Bernstein - in the transaction, said, "When the transaction began, we were selling one building, and the final transaction included seven buildings and a parking lot. We believe that the new project will enhance the neighborhood." The New York Sun has been told that Herald Square Development is owned by investor Baruch Singer, who last week purchased the residential apartments at the Herald Towers, in the former McAlpren Hotel, from Property Markets Group for about $250 million. The 692-unit development is at 50 W. 34th St., across from Macy's. It is reported that Mr. Singer is in contract to purchase the former home of the East River Tennis Club at 44th Avenue between Vernon Boulevard and the waterfront in Long Island City, presently known as the River East condominium project. This project includes plans for two 28-story condo towers and four eight-story loft buildings totaling about 910 units. A local investor has entered a contract to purchase a significant portion of the block front on the southwest side of the Avenue of the Americas between 31st and 32nd streets, the Sun has been told.
In the 1970s, the chairman of Macklowe Properties, Harry Macklowe, whose firm owns more than 7 million square feet of prime office space, was a broker with the firm Wolf & Macklowe, and at the time sold a number of properties to a clothing manufacturer named Leonard Adell. Mr.Adell began assembling parcels in the manufacturing and flower shop district on Sixth Avenue. In 1995, Sixth Avenue between 24th and 31st streets was rezoned for residential. In 1999 Matthew Adell, in partnership with the Witkoff Group, bought three sites assembled by Leonard Adell on Sixth Avenue between 25th and 28th streets. In 2001, Mr. Adell and Witkoff completed the construction of the Capitol at Chelsea, a 37-story, 387-unit residential rental apartment tower atop 83,000 square feet of retail and office space on the first four floors at 55 W. 26th St. The building replaced the Coogan Building, which was originally constructed in the mid-1870s as a racquet club. A few years later they sold the building and bought the land where a residential rental building, the Chelsea Tower, sits at West 26th Street and Avenue of the Americas, then subsequently sold the property. In 2004,Adellco completed its next residential tower, a 38-story, 266-unit rental apartment building, the Aston, at 800 Sixth Ave. Last August, Adellco sold the building for $195 million to the national REIT Archstone Smith.
This past January, Adellco began excavation work on its newest residential development in the former flower district. This project, is named the Remy and is located at 101 W. 28th St., on the northwest corner of Sixth Avenue. The 32-story condominium tower is expected to be completed in 2007.
***
A number of new condominiums and mixed-use projects are planned.
Last year, LCOR and the California State Teachers Retirement Systems Pension fund purchased a parking lot site owned by Con Edison on the west side of Sixth Avenue between 24th and 25th streets. On the site, a new 199-unit condominium tower, with an address of 101 W. 24th St., is expected to be ready for its first residents in 2007. One of New York's most active residential developers, J.D. Carlisle Development Corporation, is developing a residential condominium on the west side between 23rd and 24th streets, on a site it purchased from a partnership of Yair Levy and Serge Hoyda for about $83 million. The company is building a 33-story condominium tower, the Centria East of Rockefeller Plaza and Fifth Avenue and the Ciello on the Upper East Side. Last year, the company purchased a parking lot site at West 29th Street and Sixth Avenue. The developer is planning to build a $500 million hotel and residential condominium building, which will house a 250-room hotel managed by the Fitzpatrick Group.
Later this year, Skyway Development Group plans to begin construction of a 15-story residential condominium at 27 W. 19th St. The new building is adjacent to a six-story building erected in 1854 and converted into loft condos at 29 W. 19th St. Skyway Development, in partnership with Yair Levy Development Corporation, is converting two office buildings in Lower Manhattan. These properties include the nine-story office building at 29 John St. into 50 condominium units. The part 782 2174 885 2185nership is also converting the 16-story 1905 building at 71 Nassau St., known as the Croft Building, into 52 residential condos. This summer the first residents are expected to move into the 18-story, 56-unit condominium at 4 W. 21st St. The project is being developed by Alexander Brodsky and J. Dean Amro of the Brodsky Organization.
