Looks like the old thread got pruned, I don't know how many remember this one, but here's an update...

50-Story Tower Will Go Up On Parking Lot Next to Hospital

By Etta Sanders

A 50-story residential tower, to be designed by renowned architect Frank Gehry, is planned for the parking lot of NYU Downtown Hospital. The lower floors are expected to house retail stores and a 10,000-square-foot outpatient center for the hospital. Other floors may be the new home for Pace University's business school and student dorms.

The plans were disclosed by community representatives who met with the developer, Bruce Ratner.

Forest City Ratner acquired the rights to develop the site from the hospital in December 2003. A spokesman for Ratner said it was too soon to comment on specific plans of the site, including the choice the architect.

Pace University confirmed that they are in discussions with Ratner, but would not give details of any pending arrangement. "Conversations are taking place, but it is premature to say anything more at this time," said Christopher Cory, a Pace spokesman.

Gehry would be the second high-profile architect tapped to design a building in the area. Last month an apartment building of transparent cubes, designed by Santiago Calatrava, was announced for a location on South Street. Calatrava is the architect of the bird-shaped PATH terminal to be built at the World Trade Center site.

Members of Community Board 1, who had hoped the plans for the site would include a community facility, said they were surprised that Pace, a private university, would be part of the development.

One board member, Marc Donnenfeld, who lives in a 15-story building on Nassau Street adjacent to the parking lot, said he was also disturbed by the size of the proposed building.

"It's going to be huge," he said. "It's going to be like Gulliver in the land of the Lilliputians."

Suzanne Fass, a 22-year resident of 140 Nassau St., whose windows overlook the parking lot, agreed that 50 stories would be out of scale with the surrounding buildings.

"My main concern and the concern of people in this building is that he not occupy the lot in such a way that he cuts off the air," she said. "All we're asking is that he be a good neighbor."

But the community possesses little leverage to affect the plans.

"We can oppose a tower, but as a community board we technically don't have any capacity to do anything about it," said Madelyn Wils, chair of Community Board 1.

Tower's site drawn out by NYguy:

http://www.pbase.com/image/23854474.jpg

:banana: Hopefully, it will be a good-looking tower! :banana:

when do u think construction will start?

Renderings/models/specs havent been released so I dont think we know yet when construction begins. I hope soon!

It'd better not suck, or there shall be much Hell to pay.

Sounds awsome. I want a rendering! :D

Me too, I hate waiting for renderings!!

Make it 55 stories! :D

NY POST

GEHRY LUXURY TOWER

By WILLIAM NEUMAN

April 19, 2004 -- Developer Bruce Ratner plans to use high-wattage architect Frank Gehry to design a 55-story, $210 million luxury apartment tower in lower Manhattan, after signing a deal to buy the site from NYU Downtown Hospital.

Ratner recently tapped Gehry for a proposed Nets basketball stadium with an adjoining office and residential complex in Downtown Brooklyn - but while approval for that deal is still far off, the lower Manhattan project may be closer to becoming a reality.

Sources familiar with the deal said Ratner has signed a contract with the hospital to pay in excess of $85 million for a parking lot between Spruce and Beekman streets, across the street from Pace University.

The deal also includes some 40,000 square feet of rent-free office or clinic space for the hospital and 400,000 square feet of dorms and classrooms for Pace.

Last February, the developer's Forest City Ratner Cos. received a preliminary authorization from the city's Housing Development Corp. for $131.4 million in tax-free Liberty Bonds to cover the land purchase and part of the construction costs, according to agency spokeswoman Tracy Paurowski.

Gehry is listed as the architect in HDC documents, which estimate the total cost of the project at $210 million.

The sale is expected to be finalized by summer.

In a recent meeting with members of Community Board 1, Ratner said he will use Gehry as the architect, and he has also committed to use Gehry in talks with hospital and city officials.

A Ratner representative, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed that Gehry will design the building.

http://www.nypost.com/photos/news04192004013.jpg
FRANK GEHRY
To design $210M bldg.

man, that's tall, and so close to the city hall. i think they should cut down on the height, or build it farther south, but i also can't wait to see the rendering. hopefully it'll be good, way better than that chileno architect design for 80 south street

Did you say cut down the height?? Theres nothing by the BK bridge ramps...worth looking at. I think this and Calatravas new thang will add ultra modern flare to the classic deco skyline.

A good project with only one bad thing going for it; its designed by Gehry. :puke:

NY Times

Big Project Moves Forward on One-Acre Site

By DAVID W. DUNLAP
Published: May 19, 2004

State and city officials are putting together more than $370 million in tax-exempt financing for a project in Lower Manhattan that is remarkable for the mix of uses on a single acre: an apartment tower, a business school, a dormitory, an art gallery, a hospital, a parking garage and a good-size store.

The one-million-square-foot building, designed by Frank Gehry for Forest City Ratner Companies, would include 330,000 square feet of space for Pace University, whose main building is across Spruce Street, and a 25,000-square-foot ambulatory care unit for NYU Downtown Hospital, which stands next door on Beekman Street.

The developers are hoping to get up to $243 million in tax-exempt Liberty Bond financing for the commercial part of the project, up to $130 million in Liberty Bond financing for the residential tower and about $10 million in tax savings for Pace, which will lease its space with an option to buy it after eight years.

The state Liberty Development Corporation is expected today to formally declare its intent to issue the bonds for the commercial portion of the project.

Cobbling together such a complex financing package for such diverse users has involved tough negotiations.

"We clearly used the carrot and the stick in order to get this done," Deputy Mayor Daniel L. Doctoroff said yesterday in a telephone interview.

"It's a very complicated deal," Mr. Doctoroff said, "but it seemed to us to make such sense to have Pace and Forest City Ratner and NYU Downtown Hospital as partners. Everybody compromised."

A key stumbling block was a kind of paradox involving Pace and NYU Downtown. On one hand, to ensure its economic health, the hospital needed to get a good price for the parking lot on which the new tower is to be built. (One bond application form put the acquisition cost at $42 million.) But the higher the development cost, the harder it became for Pace, a nonprofit institution, to afford to be a part of the project.

"While the developer was open to discussions with Pace about its tenancy, it also has an alternative, high-value development strategy involving a fully residential building," according to a memorandum from Charles A. Gargano, the chairman of the Empire State Development Corporation, to the directors of the Liberty Development Corporation.

"After protracted negotiations," the memo continued, "both sides had essentially walked away from the table and the developer was prepared to proceed with a residential deal. It was only significant pressure from the city that got the sides talking again."

What justified the effort, said Andrew M. Alper, the president of the City Economic Development Corporation, was that "you have, in one project, an awful lot of elements that all add to the recovery of Lower Manhattan." That includes 600 students in the Pace dormitory, who will "provide traffic for retailers downtown and enliven the streets."

Officials said the project would provide the equivalent of 1,546 full-time jobs in construction and development. They emphasized that no final actions had been taken yet on any of the applications. A similar point was made by David A. Caputo, the president of Pace, who said the deal awaited the approval of the university board.

In addition to the dormitory, Pace would use its space to house the Lubin School of Business, other classrooms, an art gallery, the admissions office and dining areas.

"We see this as a major reaffirmation of our investment and commitment to Lower Manhattan and also to the business and corporate community," Dr. Caputo said. "It gives a sense of an urban campus."

Forest City Ratner, which is the development partner of The New York Times Company in its new headquarters on Eighth Avenue, between 40th and 41st Streets, has kept quiet about its downtown project during the negotiations and preliminary design work.

James P. Stuckey, the executive vice president of Forest City Ratner, said yesterday that it is still too early even to say how tall the structure will be, since much depends on the layout of the apartment tower (estimated at 45 stories all by itself), the dormitory, the business school, the hospital unit and the plaza at the base of the building.

The expected action by the Liberty Development Corporation today would allow the developer to begin spending money that would eventually be reimbursable from the bond financing.

