New York Times
September 28, 2005

British Architect Is Chosen to Design Javits Expansion

By ROBIN POGREBIN and CHARLES V. BAGLI

Richard Rogers, the British architect who co-designed the Pompidou Center in Paris and designed the Millennium Dome in Greenwich, England, has been selected to design the long-awaited expansion of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, an official involved in the selection process confirmed yesterday.

Lord Rogers, in collaboration with FX Fowle in New York and A. Epstein & Sons International in Chicago, is to be recommended tomorrow by a design committee to the directors of the Javits Development Corporation at a board meeting. The board will then vote on whether to authorize the corporation to enter into a contract.

The team was selected over Rafael Viñoly of Manhattan and Thom Mayne of the Los Angeles firm Morphosis. The selection, made by a committee that includes representatives of the city, the Javits operating corporation and the Javits Development Corporation, was unanimous, the official said.

Lord Rogers and his colleagues submitted conceptual ideas for the expansion - not design plans - such as how to integrate the convention center with the surrounding area and exploit its proximity to the Hudson River.

If approved, the architectural team would immediately embark on a 45-day charrette - a planning period in which suggestions are solicited from hotel owners, executives in the tourism industry and local residents. A design is expected around year's end.

The current plans for the $1.4 billion project would extend the convention hall to 40th Street from 39th Street, expanding the exhibition space to 1.1 million from 760,000 square feet.

Lord Rogers did not return calls seeking comment.

Best known for creating a high-tech Pop Art aesthetic with roots in the irreverent 1960's, Lord Rogers created the iconic Pompidou Center in 1977 with Renzo Piano.

Among the architect's other prominent buildings are the Barajas Airport in Madrid, a sequence of waves formed by vast wings of steel, and the law courts in Bordeaux, France, which feature seven courtroom "pods" raised on columns within a great glass wall under an undulating copper roof.

Lord Rogers is also involved in a $200 million project to transform a two-mile stretch of Lower Manhattan waterfront under the Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive into a vibrant urban esplanade.

FX Fowle - formerly Fox & Fowle - brings New York City building experience to the team, having designed two Times Square towers - the Reuters building and Condé Nast's 4 Times Square. The firm is also working with Mr. Piano on the new headquarters of The New York Times Company on Eighth Avenue.

A. Epstein brings convention center experience, having served as the architect and engineer of record for the 2.9 million-square-foot expansion of the McCormick Place convention center in Chicago.

Executives in the hotel and tourism industries have wanted to expand the Javits Center ever since it opened in 1986, because, they said, it was too small to attract large trade shows and conventions.

"We've been looking forward to a shovel going into the ground for something like 12 years," said Joseph E. Spinnato, president of the Hotel Association of New York City.

The Pataki administration's efforts to expand the complex in the 1990's were stymied by Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who favored building a baseball stadium over a nearby railroad yard. Last year, the Javits expansion was ensnared in the wrangling over the ill-fated plans to build a football stadium for the Jets at the railyard. The Javits project was finally approved in December by the State Legislature, and its proponents urged that work begin quickly.

But the chairman of the Javits Development Corporation, Charles A. Gargano, decided to toss out preliminary plans developed by a longtime architect for the Javits, Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum, and start anew. The current plans call for a private developer to build a 1,500-room hotel, possibly at 42nd Street and 11th Avenue. But the development corporation is considering other sites, including one on the east side of 11th Avenue, between 35th and 36th Streets.

The corporation is also scrutinizing the project's budget, fearful that the rising cost of construction could push the price tag to $1.8 billion, according to executives involved in the project.

The Javits is one of the busiest centers in the country. But attendance at trade shows and conventions has declined, mirroring a national trend, while attendance at public events like car or boat shows continues to grow. Tourism officials prefer trade shows because they attract people who book hotel rooms and eat at restaurants.

Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

New York Times
January 24, 2006

Seeking Lighter, Airier Look for Javits Convention Center

By CHARLES V. BAGLI

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2006/01/24/nyregion/javits.span.jpg
A photographic montage of the first phase of an expansion of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center.

Nearly 13 months after the State Legislature approved the expansion of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, state and city officials unveiled conceptual plans yesterday to turn the forbidding, black-glass structure on 11th Avenue into a larger, sun-lighted structure with more exhibition space, a tree-lined concourse and cafes.