A principal of Extell Investment, Gary Barnett, is developing residential condominiums all over the city. In addition to three towers on the Upper West Side, the Orion on West 42nd Street, the conversion of the Stanhope Hotel, and the acquisition of office buildings and air rights on West 57th Street, he is converting two office buildings in Chelsea. They are the Altair 18 at 32 W. 18th St., a 12-story, 22-unit residential loft condominium building. Extell is also converting another loft office building, the Altair 20 at 15 W. 20th St.
Last November, the seven-story, 670,000-square-foot mixed-use retail and office building at 620 Sixth Ave. was sold for $280 million. The purchaser was an investor group that included Yair Levy, Joseph Chetrit, and Charles Dayan from the Jamestown Group. According to the trade, the developers will probably convert the office space and build additional floors on the top of the tower for residential condominiums. The building's retail tenants include Bed Bath & Beyond, T.J. Maxx, and Filene's Basement. The building was constructed in 1896 and served as the home of one of the city's first department stores, Sigel Cooper Dry Goods. In the early 1990s, Tishman Speyer completed a major gut renovation and later sold it to Jamestown.
Construction is under way on the Clarett Group's Sky House, a 55-story, 139-unit luxury condominium building at 11 E. 29th St. Later this year the first condominium owners are expected to move into Clarett 57th at 57th Street and Third Avenue. Last year, Clarett purchased the residential rental building at 220 Central Park West from the estate of Sara Korein. According to the trade, Clarett may be buying the New York Law School site in TriBeCa. Late last year, Tishman Speyer decided not to complete the purchase of the site.
Residential development in New York is changing the landscape of our city. Rezoning has assisted the city's growth and its resurgence.
© 2006 The New York Sun, One SL, LLC.
Broadway conversion planned by Joseph Pell Lombardi
28-FEB-06
The landmarks and aesthetics committee of Community Board 2 approved a resolution supporting Joseph Pell Lombardi’s application for a certificate of appropriateness from the Landmarks Preservation Commission for the conversion of the commercial building at 459 Broadway to residential condominiums.
Mr. Lombardi is one of the city’s premier converters and his plan for 459 Broadway involves a restoration of its ornate sandstone façade, the removal of fire-escapes, and a small rooftop addition.
A major part of Mr. Lombardi’s plan includes the recreation of the building’s original arcades along both Broadway and Grand Street and the restoration of granite sidewalks.
The building, which is located on the southwest corner at Grand Street, was erected in 1861 and is known as the D. Devlin Building.
The very handsome building has 47 feet and 4 inches of frontage on Broadway and 112 feet and 8 inches on Grand Street.
The Landmarks Preservation Commission will hold a hearing on the application March 7.
Copyright © 1994-2006 CITY REALTY
Essex House to convert more hotel rooms to condominium apartments
01-MAR-06
The new owner of the Essex House at 160 Central Park West plans to convert up to about 90 of its hotel rooms to condominium apartments, which would bring the total in the 40-story building to about 200.
In September, 2005, the Dubai Investment Group paid $440 million to acquire the hotel portion of the building, with 606 rooms and 9 of its 148 condominium apartments and last month it initiated a $50 million renovation program.
In a February 28, 2006 article in The New York Post, Steve Cuozzo said that Frank van der post, a senior vice president with Jumeirah, said that no more than 15 percent of guest rooms would be converted to condominiums. Assuming that many of the hotel rooms to be converted will be combined to make larger condominium units, the building's total of such units is likely to rise to about 200.
The hotel marquee now proclaims “Jumeriah Essex House” reflecting the fact that Jumeirah Hospitality and Leisure has been designated by Dubai Investment to manage the property. Jumeriah operates several properties in the United Arab Emirates including the sensational Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai.
The hotel, which was designed by Frank Grad and erected in 1930, was originally called the Park Tower and then the Seville Towers.