Given the involvement of Mr. Gehry, who is working for Forest City Ratner on the proposed Brooklyn arena for the Nets basketball team, Mr. Stuckey said, "We have a lot of confidence that this building will become a postcard for Lower Manhattan."

He added, "We love to do complicated projects."

ahh..nice to hear from this project again and yes, I cant wait for a rendering :cool:

Finally some sort of news about the project, this paragraph is from Downtown Express which was included in an article about more than just this project...

Downtown Express

Suggestions for Gehry

In a July 27 resolution, Community Board 1 suggested ways to mitigate the impact of the 53-story tower planned for the N.Y.U. Downtown Hospital parking lot at the base of the Brooklyn Bridge.

The mixed use tower, to be designed by Frank Gehry, will house 25,000 square feet of outpatient hospital offices, 125,000 square feet for Pace University’s Lubin Business School and an art gallery, a 600-bed dormitory for Pace, up to 550 rental and condominium apartments, ground floor retail and underground parking for 350 to 400 cars.

The resolution said that shifting the building’s footprint east would create a needed buffer between the tower and the residential buildings at 140 and 150 Nassau St. Another recommendation included building two towers with a view corridor in between, to allow for more light and air for Nassau St. residents.

The area around the lot, bordered by Spruce, Beekman, Nassau and Gold Sts., is already too congested, the resolution stated. One way to ease the traffic in an area that includes a hospital and a firehouse would be to increase the amount of green time at the traffic light at Beekman and Park Row for traffic heading west on Beekman, the resolution said. Another way would be to reverse Spruce St., it said.

Some action must be taken to ease the burden on the surrounding community, board members and local residents said.

“You can’t have as a result a building that alienates the community from the hospital and Pace,” said Madelyn Wils, chairperson of C.B. 1.

From: http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_65/downtownlocal.html

Sweet! Wasn't there a 69 story tower planned around there too?

AMAZING NEWS, it's going to be 75 stories! :eek:

Excerpt on the tower from the NY Times article the "New New York Skyline..."

Several blocks west of the Calatrava tower, Frank Gehry is working on a luxury high-rise for the Ratner Development Company, the same developer he is teamed with to design the proposed Nets stadium in Brooklyn.

Whatever the interiors are like, the public will most likely get the best view. Mr. Gehry's 75-story tower — which could not be shown here, because it is still in the earliest stages of design — is conceived as a series of undulating glass panels that hang down over the building's structural frame like flowing drapery. The curtain-like surfaces split apart at various points, then peel open at the top to create an almost classical crown. In its way, the tower is as elaborate as the nearby Woolworth Building, whose soaring neo-gothic stone facades set a standard of aesthetic excess and visual splendor nearly a century ago.

Even the building's location reflects the increasing value of such architectural status symbols. Historically, the reason the bulk of Manhattan's towers were concentrated near Wall Street and in Midtown was because the bedrock there is especially solid. Both Mr. Gehry's and Mr. Calatrava's towers would be built in an area just north of Wall Street, where the bedrock is less firm. To support them, engineers will have to drive pylons more than 150 feet into the earth, adding millions to construction costs.

sounds good. i was worried that the gehry tower would wind up becoming a boring glass box or a building with a crappy facade like many of nyc's newer residential towers.

but i think it'll be better if gehry's tower and calatrava's tower switch places. gehry's tower sounds like it can integrate with downtown's skyline quite well, but calatrava's tower can get its best effects if it's more isolated.

Of course here comes the opposition...

Downtown Express

20 more stories for Beekman building

SEPTEMBER 24 - 30, 2004

By Ronda Kaysen

Real estate developer Bruce Ratner announced plans last week to increase the size of his Beekman St. tower from 55 stories to 75 stories, making it the second tallest proposed building in the Downtown skyline after the Freedom Tower, and inciting outrage from local residents and a potential lawsuit from the city council.

The announcement of a 20-story addition to the one-million-square-foot tower on the lot bordered by Spruce, Beekman, Nassau and Gold Sts. was proposed as a solution to concerns from residents of the neighboring Southbridge Towers that the development would block their windows. Ratner’s alternative — to build a taller, slimmer building with an open plaza — is not what the residents had in mind.

“When you negotiate something in a community that the community doesn’t like, it usually goes down in scale, not up,” Paul Viggiano, president of Southbridge Towers co-op board, said at Community Board 1’s meeting, Sept. 21. “We’re going to get all of our political muscle together to do what we can to get this building down [in size].”

Dan Slippen, director of community relations for Pace University, one of the building’s potential tenants, defended the increase in size. “We’ve been trying to make good will with the community,” he told the board. “We went to 75 stories because of an agreement with members of the community who did not want the bulk of the building against their building, which caused the building to rise.”

No official agreement was reached between Ratner and the community, according to Paul Epstein, a resident of 140 Nassau St. “Nobody has reached any agreement with anybody,” he told the Downtown Express, although he and other residents of his building have met with Ratner’s office. Nevertheless, residents of 140 and 150 Nassau Sts. thought the slimmer alternative was an improvement, Epstein said.

Relieved there will be space between his apartment and the tower — Epstein’s bedroom windows look out on the site — Epstein argues that the building needs to be smaller in more ways than height. “The height is what gets some people excited, but the bulk is what counts,” he said. “If it’s going to be in this size range, it’s going to be a massive building [no matter what].”

Frank Gehry will be the architect, but no renderings of the building have been released.

The building’s staggering height and its bulk are not the community’s only concern. With no clear plans for amenities for the neighborhood — aside from the open plaza — C.B. 1 leaders and local politicians have stepped in to negotiate a development that is more appealing to the densely populated neighborhood.

“We have lots of people in this neighborhood that need services and we haven’t been able to create anything for them, no schools, no parks, nothing,” said Paul Goldstein, C.B. 1’s district manager. Goldstein is hoping to set aside 50,000 square feet of space in the new building for a community center for the neighborhood, one with a gym and swimming pool.

In the current plan, Pace University will occupy 330,000 square feet, or about one-third of the tower. In its portion of the building, Pace will house dormitories, a business school and offices, an art gallery and community space for the public. The rest of the building will be devoted to a 25,000-square-foot outpatient facility for N.Y.U. Downtown Hospital, and rental and condo apartments.

The building’s height, he said, is of less concern than its lack of community services. “This huge building is going to go up without anything for the community,” Goldstein said. “It’s a big pill to swallow.”

The city acquired the site under eminent domain in 1964, and then sold it to what is now NYU Downtown Hospital in 1967, with strict height and land use restrictions. When the statue of limitations on the parcel expired in April, Forest City Enterprises began negotiations to purchase the property from the money-strapped hospital.

The project will be partially financed by $243 million in commercial Liberty Bonds for the construction of the lower 24 floors of the tower for Pace University and NYU Downtown Hospital.

“Public funds were used to condemn a property for public use, at least a piece of it needs to go back to public use,” said C.B. 1 chairperson Madelyn Wils at the board meeting.

City Councilmember Alan Gerson may file a lawsuit against Forest City Enterprises on behalf of the City Council to insure the community’s needs are met. “You’re talking about building the largest building in Lower Manhattan and that requires a thorough review,” Gerson told Downtown Express. “We can’t just have such a mammoth development without getting it right.”

The deadline for filing a lawsuit is Oct. 4, although Gerson is not convinced that a resolution will require legal action. “A lawsuit is always the last resort,” he said. “I hope over the next week or so we’ll be able to come up with an arrangement that meets the needs of the community.”

Forest City Enterprises did not comment.

At its Sept. 21 meeting, C. B. 1 passed a resolution supporting Gerson’s suit. “This 75-story building benefits Ratner,” said Wils. “Now Ratner needs to step up to the plate and see how he wants to deal with the community.”