The $1.7 billion proposal would double the overall size of the center and increase the amount of exhibition and meeting space to 1.3 million square feet from 790,000 square feet, officials said, enabling the complex to attract more trade shows and conventions. The project would include what would be the city's largest ballroom, which would double as exhibition space.

The building itself, which stretches along 11th Avenue from 34th Street to 38th Street, would expand not only vertically, but horizontally as well, to 40th Street. Richard Rogers, the architect who is designing the project with FXFowle and A. Epstein & Sons, called the Javits Center a "mausoleum" and said the expanded complex would serve as a catalyst for the rebirth of the neighborhood.

Charles A. Gargano, chairman of the Javits Development Corporation and the state's chief economic development official, hailed the design as "an unmatched understanding of the project objectives to create a world-class" convention center.

But the estimated cost of the project has swelled from $1.4 billion in December 2004, and some of the elements have changed substantially, touching off a dispute with the man who until recently ran the center, Robert Boyle. Several civic groups, too, are concerned that the plan for the convention center still fails to take advantage of its location next to the Hudson River.

The initial expansion plan envisioned a 1,500-room convention hotel at 42nd Street and 11th Avenue, where it could also attract tourists and business travelers, and $150 million was set aside to buy the property. But officials now say they would put that money into the convention center itself by placing the hotel in a concrete park owned by the state, directly across 11th Avenue, between 35th and 36th Streets.

An underground pedestrian tunnel already connects the park to the Javits center.

The new plans also call for moving the marshalling yard, where truck trailers are parked during trade shows, from the south side of the center to the north side, between 39th and 40th Streets. The new six-story marshalling garage would allow for security checks and for up to 300 trucks to load, unload and park at different levels of the convention center, Mr. Gargano said.

At the same time, the existing marshalling yard on the block between 39th and 40th Streets would be sold to developers, for two office towers, a pair of apartment buildings and a park. Officials believe that a sale could bring in $339 million for the project. Those four buildings, however, may require a long environmental review.

"It seems that the Javits development corporation is desperate to show action, and they'll do almost anything to get a shovel in the ground," said Anna Levin, a member of Community Board 4. "But the plan they're pursuing would seem to seriously shortchange the Javits."

Deputy Mayor Daniel L. Doctoroff, who supports the plan, disagreed. He said the site was an important element of the city's redevelopment plans for the Far West Side and for the creation of a commercial corridor extending from Madison Square Garden west to the Hudson River along 34th Street. The new garage, he said, would help allow the convention center to function more efficiently.

But relocating the marshalling yard also forced a 20-percent reduction of meeting space. At a legislative hearing in December, Mr. Boyle objected to the reduction, since trade show producers say space has been sorely lacking.

Mr. Boyle was removed from the chairmanship of the Javits center operating corporation last month by Gov. George E. Pataki, although he continues to be a board member.

Assemblyman Richard L. Brodsky, who presides over a legislative committee that oversees state authorities, said the state and city should not rush forward with the new plan, which he described as worse than the prior proposal. He questioned the wisdom of moving the marshalling yard and the hotel site.

"This project has been botched and delayed," Mr. Brodsky said. "This will leave New York with a second-rate convention center and a $1.7 billion price tag."

But Joseph Spinnato, president of the Hotel Association of New York City, which has lobbied for the expansion for more than a decade, said that the industry would oppose any further delays.

Even so, a coalition of eight civic and community organizations and advocates for parks said that the plan would create a wall seven blocks long separating Midtown from the Hudson River waterfront, the Hudson River Park and the new ferry terminal at 39th Street.

"They've increased the budget, but the design's still wrong," said Kent Barwick, president of the Municipal Art Society. "It's crazy to put all this money into the park and a new ferry terminal and then block it off from the rest of the city."

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

New York Observer:

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Curbed
March 30, 2006

Javits Center Expansion—in Excrutiating Detail!

by Lockhart

http://www.curbed.com/archives/2006_03_javits1.jpg

Pumped for the forthcoming Javits Center expansion (http://www.curbed.com/archives/2006/01/24/javits_center_may_look_less_dead_in_a_few_years.php)? If so, you'll want to be the first in your office to download the 53MB Master Plan PDF from architect Richard Rogers and friends that's now available (http://www.javitscenter.com/expansion.htm) to the public. Feeling a bit nutty, we threw bandwidth to the wind and snagged a copy ourselves. (The site also has a 2.5MB Quicktime video, if that's more your speed.) In a word: javtacular!