In their fine book, "New York 1930, Architecture and Urbanism Between the World Wars," (Rizzoli International Publications, 1987), Robert A. M. Stern, Gregory Gilmartin and Thomas Mellins noted that "there was little architectural rhetoric in the design; so little in fact that the hotel erected a huge illuminated sign on the roof to identify itself." Of course, the Depression was not a great time for luxury hotels. While it is true that this building's massing and design is conservative, indeed, laid back, it is nonetheless imposing in scale and appropriate for its context. Moreover, the rich ornamentation of its base is impressive and a good hint that the interiors might be special.
From the narrow sidewalk, of course, the rooftop sign is not visible but the hotel's handsome marquee and large Art Deco-style, gilded decorative elements along its broad base are. They are merely flourishes but are quite dramatic.
The property has changed hands several times in recent decades and now operates as both a hotel and a condominium. The condominium conversion occurred in 1974. Both the hotel, until recently operated by the Westin chain, and the apartments, now in the "St. Regis Club" section of the building on the 19th through the 39th floors, share one of the most impressive lobbies in the city.
The lobby extends through to 58th Street in a narrow, but handsome corridor along which are located the elevators, which have handsome Art Deco-style cab doors. The broad lobby facing the park has tasteful and comfortable seating and exceedingly impressive black-marble columns of very distinctive form. The ground floor also has a very large and handsome and very expensive restaurant, Alain Ducasse.
Like all Central Park South buildings, this building has great vistas of Central Park and the skylines of Upper Fifth Avenue and Central Park West. The building has a doorman, several concierges, and a garage.
With the elegant stores of Fifth Avenue and the boutiques of Madison Avenue nearby to the east and the varied attractions of the Lincoln Center district a few blocks away to the west, this location is very prime.
In the 1990s, Japan Airlines spent more than $130 million in renovating the property and in 1999, Strategic Hotel Capital bought the Essex House for more than $300 million and hired Starwood Hotels & Resorts to manage it.
Copyright © 1994-2006 CITY REALTY
Forward Building on Lower East Side to start marketing this monrth
01-MAR-06
Marketing of 29 residential condominium apartments in the Forward Building at 175 East Broadway is expected to begin in about two weeks.
The 10-story building was designed in Beaux-Arts style in 1912 by George A. Boehn, who also designed the very ornate mid-rise, mid-block building at 165 West 57th Street across from Carnegie Hall in 1916.
The Forward building, perhaps the most prominent, most attractive and important landmark on the Lower East Side, was erected as the headquarters of the Jewish Daily Forward.
The richly ornamented façade was “Forward Building” incised above its arched entrance in English and in Yiddish near the top of the building.
The Forward was founded by Abraham Cahan in 1897 and became the largest Yiddish-language daily newspaper in the world with a circulation that grew to about 200,000. It was rather secularist and did not print information about holy days and synagogue events, according to one published report and became the most influential newspaper supporting the labor movement and was known at one time as the “Forverts.” A large neon sign on the roof displayed the paper’s name in English toward the Manhattan Bridge and in Yiddish along East Broadway.
One of the newspaper’s popular features was the Bintel Brief column which offering advice to letters from Jewish immigrants.
In 1918, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn held the founding conference of the Workers Liberty Defense Union at the building, defending members of the I. W. W., the Socialist Party and the unions who were jailed for the opposition to the entry of the United States into World War I.
Two years later, the Sacco-Vanzetti Defense Committee held their first meeting in the building.
The building, which has deeply inset windows and ornate pilasters that run up most of the building, has spectacular views over Seward Park, the first municipal playground in the United States, to midtown as well as great views to the south of the Lower Manhattan skyline.
In 1974, the newspaper sold the building to the Lau family and relocated to 49 East 33rd Street. The Lau family used the building’s first two floors as a Chinese church and bible factory and kept the rest of the building vacant until 1998 when it sought to convert it to about 39 condominium apartments that went on the market just before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and they were subsequently withdrawn from the market.