Ronda@DowntownExpress.com

I think I'm gonna like this tower.
Altough I didn't like what the comments were on the design with the ondulating glass, I'm sure it's going to turn alright.

What the hell are the nimby's complaining about? No public amnities? It's a freakin' hospital! And college! They aren't gonna win this one though...:) that makes me smile.

No public amnities? Oh nooo, let's have a parking lot instead!

More community knee-jerking...Posted by londonlawyer on WNY:
From Tribecatrib.com:

Building on Hospital Site to Be 75 Stories

by Barry Owens

Developer Bruce Ratner has plans to build a 75-story apartment building on the lot next to NYU Downtown Hospital at Beekman, William, Spruce and Nassau streets. That is 20 more stories than he first proposed five months ago and a galling prospect for those who live nearby.

“Damn it, they shouldn’t just tell us what they’re going to do—they should ask us,” said Paul Epstein, whose apartment at 150 Nassau Street overlooks the site.

Last month, residents of Southbridge Towers, an apartment complex near the lot, voiced their concerns over the height of the building and the lack of community space built into the plan.

Community Board 1 was more specific, drafting a resolution condemning the height and calling for the inclusion of a 50,000-square-foot community space with a gym and swimming pool.

And City Councilman Alan Gerson upped the ante by threatening to file a lawsuit on the grounds that the city bypassed City Council review when it approved modifications to the Land Disposition Agreement governing the site.

Earlier in the month, Epstein and other community representatives met privately with Ratner and officials from the hospital and Pace University, which will get space in the building, in hopes of hammering out a deal that would give the community a public amenity and soften the impact of the project.

Epstein declined to elaborate on the negotiations, saying only that there has been “progress on a number of issues.” But he said he was angry that the city had allowed Ratner to circumvent the public review process.

“The parties involved here have been forced to privately recreate what should have been done publicly,” he said. “And that ain’t right.”

Robert Bonvino, vice president for government relations and corporate development at NYU Downtown Hospital, said that the hospital had been open with the public about its plans, and held little influence on the amount of community space to be included in the building.

“After we sell the parking lot, we have a 25,000-square-foot space in that building for a hospital outpatient facility,” Bonvino said. “Other than that, we don’t really have a say.”

The financially struggling hospital agreed to sell the lot to Forest City Ratner in an effort to recover from years of financial losses. The developer did not return calls for comment.

Ratner’s plan calls for a condominium tower that will provide space for the hospital and 330,000 square feet for Pace. The university will house dormitories, a business school, offices and an art gallery in its portion of the building.

“We’re not against a community amenity,” said Daniel Slippen, director of the Center for Downtown New York at Pace. “We have been trying to work with the community to maximize use of our current facility.”

The building plan, still in the early design stages, has not been made public. According to a story in the New York Times, the design by architect Frank Gehry features undulating sheets of glass hanging like drapes over the structure of the building. The glass peels away from the building to form a crown of sorts on top.

So far, the only concession Ratner has made to the community is an agreement to create a 1,300 square-foot plaza that will act as buffer between the new building and 140 and 150 Nassau Street.

“We’ve had a long history with plazas in this district,” said CB1 District Manager Paul Goldstein. “They have some value, but it’s limited.”


Wow. These people want so many free things it's unbelievable. you can't always get what you want community boards!!!

Downtown Express

Divided opposition to East Side Ratner-Gehry tower

Volume 17 • Issue 21 | October 15 - 21, 2004

By Ronda Kaysen

With the closing date for the sale of NYU Downtown Hospital’s Beekman St. parking lot to Forest City Enterprises looming, residents of nearby Southbridge Towers have launched negotiations of their own with developer Bruce Ratner in the hopes of securing amenities for their own building — to the dismay of some Community Board 1 members.

Members of the board’s Seaport/Civic Center committee drafted a resolution at an Oct. 12 meeting calling for community solidarity in dealings with Ratner and his plans for a 75-story multi-use tower on the site. If built, the Frank Gehry-designed tower will be the second tallest building Downtown after the Freedom Tower.

No amenities have been secured for the community as of yet, and City Councilmember Alan Gerson insists that once the deal closes (perhaps by the end of the month) the community will have less leverage to secure any amenities at all. Residents of nearby 140-150 Nassau St. filed a lawsuit against Ratner earlier this month, which may delay the closing if a settlement is not reached.

Two weeks ago, residents of nearby Southbridge Towers entered into discussions of their own with Ratner that, according to committee members, may undermine the community’s ability to negotiate effectively with the developer. “We all need to be working together and we should be honest with each other as we move forward in this process,” said Paul Goldstein, C.B. 1’s district manager and a Southbridge resident. “Obviously the developer is using a strategy of divide and conquer to divide the community.”

But Southbridge’s interests are not in conflict with the community’s interests, according to Paul Viggiano, president of the Southbridge Towers co-op board. Southbridge board members met with Ratner a few weeks ago for an “initial meeting” but “there were no negotiations, there was nothing,” he insisted. “If I thought for a minute that anything that Southbridge would ask for would diminish any other efforts, I guess I would pull out because I don’t want that to happen,” Viggiano said in a telephone interview.

Although Viggiano declined to comment about what specific amenities Southbridge is seeking, he mentioned “floors and windows” as two possible amenities and other sources suggested that the co-op board was negotiating for a community room and small park for Southbridge.

Seaport/Civic Center committee members expressed concern that Southbridge may weaken C.B. 1’s leverage. “The community board has been representing the community and supporting the desires of the community for many years. We have to speak in one voice,” Marc Donnenfeld, the committee’s chairperson, said at the meeting. Individual negotiations are “going to weaken the community board in the long run,” he added.

According to Viggiano, Southbridge has every right to try to secure amenities of its own with Ratner. “I would be remised as the president of this board if I wasn’t able to go out and talk to Ratner about specifics to Southbridge,” he said. “Everyone seems to be going out and asking for what they want.”

Residents of 140-150 Nassau St. stepped up its efforts to reach a deal with Ratner without the direct involvement of the community, says Viggiano, which has had the positive effect of “getting people to the bargaining table.” Residents of 140-150 Nassau St. approached Southbridge Towers regarding the lawsuit, but they declined to participate.

The 140-150 Nassau St. lawsuit, however, will not have a negative effect on community negotiations, says Goldstein of C.B. 1, because it calls for a Uniform Land Use Review Procedure and an environmental impact study for the tower, two processes that would require public review. Gerson also expressed his support for the lawsuit and said he may file a friend of the court brief in the event that negotiations break down.

Nassau St. residents are most interested in securing a plaza between their building and the Ratner building so the new tower will not block their windows, according to sources close to the suit.

Ratner did not return repeated calls for comment for this story.

According to Gerson, the financially strapped NYU Downtown Hospital insists it will be forced to file for bankruptcy if the lot is not sold by the closing date. If the hospital files for bankruptcy, it will be turned over to the New York State Department of Health. “I think the way it’s been handled is awful,” said Gerson at the meeting. “What assurance do we have that in years in the future they’re not going to be in the same straits?”

Bruce D. Logan, president and C.E.O. of Downtown Hospital, said the hospital has no immediate plans to file for bankruptcy. “NYU Downtown Hospital, like most hospitals operating in the current healthcare environment, is facing very severe financial difficulties,” Logan wrote in an e-mail statement. “However, in the event that the sale of the parking lot does not close by the end of the month, the hospital absolutely will not file for bankruptcy protection.“

The site was set aside for public use for NYU Downtown Hospital in 1964 after it had been taken over by the city under eminent domain. When the statue of limitations on use and height restrictions expired this year, Ratner began negotiations to purchase the property from the hospital. The tower’s architect, Frank Gehry, was tapped this week to design the theater cultural building in the new World Trade Center.