Select images from the Master Plan document after the jump, including a very special peek at Manhattan's very own Stonehenge.

http://www.curbed.com/archives/2006_03_javits2.jpg

http://www.curbed.com/archives/2006_03_javits3.jpg

http://www.curbed.com/archives/2006_03_javits4.jpg

Copyright © 2006 Curbed

Latest Plan To Expand Javits Center Draws Critics
By CHARLES V. BAGLI
4 April 2006
The New York Times

The largest exhibition at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center is the New York International Auto Show, which is set to open in 10 days and is expected to draw more than 1.2 million visitors.

It is already an expensive show to put on, but its producers are worried that in future years it will cost much more. That is because the latest design to expand the Javits center, expected to win state approval tomorrow, would make setting up and removing exhibits more difficult and more expensive.

Some critics contend that the design, which would add about 340,000 square feet of exhibition space, is being rushed through the approval process despite concerns that it would not provide enough room to attract larger trade shows and conventions. Others are unhappy that much of that expansion would be vertical.

''We're concerned,'' said Mark Schienberg, president of the Greater New York Dealers Association, which sponsors the auto show. ''We're taking a look at it because it's a crucial part of what we do. Going vertical makes it different and challenging.''

Senator Charles E. Schumer is another critic, saying: ''No one is terribly enthusiastic about this plan because it won't attract the largest and most lucrative shows to New York. For a few hundred million dollars more, we could achieve the kind of convention center that would achieve that goal.''

But state officials are looking for ways to pare the cost, which has swelled to $1.7 billion from the $1.4 billion estimate in December 2004, when the Legislature approved expanding the center.

Michael Petralia, the president of the Javits Development Corporation, said that the design was still a work in progress as the corporation tried to address problems like security.

''There are unique challenges to having a convention center in the middle of an urban setting,'' he said yesterday. ''We believe we're creating an expansion that will work from a functional, architectural, community and security standpoint.''

The tourism industry has largely embraced the project. While some in the industry share the concerns about its size and layout, they do not want to risk a delay.

''When you consider the difficulty in building a project of this scale and the fact we've been working on it for 10 years, this is a project that needs to happen now to secure the travel and tourism as one of the dominant businesses in New York City,'' said Jonathan M. Tisch, chairman of the city's convention and visitor's bureau, NYC & Company.

The Javits Center sits on the west side of 11th Avenue between 34th and 38th Streets. Under the current plan, the center would expand to 40th Street, bringing the total amount of exhibition space to 1.1 million square feet from 760,000 square feet, while adding 180,000 square feet of meeting room space. There are also plans for a hotel on the east side of 11th Avenue, between 35th and 36th Streets.

But the plan calls for less contiguous exhibition space and fewer meeting rooms than the original proposal approved by the Legislature in December 2004. Its most controversial element involves selling the center's current marshaling yard for trucks and building a six-story garage at the north end for loading and unloading.

Critics say that the large tractor-trailers that move exhibits, cars and boats in and out of the center will find it hard to navigate the corkscrew roadway in the garage.

After reviewing the garage design, John F. O'Connell Jr., the executive vice president and chief operating officer of Freeman, a contractor that produces 80 percent of the expositions at the Javits, concluded that moving shows in and out would cost more and take days longer.

''The design will lower productivity and increase costs substantially,'' said Mr. O'Connell, whose company handles the auto show.

Robert Boyle, the former chairman of the Javits operating corporation, called the proposed design ''fatally flawed.'' Mr. Boyle was removed from his post by Gov. George E. Pataki in December 2005 after clashing with the administration over the expansion plans.

Anna Levin, a member of Community Board 4 who sits on an advisory panel for the Javits Center, objected to the headlong rush to approve the project plan, which she regarded as inadequate.

''They're doing what they can with the money they have,'' she said, ''but it's going to result in something second-rate.''

who is javits

The Javits center needs three floors because it serves a metropolis of 21 million people on an overcrowded island that barely has room for such a spread-out structure. A single building on six blocks is a lot, but convention centers is larger cities cover even larger areas. I predict that the Javits will soon become the next Merchadise Mart (that huge 25-floor exhibition building in Chicago)

*REMOVED*