During renovations, statues of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels were moved but returned to their “rightful place, and in 2004 the building was sold to Ron Castellano and Christopher Hayes, who recently converted the Garfield Building not far away at 142 Henry Street.
Mr. Castellano and Mr. Hayes finished the renovation and obtained a certificate of occupancy as well as approval from the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission.
Mr. Castellano has told CityRealty.com that many of the lower floor units have unusual layouts and that units will have high ceilings and range in size from about 600 to 4,200 square feet and that all layouts will be different. Prices in the building, which will have a doorman, are expected to range from about $620,000 to more than $5,000,000.
Copyright © 1994-2006 CITY REALTY
Here's some recent news about 400 Park Avenue South from the DOB's website:
Premises: 398 PARK AVENUE SOUTH MANHATTAN Filed At: 398 PARK AVENUE SOUTH
Job No: 104292882 Document: 02 OF 3 Job Type: NB NEW BUILDING
BIN: 1811087 Block: 857 Lot: 46
Items Required | Plumbing Insp | Doc / Plans Received | Schedule A | Schedule B | All Permits | Document Overview
Plan Exam Overview | Fee / Accounting Overview | C/O Application Summary
Location: Block: 857 Lot(s): 46 BIN: 1811087 C.B.No: 105
Apt No: Use: OTHER
SPECIFIC FLOORS: SUB CEL ROF RANGE OF FLOORS: 001 THRU 040
Work Types Submitted: PL-MH
Applicant: MASS MARVIN A Phone: 212-615-3601
COSENTINI ASSOCIATES
2 PENN PLAZA, NEW YORK, NY 10001
Prof Title: PE Lic No: 28355
Filing Representative: SILBERMAN NATHAN B Phone: 212-385-1818
CONSTRUCTION CONSULTING ASSOC.
100 CHURCH STREET, SUITE 1625, NEW YORK, NY 10007
Pre-Filed: 12/01/2005 Date Filed: 12/01/2005 Last Action: P/E DISAPPROVED 12/16/2005 (J
Fees: STANDARD Estimated Total Cost: $0.00 PC Filed: Y
Additional Considerations:
Directive 14: N Old Code: N Quality Housing: N Site Safety: N
Infill Zoning: N Landmark: N LL5: N LL16: N
Single Room Occup.: N Loft Review: N
Declaration: Page: Reel:
Little 'E' Restrictions: N/A
Plans Submitted: ME - PL
Zoning Dist: Map No.:
Occupancy Classification:
Construction Classification:
Metes and Bounds:
Street Status: PUBLIC
Beginning at a point on the side of
Distant Ft. of the corner formed by the intersection of and
ULT. NO. OF STORIES 40
Some new projects advertised in the Sunday NY Times "Real Estate" issue of the Times Magazine:
The Novare
http://www.novarew4th.com/
135 West 4th Street
New York, NY 10012
http://www.corcoran.com/property/nd/...asp?ndevid=197
Overview
Novare. A reimagining of a timeless Greenwich Village landmark.
Originally built of marble in 1860 by the architect Charles Hadden, the Romanesque Revival building served for many years as the Washington Square Methodist Church. In the more turbulent decades of the 20th century, the structure played the tripartite roles of sanctuary, meeting place, and instrument of social change. And now this graceful artifact enters a new beginning as Novare, a limited edition portfolio of eight extraordinary loft homes by the visionary architects at FLANK Architecture.
Ultimately most distinguished by its dual identity, Novare’s weighty and static stone façade gives way to an almost ethereal world of light, space, comfort, and silence within. Novare represents a new beginning, a rebirth into private refuge. This archive of history, neither origin nor endpoint, is now being offered to only eight decidedly uncompromising and visionary owners.
The Caledonia
450 W. 17th St.
http://www.thecaledonia.com/caledonia.html
Little info on this ^ site.