Partially financed by $243 million in commercial Liberty Bonds, Pace University will occupy 330,000 square feet on the lower 24 floors of the Beekman St. tower and 25,000 square feet will be reserved for an outpatient facility for the hospital. The remaining space will include rental and condo apartments. C.B. 1 hopes to secure 50,000 square feet for a community facility with a pool and health center.

C.B. 1 will vote on the resolution at its Oct. 19 full board meeting.

BUILD BUILD, will probably be a great addition to the skyline

I hope there will be renderings available soon

Second tallest building after FT? What's the height???

Second tallest building after FT? What's the height???

No mention of height yet but if the Freedom tower is officially 1776 feet and the tallest Downtown right now is American International at 952 feet, it's safe to see we got at the minimum a 1000 footer.

This is sounding better and better. :cheers: Just hope that there won't be a reduction in height. But with Pace and NYU on the developers side, it'll be harder to do.

I was thinking that the article was saying that this would be the 2nd tallest in Downtown in stories, but then I remembered that Freedom is only 73....So this is gonna be the tallest in Downtown in stories, and the 3rd in all Manhattan, unless 1 New York Place is built. Then it would be 4th.

I am pumped up for a rendering. When would this be built, anyway? Hopefully soon. :)

Would be awesome if 1NY place gets approved soon
Then downtown would get its three tallest in about 5 years, the skyline will probably change dramatically and Downtown will revive stronger than ever

Assuming this will only be a glas box, at 960 feet:
http://img101.exs.cx/img101/9623/73rendeing_5_copy.jpg
Made by Knarfor on SSP. :)
Includes: Freedom tower, Goldman Sachs, Calatrava, Gehry, other WTC towers.

nice rendering of the future Downtown manhattan.
There seems to be creating a wood of skyscrapers around freedom tower with goldman sachs, 7wtc...
I think it'll be great walking through those canyons, still doesn't compare the old wtc.

And Gehry tower stands out well there

It's not a rendering, it's more of a massing model ;) At least for Gehry's tower anyway.

I agree, it'll look good over there. Extend the skyline north! ;)

Well i'm sure it won't be a glass box, however i hope its not as flamboyent as gehrys work, with museums, concert halls, exibition centers, etc. his style is certainly one of a kind. however i'm interested to see what he can do with a 950' skyscraper. i know one thing, it'll sure be interesting! the site in question offers very high visability. an oppertunity to, (as an architect) make a mark in the skyline. i live in the venice area of los angeles, an alot of his work is litteraly blocks away, but if he can do verticaly what he did with the disney concert hall, we'll have something here!!!

This was Gehry's design for the NY times tower:
http://www.guggenheim.org/exhibitions/past_exhibitions/gehry/images/projects/projects_images/ny_times13_lg.jpg
(originally posted in the NY times tower topic by safethewtc)

i guess we might expect something like it.

^^I'm almost confused as to what this model for the NY Times tower is. It looks like a bag my chinese food would come in. I do like the great additions to downtown New York. They really add to the skyline.

Good news, this article says a rendering will be released by the end of the year. This article also says the tower will be 700 feet which sounds like old information or a typo since there's no way a 75 story tower can be 700 feet.

Downtown Express

Ratner on Gehry

October 22 - 28, 2004

Developer Bruce Ratner said he expects to release renderings of Frank Gehry’s tower design for NYU Downtown Hospital’s parking lot site by the end of the year and he hopes the building will be seen as comparable to Lower Manhattan’s landmark Woolworth Building.

Community Board 1 and nearby residents at Southbridge Towers and on Nassau St. have raised objections to the building’s 700-foot height and the lack of proposed community space in the building. The building between Beekman and Spruce Sts. will have apartments as well as facilities for the hospital and Pace University.

Ratner described Gehry’s proposal as spectacular and beautiful. “The issue is design, not height,” Ratner told Downtown Express at a fundraising gala for the hospital Wednesday.

He said the building will not be reminiscent of Gehry’s most famous design, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, but will be similar to an idea Gehry had for the New York Times’ headquarters Ratner is developing at Times Square (Renzo Piano was ultimately selected as the Times building’s architect.) Ratner said the Downtown tower will curve in and out and he gestured in the shape of a woman to illustrate his point.

Hospital officials say their existing building will get a facelift to match the Gehry design and there will also be green space added as part of the project.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

A view of Gehry's NY Times proposal in the skyline:

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/photopost/data/500/2404nytimesgehryskyline.JPG

Sounds interesting...though Im not really a fan of that NY Times proposal.

That view of his NYTimes proposal looks like a flower bulb about to explode. Not good. But deffinietly intresting.

This can't be good news...

NY POST

RATNER FAILS TOKEEP PACE DEAL

By STEVE CUOZZO

November 4, 2004 -- A widely publicized development deal between Bruce Ratner and Pace University has collapsed, threatening to scuttle or delay a planned Frank Gehry-designed skyscraper near City Hall.

Pace balked over Ratner's demand that it accept 30 percent less space in the glamorous tower than was originally agreed to, but for the same cost — around $180 million, sources said.

"Pace University is ending discussions" with Ratner, the school's president David A. Caputo said regarding its participation in the ambitious scheme, which was also to include luxury condo apartments, affordable rental units, stores, and an ambulatory-care facility for NYU Downtown Hospital.

Caputo said the school was in the final stage of lease negotiations when Ratner told officials that "the financial agreement we had reached had been substantially changed, and Forest City now has asked for a significant increase in Pace's financial obligation."

Caputo said this occurred "despite a signed term sheet" and "after 11 months of good faith negotiations" that involved state and city officials. "This decision will force Pace to reconsider its plans for downtown expansion," he said.

Ratner, in a statement, said it had recently become clear that "the overall costs of the project had dramatically increased," owing to escalating construction costs and the complexity of a multi-use project.

It said Ratner "worked closely with Pace" to try to "re-establish an appropriate price for Pace's portion of the building. We are disappointed that this revised proposal was not aproved by Pace's board of directors."

City and state officials had agreed to allocate $370 million in tax-exempt Liberty Bonds to the project, but their approval was contingent in part on Pace's participation.

A Ratner spokesperson said there was now "no expectation" of Liberty Bonds and that the developer instead would seek low-interest financing from the city and state available for residential projects that reserve 20 percent of their units for affordable rentals.

Calls to the city's Economic Development Corp. to clarify the matter were not returned by press time.

The scheme is one of several high-profile enterprises of Ratner, who is also the partner of the New York Times in its Eighth Avenue headquarters and the would-be developer of a Nets arena at Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn.

Although it has never been stated exactly how big the Gehry-designed building might be, sources said it might rise to 70 stories and hold 1 million square feet.

Pace was supposed to occupy over 300,000 square feet on the lower floors — 205,000 square feet for dormitories and 125,000 feet for its business school.

Sources said Ratner was poised to close on a contract to buy the land from NYU Downtown Hospital for about $85 million. At the same time, Pace, whose campus is across the street, was to sign a long-term lease with Ratner with an option to buy the space after several years.

But then, insiders said, Ratner said he would only go ahead if the university agreed to take 25-30 percent less space for the same price.

That made the deal too costly for Pace, which told Ratner it would not do the dormitories but still wanted the business school. Ratner is said to have responded that a business school-alone deal would cost Pace 30 percent more to buy or lease on a per-square-foot basis.

"[Deputy Mayor] Dan Doctoroff had shepherded this thing along," one insider said. "And then Ratner reneged."

Another crappy Ghery design. It would be nice if he would diversify a bit.

This is all Ratners fault. They are pigs.

All those real estate companies, Ratner, Silverstein, etc, they're all for getting money, more and more, and can't seem to think of getting anything else. No wonder people and companies are still moving out of Lower Manhattan 3 years after 9-11.

Hey, let's keep our fingers crossed on this one!

Posted by NYGuy on WNY:

DOWNTOWN EXPRESS

K-8 school may join Ratner project

By Ronda Kaysen

Bruce Ratner’s planned 75-story Beekman St. tower may soon be home to a new East Side elementary school, if the developer and city officials can hammer out an agreement.

With Pace University no longer a player in the 1-million-square-foot apartment building — the school pulled out of the deal on Nov. 3 — community and city leaders are eyeing the 330,000 square feet of unclaimed space as a possible site for a new K-8 school and a community center.

The previously favored spot for the school — 250 Water St. — is owned by Milstein Properties and comes fraught with its own complications. The city would likely have to acquire the site, now a parking lot, through eminent domain, which would in all likelihood involve a lengthy legal battle. City Councilmember Alan Gerson told the Downtown Express in September that the city is obligated to try and find a location for the school that is east of Broadway and south of the Brooklyn Bridge. A failure to do so may derail other development plans for Tribeca.

Pace’s sudden withdrawal from the Ratner deal — on the grounds that Forest City Ratner, Bruce Ratner’s company, dramatically raised the cost of the lease — may be more of a windfall for the community than a setback.

“A school would be done faster on the hospital site and we’re looking to expedite this as fast as possible,” said Madelyn Wils, Community Board 1’s chairperson.

A community center, also a high-ranking desire of the community, is less likely to occur since it lacks the funding that the school has already secured. The $69 million school will be funded with $44 million from the city’s capital budget and the remainder is expected to come from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. The community center, on the other hand, has no funding secured at this point.

“The rec center is more of a long shot,” said assistant district manager Judy Duffy at a C.B. 1 South Street Seaport/Civic Center committee meeting this week. Before the Pace announcement, community officials had been hoping to secure 50,000 square feet of community space in the tower for a pool and health center.

Without a large commercial tenant like Pace, the Ratner tower will no longer be eligible for $350 million in Liberty bonds, although 25,000 square feet is still allotted for an NYU Downtown Hospital outpatient facility. According to a recent article in the New York Post, Ratner may instead use an 80-20 tax abatement residential financing program for his project

By all accounts, Ratner seems interested in the idea of a school in his Frank Gehry-designed tower. “This is a recent development and one that is certainly under consideration that is being reviewed very carefully,” said Michele DeMilly, a spokesperson for Forest City Ratner.

According to board member Paul Hovitz, Ratner’s office recently asked to see the plans for P.S. 89/I.S. 89 in Battery Park City, an elementary school that shares its space with a residential building. “How many schools do you know that were built from scratch in a residential building?” said Hovitz. “P.S. 89 is a good example of how architects worked a school into a residential building.”

Offering the community a school in return for a 75-story tower — the tallest building in Lower Manhattan after the planned Freedom Tower — may make an unpopular project more tolerable for residents.

“Let’s say you don’t put a school there, that gives the community all of the downside with no givebacks,” said Hovitz. “It behooves us to do the best we can to try to provide the future tenants and the community residents with a needed amenity.”

Ratner is going to build this tower. I have spoken to hsi brother "Chuck" in Cleveland and he says he and Gehry will stop at nothing to get this building off the ground. Trust me on this one.

More

TRIBECA TRIB

Push for School in Tower Planned for Site Next to Hospital

by Etta Sanders

In a pair of surprising developments, Pace University pulled out of a deal to occupy part of a towering residential building planned for the parking lot of NYU Downtown Hospital, and talks have begun about putting a new K-8th grade school there.

The discussions took place in a meeting on Nov. 3 between elected officials and representatives of the community, the hospital, and the site's developer, Forest City Ratner, to explore a possible contribution by the developer to a community amenity.

Within minutes of the beginning of the meeting, the news came that Pace had just withdrawn from a pending lease agreement with Ratner for 300,000 square feet of the proposed 75-story building, saying the developer had significantly increased the price.

Community representatives quickly jumped in to suggest a school.
"Immediately after that announcement, they launched into, 'Alright, you don't have Pace, we need a school,'" said Paul Epstein, a resident of 140 Nassau Street, a building that borders the site.

According to Epstein and others at the meeting, the developers were open to the idea, but expressed reservations about the delays that could be caused by bringing the historically slow moving Department of Education into the process. Community representatives pointed to the relatively speedy creation of P.S. 234, P.S./I.S. 89 and the Millennium high school as a demonstration of the neighborhood's record for fast tracking schools.

"We do have a precedent of circumventing the DOE," said Paul Goldstein, CB1 district manager.

After the meeting, Ratner requested the plans for P.S./I.S. 89, which had been cited at the meeting as an example of how a school could successfully be worked into a residential building. Those plans have been given to the project's architect, Gehry and Partners. Another meeting is scheduled for Nov. 23r.

"All in all a pretty positive development," said Marc Donenfeld chair of CB1's Seaport and Civic Center Committee.
Madelyn Wils, chairwoman of CB1, said there were several incentives that could make the school an attractive option for Ratner.

"The good neighbor incentive is that he's putting 1,000 people on that site and if they choose to go to public school they won't have public school," said Madelyn Wils. "The second incentive is that the school can pay for itself."

The city has committed $44 million dollars in the School Construction Authority budget toward the creation of a new school. Wils said putting in a school could help the developer qualify for the millions of dollars in tax-free Liberty Bonds they have sought. "There would be no reason for them to get Liberty Bonds if they don't do anything that's good for the public."

It is unclear how the changes could affect the eventual size of the project. Pace was expected to move its business school and student dorms into 300,000 square feet of the new facility. A K-8th grade school would likely need only about 100,000 square feet. The hospital will get 25,000 square feet for outpatient facilities in the building.

The financially strapped hospital sold the development rights for the lot to Forest City Ratner in December 2003. Finalization of that sale is currently impeded by a lawsuit brought by residents who are contesting the city's determination that the site can be built on without going through a public approval process. Through that process, the height of the building could be limited.

The building was originally proposed to be 50 stories high, but after complaints from Nassau Street residents that their light and air would be cut off, the plans were amended to set it back on the lot and create a plaza. In order to do that, Ratner said, they would need to increase the height of the building to 75 stories. That would make it the second tallest Downtown structure after the Freedom Tower, now planned for the World Trade Center site.

In recent months, a parking lot at 250 Water Street near the South Street Seaport, owned by Milstein Properties, has been seen as the likely location for a new school. But that site is also encumbered with a lawsuit, this one brought by the owner against the city over zoning issues.

The hospital parking lot was long favored by the community board as a location for a public school. The Department of Education (DOE), however, had reservations about school buses competing with fire trucks and ambulances on Beekman and Spruce Streets.

"DOE was concerned about the very narrow streets surrounding the NYU/Beekman hospital," a spokeswoman for the department said in March.

When Ratner entered into the deal with Pace last spring, the hopes for a school at the site died. Now they have been resuscitated. Said Goldstein, "We've gone a very circuitous route."

Two articles from the Downtown Express mentioning the project, not really any major news though...

Downtown Express

Gehry stays mum on Beekman tower project

http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_82/ghery.jpg
Architect Frank Gehry spoke at Parsons School of Design Nov. 29.

By Ronda Kaysen

New York is intense, even for famed architect Frank Gehry. During a Nov. 29 discussion with Parsons School of Design Dean Paul Goldberger, Gehry confirmed, among other things, that New York City is a very different town than his current place of residence — sprawling Los Angeles.

“It’s an intense kind of urbanity that’s different from L.A. It’s different from any city,” he told a packed audience at the New School University’s Tishman Auditorium. Dressed in a faded blue sports jacket and crumpled khakis, Gehry chatted with Goldberger, architecture critic for The New Yorker, about all things architectural. The interview marked the first of a new series on design and architecture dubbed ‘At the Parsons Table.’ “I just kind of go with the flow,” Gehry said about working in New York.

For Gehry, the flow is substantial. The 75-year-old architect du jour is currently immersed in three New York City projects — the theater performance space in the new World Trade Center and two Bruce Ratner projects: the New Jersey Nets’ new Brooklyn Stadium and a 75-story residential tower on Beekman St. in Lower Manhattan.