The ad claims that it is "... on the High Line", but Google Maps show that it is 1/2 block + to the east of the High Line:
Map: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=450+W+...4,0.005322&t=h
From the Times Ad:"Introducing the First Luxury Condominum Tower on the High Line"Verde Chelsea
"Enlightened Design and Zen Luxury by Renowned Interior Designer Clodagh"
"Sales & Design Gallery Opening March 2006"
http://www.verdechelsea.com/
No real info on this ^ site.
http://www.corcoran.com/property/nd/...asp?ndevid=203
125 West 22nd Street
New York, NY 10011
Overview
Verde Chelsea offers an escape from the world’s most dynamic city to quiet, relaxation, and private fun. With just thirty three homes, and no more than three homes per floor, this intimately scaled building provides the feeling that it belongs only to you. And with its beautifully designed interiors and common spaces, home will be your haven.
Verde Chelsea, designed by New York high-rise expert H. Thomas O’Hara, may be better known as the hanging gardens of 22nd Street. The building features multiple garden terraces that transform the architecture into a sculptural play of brick-clad volumes, and overflow with plants in spring and summer. Generously sized, double-hung windows drench the interiors in natural daylight.
Set roots in Verde, and they will be nourished by professional-grade kitchens. Smartly designed spaces and high-end appliances make a joy of cooking. Etched-glass cabinets are sculptural additions to your living space. Verde’s inspiring bathrooms, featuring natural materials and an organic color palette, bring the best of the outdoors in.
One of the WORST renovations to come along:
The Keystone Building
38-44 Warren Street
http://www.cityrealty.com/new_develo...ry.cr?hood=DWN
Just as bad is 135 Church St., catty corner across the street from this POS (it runs for the full length of that block along Church and has a terribly executed 4-story set-back extension plopped on top of it).
Both of the buildings have horrible stucco exteriors -- plus Dinky Windows! Terrible Massing!! And Ramada Inn Crowns on top!!!!
Both sit just south of the Tribeca Historic District; looking at these two ugly sisters is reason enough to broaden the Landmark protections to ANY building -- just to save them the embarassment of being turned into some horrid extended-stay / just-off-the-freeway type building such as you see here.
^ Pretty bad, alright. Some people have got no taste.
* * *
A new sliver building, 195 Bowery:
http://www.cityrealty.com/new_develo...ry.cr?hood=DWN
This one ^ is taking for ever to get finished -- although I wish that CityRealty would up-date it's photos as that one is at least 6 months old.
The exterior cladding on this one is nearly complete ... dang! gotta get me a camera!!
Why are parts of downtown, particularly to the west of City Hall, still so crappy? Walk along Chambers St from Broadway to Church (or even all the way to West Broadway), and there's all sorts of absolute garbage still there, several one-story buildings with tired retail tenants.
I don't get it. If I had the financial resources, I'd be grabbing every one of these buildings I could get my hands on. Downtown has the finest subway links in the city, anyone who lives there can get from downtown to almost anywhere pretty easily (including out into the boroughs). 270 Greenwich will put a Whole Foods in the neighborhood. It's a short walk to the Brooklyn Bridge. This ought to be one of the most desirable neighborhoods in the city.
Instead, you get absolutely horrible "renovations" like the one lofter1 shows.
Originally Posted by lofter1
If you look at the Landmark District maps for that area ( http://www.nyc.gov/html/lpc/download...ps/tribeca.pdf ) you'll see that there are little pockets of un-landmarked areas where the crap remains and flourishes.
Partially it could be due to government, institutional + newer commercial buildings that are on some of those streets.
CURBED has posted pictures and an up-date of the jumbled pile of brick and glass aka 88 Leonard St.:
http://www.curbed.com/archives/2006/...onard.php#more
The pictures don't tell the full story. If you have the unfortunate opportunity to view this building in person you'll see that it's a mix of glass-enclosed projections (the west edge of the building awkwardly butts glass right up against the cast iron building next door -- see 2nd photo at far right), winky bricked areas with A/C cut-outs, intermittent exposed floor plates and more -- all in an apparent attempt to disguise the mass of the building.
I'm sure this thang will sell like hotcakes, but it's a mess ...
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