“We put in our name and lo and behold we got it,” he said of his bid for the W.T.C. performance space. The first round of designs is due by February, Gehry said. “It’s complicated, we’re just studying the program,” he said. The performance space will house the Joyce dance theater and the Signature Theater.

Gehry bowed out of the 2002 design competition for the W.T.C. site master plan. At the time, he said the nominal compensation offered to the applicants was insufficient. His explanation at Monday night’s discussion took a more sentimental approach. “I tried to stay out of that. It’s just too emotional. I didn’t know how to relate to it,” he told Goldberger, author of a book about the rebuilding of the W.T.C., “Up from Zero: Politics, Architecture, and the Rebuilding of New York” (Random House, 2004).

Gehry made no mention of developer Bruce Ratner’s 75-story Beekman St. tower on a site owned by NYU Downtown Hospital. When Downtown Express later requested details, a spokesperson for the architect declined to comment on the project. Ratner said in October that Gehry’s renderings of the Beekman building are spectacular.

Ronda@DowntownExpress.com

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - -

Another article mentioning the project from DE...

Downtown Express

C.B. 1 discusses school sites

While talks continue about the future site of a new K-8 school for Lower Manhattan, some members of Community Board 1’s Youth and Education committee wondered at last week’s meeting whether or not the school should be one K-8, or two separate elementary and middle schools.

Committee chairperson Paul Hovitz said the committee had already supported the K-8 model and that he hadn’t heard anything from the Department of Education to indicate that they were considering anything other than the K-8 model.

“That is the direction that the pendulum is swinging to make up for the middle schools’ failure across the country,” Hovitz said. The details and logistics of the type of school it will eventually be will be decided after a site is chosen, he added.

The committee is hoping the school will be included in the tower to be designed by Frank Gehry at Beekman St. Although a meeting this week at Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s office and developer Forest City Ratner was postponed, elected officials are working to get the school included in the NYU Downtown Hospital site at Beekman St., Hovitz said. The hospital, which owns the land that Ratner wants to build the 75-story Gehry tower, plans to have a facility in the new building.

If that site falls through, the committee is open to the 250 Water St. site that has also been under consideration.

—- Ted Phillips

Gehry must think we are going to criticize the hell out of him if he throws us a rendering of this project.

He really needs to get past the curvy steel shells he designs and evolve it into something more. With every new one he makes the concept more boring. Eventually it will become his own cliche.

Gehry must think we are going to criticize the hell out of him if he throws us a rendering of this project.

He really needs to get past the curvy steel shells he designs and evolve it into something more. With every new one he makes the concept more boring. Eventually it will become his own cliche.

You're absolutely right. They must be holding back on releasing a rendering because of the fear of criticsms they will receive by the public, specifically the residents in the area who already oppose the tower. Ratner must be waiting until he really locks in this deal to show any visual images, otherwise it's just more ammunition for the residents to use against him.

Unless of course they are very confident in the Gehry design that they'll have no problem winning over the opponents.

I really would like to see Gehry design something with an evolved uniqueness. It's not that I don't like his organic stainless steel shells. I think he could make that an element of the whole design. I like glass and stainless steel. I'd like to see more glass in his next project. In fact I'd like to see more use of curved glass. I've seen a little bit in the Conde Nast Building's corner facing Times Square, but curved glass isn't becoming utilized as much as I thought it would so far.

Gehry's stuff is usually too wild and out of control for my tastes so we'll see about this one. His facades and use of steel is not the problem but his proportions and form is what I dislike.

What we do know specifically about the design...

He said the building will not be reminiscent of Gehry’s most famous design, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, but will be similar to an idea Gehry had for the New York Times’ headquarters Ratner is developing at Times Square (Renzo Piano was ultimately selected as the Times building’s architect.) Ratner said the Downtown tower will curve in and out and he gestured in the shape of a woman to illustrate his point.

If he uses glass that is literally curved and designed overall in a tasteful manner I may be impressed.

Proportions have been my biggest obstacle in appreciating his works. Maybe it's just too archaic for my tastes.

Yes i agree with both your observations, (savethewtc/JPSLtd). i cannot get past the idea that his plan may be to flamboyant, and i stated before, this plan affords HIGH visability. use of alot of glass would be nice, but this is not a common factor with his designs. with low buildings he can pull it of, however with 700+ feet...............we'll just have to see?

There is in article in TIME that says the tower will be "as much as 800 feet"


I'm pretty let down, talk about a dissapointment.


800 feet is pathetic for NYC and for a 75 floor tower.


But I can never trust a magazine, Now that I think of it, DIdnt ratner himself say the tower was going to be 1000'?

Gehry's stuff is usually too wild and out of control for my tastes so we'll see about this one. His facades and use of steel is not the problem but his proportions and form is what I dislike.

What we do know specifically about the design...
yea sexy
woman-shaped skyscraper

She better be a hot one, not some obese chick.

Awww, so no 75 story tall statue of Star Jones??


Damn...

^well she wanted her husband to be in too :D

Wow that would give Al Quaeda a new target :sleepy:

Yeah :sleepy:

Okay, that comment was not funny nor neccesary.

Ghery rules! i hope its extreme!

This and Calatrava's tower in close proximity....Lower Manhattan is gonna look real different in the next few years.

it needs it :)

^ Downtown could ALWAYS use some more residential. When office workers get the day off, the place is dead.

NY Daily News

Seeking school at Ratner site

In the wake of Pace University's withdrawal from Bruce Ratner's big development in lower Manhattan, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver is negotiating with him about including a city school in the project.

Silver (D-Manhattan) is championing a combined public school and intermediate school for pre-kindergarten through eighth grade at Ratner's site near City Hall. The location is a parking lot between Beekman and Spruce streets that belonged to NYU Downtown Hospital.

"I would love to achieve this goal of building a school - and I'm working hard on it," Silver said.

A spokeswoman for the developer confirmed that talks are taking place, but didn't elaborate on their progress.

"We're in ongoing discussions," she said.

Downtown desperately needs a new public school, many feel, because thousands of apartments are being built there, and existing schools are getting crowded. The city has money in its budget for the construction of a school east of Broadway.

"The city is encouraging residential development downtown, and we support it," said Paul Goldstein, district manager of Community Board 1. "But they need to supply basic services."

Ratner plans to build a glamorous 75-story skyscraper at the Beekman Street site, with residential condos in the top of the tower and rental apartments in the middle. Celebrity architect Frank Gehry is the designer.

Pace was planning dorms for 600 students and its Lubin School of Business on the lower floors of the project. But at the 11th hour, Ratner ratcheted up Pace's rent - and raised hackles among neighborhood residents and real estate execs.

If Ratner were to build a public school, he'd gain political capital that could come in handy as he seeks approval for his plan to build a $2.5 billion Nets arena and real estate project in Downtown Brooklyn.

If he said yes to a school, there'd be another positive consequence - for Edward Minskoff and his development site on West and Warren streets in Tribeca South.

Because of an agreement made last fall by City Councilman Alan Gerson (D-Manhattan), Community Board 1 chairwoman Madelyn Wils and Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff, Minskoff isn't allowed to start construction at his site until a location east of Broadway is found to build a public school.

I wonder what school would be like in a 75 story building? Sweet!!!!

If they want to make this the *Ultimate Community Skyscraper* they should include an observation deck on top! :D

Not only is a 75 story tower sweet, the precedent this will set will be HUGE. This can show that a tower can indeed be made with a community's support; But it also shows that concessions need to be tossed out to get something done. If this is sucessful, I'd imagine seeing many more projects similar to this, albeit probably on a much smaller scale that this supertall. :) my 2cents

If this thing is as crazy as Ghery can go then it will become a tourist stop unto its self. Cant wait to see SOME FUKIN RENDERINGS.

Great news!

Downtown Express

Silver says school deal has been reached

Volume 17 • Issue 36 | February 4 - 10, 2005

By Josh Rogers

Mayor Bloomberg and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver reached a deal Wednesday night to build a new K-8 school on Lower Manhattan’s East Side, Silver told Downtown Express.

“It’s a great thing for the Downtown community,” Silver said in a telephone interview.

The school will be built on the parking lot behind NYU Downtown Hospital, between Beekman and Spruce Sts. The hospital recently sold the site to developer Bruce Ratner, who plans to build a Frank Gehry-designed residential tower with hospital facilities on the lower floors.Pace University was also slated to move into the 1 million-square-foot building, but the university dropped out of the deal in November, opening the door for an elementary and middle school.

Silver said Bloomberg had been concerned about the costs of the school, but the mayor called Wednesday to say the school will be built on the site. The city has $44 million in its capital budget for the school and the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., a state-city agency, may be asked to pay as much as $25 million to help pay any additional costs.

Silver, whose district includes the World Trade Center site, said Bloomberg did not discuss any financing specifics and the speaker expected to learn more details Thursday. It is not clear when construction on the school will start and finish. An announcement ceremony with Bloomberg, Silver and Ratner is being scheduled for Friday, Feb. 4.

The New York Times and Daily News had previously reported that the school negotiations had been linked to Bloomberg’s efforts to convince Silver to back a Jets stadium on the West Side but Silver said Wednesday that the stadium was “never discussed” during the school negotiations. “The mayor’s an honorable man,” Silver added.

Lower Manhattan is the fastest growing part of the city and a new school particularly on the East Side has been the top priority of Community Board 1 and local political leaders.

Josh@DowntownExpress.com

I want a rendering and a model damnit.

Great news.

But we need a rendering and an exact height.

bring it!! :D

...great news for the weekend...


:cheers:

Curbed

Bruce & Frank's Downtown Tower Wants You!

Tuesday, March 29, 2005, by Lockhart

Is that Frank Gehry-designed residential tower in downtown Manhattan inching closer to reality? Last fall, developer Bruce Ratner leaked word of a 70-to-75-story Gehry-architected building slated for the open lot at 85 Bleekman Street, designs of which have not yet been made public. This week, a strange email is circulating seeking luxury individuals interested in participating in a focus group about the tower-to-be. For your reading pleasure, full text of the email after the jump.

The email reads:

From: [redacted]
Sent: Monday, March 28, 2005 4:02 PM
Subject: seeking new yorkers for research about apartments and neighborhoods

Hello,

We're helping a New York developer to plan a Frank Gehry-designed residential tower in lower Manhattan. To better understand the needs of the building's future residents, we're planning several workshops with people who live New York City and surrounding areas. We are seeking:

A. People who live in a 'luxury' apartment or loft, are seriously considering renting or buying one, or have done so in the past. (rent :$3000+ / month; purchase $1.5 million+)
B. Within group A, we are trying to find:
- Design / architecture lovers
- Manhattan-philes (people who would never consider living anywhere other than Manhattan)
- People who live / have lived in luxury corporate apartments
- Suburban dwellers who have, or are considering, owning or renting a second home in the city
- Luxury brand users (e.g. Prada, Fendi, W Hotels, Bang & Olufsen, etc...)

We are planning a workshop this Thursday, March 31 at 7-9 pm (time to be confirmed) in mid-town. Workshops participants will spend a fun evening contributing their views on NYC's neighborhoods and apartments, and sharing experiences they've had. In addition to contributing to the design of a notable building, we'll provide dinner and give you a small gift as a token of our thanks.

Several other workshops will take place the week of April 4 and 11.

If you or anyone you know fits both categories A & B, please have them reply to [redacted] with the following info:

name:
age:
neighborhood where you currently live:
category (ies) from 'B' that you fall under (describe briefly):

Thanks in advance for your help!
[signature etc]

This and Calatrava's tower in close proximity....Lower Manhattan is gonna look real different in the next few years.

that sounds good!

what the hell is taking so long for them to release some renderings,i've been waiting for atleast 5months

Maybe they delayed it, or worse, cancelled?

I don't think they cancelled it.

No reason to believe it's cancelled if there was no such mention. It seems like it's still in the designing process as they asked for residents opinions and inputs. The goal has to be to get the residents approval here as there's a known opposition.

www.wirednewyork.com


Check the skyscraper forum, theres a rendering there, it's a 1000 foot curvey/boxy building, it's really cool and really tall!

Here's the rendering, not really much you can see of the design:

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/photopost/data/500/2404beekman.JPG

That's the one, About 1050 feet I think. maybe a little less, but it's really tall, that building peeking out on the left side of the picture (the big box) is 55 water street, 685 feet high, this is at least 50% taller.

I like it!

According to the city and LMDC announcment they talked about funds being secured for an elementray school on Beekman street which is of course in this tower which means another step forward towards construction. Though Ide settle for a rendering at this point...anything.

Very Nice design

How can you tell?

It looks to be 80 stories high, I'm usually a pesimist when it comes to really tall buildings in Manhattan, I just have a gut feeling that it would be too good to be true to get something like that. same with a taller FT or trumps twins.

Issues like the school and the community concerns have to be resolved before the tower goes ahead...

Downtown Express

Parent concern begins over new school’s design

JUNE 3 - 9, 2005

By M.L. Liu

A design has emerged for the 630-seat Beekman St. elementary and middle school. But the images of a gymnasium and rooftop playground for Downtown kids did little to dispel some Downtown parents’ concerns about student safety around the school nor did it answer lingering questions about how the school will be organized.

Because the school will lack a yard and because public space will adjoin the school, Mariano Guzmán, deputy superintendent for Region 9, told parents at the May 24 public hearing that the city is working with developer Bruce Ratner of Forest City Ratner on a design that would ensure students’ safety. Students will be picked up and dropped off on Spruce St., around the corner from the building entrance.

Before the hearing, Gregory P. Shaw, principal attorney for contracts, construction and real estate for the city’s School Construction Authority, described the East Side school’s design. The school, which will be just under 100,000 sq. ft., will occupy four floors within the multiuse building, designed by Frank Gehry. Administrative offices and a dining room will be on the ground floor. Pre-K, kindergarten, and special-ed will be on the second floor, along with an auditorium. First through fourth grade classes and a 5,400-sq. ft. gym will be on the third floor. Fifth through eighth grades and a library will be on the fourth floor. There will also be a rooftop playground.

But parents were more concerned about logistics of how and where students would be dropped off and picked up outside the school. Community Board 1 member George Olsen referred to St. Bernard’s in Greenwich Village, where P.S. 234 students relocated after Sept. 11. Olsen said that parents would walk their children up to the school. And although students used a public playground across the street from St. Bernard’s, Olsen said no serious problems occurred.

While C.B. 1 District Manager Paul Goldstein said Spruce St. was lightly traveled, one audience member objected, saying that cars are always looking for parking spaces on Spruce. Another said that traffic would undoubtedly increase with the presence of the 75-story tower, making pick up and drop off more difficult.

Parents also wondered whether the school would be a combined pre-K-8 or two separate elementary and middle schools, like P.S./I.S. 89 in Battery Park City. One parent worried that the unless the Beekman Street school was a pre-K-8, as originally suggested by the Dept. of Ed., the school overcrowding problem that exists now would persist.

According to Guzmán, the city is currently trying to ascertain the size of and make projections about the number of students in the community. That will help determine the number of classes per grade at the new school, the issue of continuous enrollment and the zoning issue. Guzmán noted that letters from the public as well as public testimony seem to indicate that most residents are in favor of a zoned middle school.

City Councilmember Alan Gerson said the specific contours of the school’s zone had not yet been determined. “The purpose of this is not to exclude anyone [but to] alleviate overcrowding in any schools,” he said.

After tweaking the image posted by SavetheWTC, here's what I came up with:

Before:
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/photopost/data/500/2404beekman.JPG

After:
http://img64.echo.cx/img64/7034/bm29oz.jpg

Not much I could do with an image this bad, but I think I made the slight shourglass shape of the building more noticeable as well removing some of the noise from the backround.

Here are some pics I found on the current site.

Originally posted by NYguy on SSP.
http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/44430905/large.jpg
http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/44430908/large.jpg

http://www.tribecatrib.com/
Plans for East Side School Raise Variety of Concerns

by Barry Owens

Members of Community Board 1 last month had their first peek at floor plans for the new school slated to be included in a 75-story residential tower that will be constructed on the parking lot of NYU Downtown Hospital on Beekman Street. The plans have not been made public, but board members who had seen them shared details at a meeting of the board's Youth and Education Committee on June 23.

While the plans call for a rooftop play area, they do not include a schoolyard for children to assemble for pick-up after school. According to the board members, hospital representatives are concerned that the lack of such space will lead to children gathering noisily close to the medical facility and disturbing patients.

"They are very concerned about that," said board member Marc Donnenfeld, "and I am very concerned about that."

The school will occupy 100,000 square feet on five floors of the building, which will be constructed by developer Bruce Ratner.

Community Board 1 and elected officials had pushed hard for a school to be included in the private development.

As the plans move forward, the committee also wants to make sure that a school designed for 600 students will be big enough for the neighborhood. The Department of Education is drawing on numbers from the 2000 census for its plan for the school. Committee members insisted that more accurate population projections be used, even if it means that board volunteers must do the count themselves.

"We're putting all this political capital into getting a school built that may not be adequate," said George Olsen.

"Everybody has numbers, but nobody feels confident about them," said David Feiner, an aide to Councilman Alan Gerson. "They are designing this school for 600. If 700 kids show up, it is going to open crowded."

Those who reviewed the plans during the closed-door meeting with school officials last month were board members Donnenfeld and Paul Hovitz, former chairwoman Madelyn Wils and CB1 district manager Paul Goldstein.

"We could do better," Hovitz said in a telephone interview. "Clearly there needs to be some more fine tuning and we will be pursuing that with the developer and with the hospital."

"It would be lovely if we could get some more space," said Donnenfeld, "but I don't think that is going to happen."

Is there any new word on this building. On emporis i noticed it is now labeled as a never built. There seems to be a proposal for a 55 story building by Beekman. Has this tower been scaled down??

On SSP theyre maintaining that the 75-story version is scheduled to break ground in January. And I know I've not read anything about its cancellation.

Any word on this ?

Hello ?

No new news on this project. That's why there's been no activity on this thread. The last thing I heard was about the community residents wanting Gehry to redesign the school space. There are no official announcements regarding the release date for the design and certainly no official groundbreaking date either. My estimates is that we are at least a year away from anything substantial happening.

Wow ! That's a bit of a comedown.

thanks anyway.

No new news on this project. That's why there's been no activity on this thread. The last thing I heard was about the community residents wanting Gehry to redesign the school space. There are no official announcements regarding the release date for the design and certainly no official groundbreaking date either. My estimates is that we are at least a year away from anything substantial happening.
I wouldn't trust Ratner when it comes to public space especially when he is totally a private business developer who feeds off the public.

oh whatever...i never liked the idea of a 75-story tower in that area anyways.

http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_147/beekmanschoolwas.html
Volume 18 • Issue 42 | March 3 - 9, 2006

Beekman school was always in doubt, Klein says

By Ronda Kaysen

http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_147/joel1.gif
Downtown Express file photo by Elisabeth Robert

Schools Chancellor Joel Klein stood behind Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver last February to announce a new school on Beekman St. Klein said Tuesday he knew at the time the project was not possible without additional state money.

http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_147/some.gif
Downtown Express photo by Robert Stolarik

Some students rallying for more education money carried pictures of Joel Klein outside a Panel for Educational Policy meeting in Brooklyn Monday.

The $44 million promised for a new school on Beekman St. has been spent on other projects and funding for the school was always conditional on money from Albany, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein said Tuesday.

In a telephone interview with Downtown Express, Klein defended the mayor’s policy to halt funding for 21 Dept. of Education capital construction projects, including two schools in Lower Manhattan — a new K-8 on Beekman St. and a new annex for P.S. 234 in Tribeca.

“The plan was always contingent on full funding [from Albany]. The funding for Beekman is just not there,” said Klein. “We made all of this clear — a portion of this was always dependent on the state.”

Critics of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s plan say the two schools were never dependant upon state funding. In a 2004 agreement among the community, the city and developers, the city agreed to sell public land to private developers for high-rise residential developments in exchange for the two schools and other amenities.

The new school and annex would have alleviated crowding at P.S. 234, the only zoned elementary school for the entire neighborhood east of West St. and south of Canal St.

On Thursday, Bloomberg told Downtown Express that he was confident that all of the schools on the chopping block including the two Downtown will get funding.

"What 21 schools?" Bloomberg asked a Downtown Express reporter at an appearance at the Dept. of Veterans Affairs on Houston St. "I think you'll find that the state will come along with the funding and do the right thing."

Bloomberg said the funding for these schools should come from the state, not the city, and that since the state budget is not finalized yet, there's still time for this money to be included.

Asked about the ties the school projects have to the Tribeca development deals, the mayor didn't answer the question directly, but focused on the need for the state to put up the money.

He stressed he was talking about capital funds, not the Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit, which seeks to force the state to give the city more education funds. The lawsuit, Bloomberg said, will see another decision in a few months; but whichever side wins will appeal, meaning the process could drag on for a few more years, he noted.

"What we're talking about here has nothing to do with the C.F.E. lawsuit," he told Downtown Express. "What we're talking about here is capital funds, which has nothing to do with the C.F.E. lawsuit."

In Feb. 2005, Bloomberg stood with Klein and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver in Klein’s headquarters to announce the site for the 630-seat Beekman school — inside a 75-story mixed use Bruce Ratner development. At the time, Bloomberg said in a statement, “Building this new school fulfills a promise we have made to the residents of Lower Manhattan.”

The 2004 agreement, signed by Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff and City Councilmember Alan Gerson, pledged $44 million from the Dept. of Ed. capital budget, contingent upon $25 million from the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. The L.M.D.C. delivered the city $20 million for the school last year and Ratner said then that he would cover any cost overruns over $64 million.

But according to Klein, the money was always dependent upon state funding, a claim both Silver and Gerson hotly dispute.

“That is absolutely untrue,” said Eileen Larrabee, a spokesperson for Silver. “If you look at the famed Gerson letter, it states very clearly that it was in the capital plan. It was never part of any conversation.”

“When Dan Doctoroff signed that agreement, there was never any mention or any statement or any contingency or any linkage to state money,” said Gerson. “The agreement is in black and white.”

The mayor cut funding to the 21 schools in an effort to step up pressure on Albany to deliver a court-ordered payment of $5.6 billion in operating expenses and a one-time payment of $9 billion in capital expenses. An official in the mayor’s office requesting anonymity said the Downtown schools were picked to pressure Silver to step up his involvement in the State Assembly.

“The mayor wanted to get this noticed. When you put Shelly Silver in the room, he gets noticed,” Community Board 1 member Paul Hovitz said at a public meeting Tuesday night.

On Monday, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno escalated the rhetoric, calling the court order “lunacy” and telling a group of upstate and Long Island mayors that the Senate had no intention of delivering the payments, which he said would result in a state tax hike.

Klein told Downtown Express that the $44 million earmarked for the Beekman School has been spent on other school projects. “That money has been dedicated to projects that are ongoing…. We’ve bought buildings, we’ve bought sites, we’re spending money on development. When we were faced with the reality that we didn’t have the additional money, then we had to prioritize,” he said.

Funding or not, the community is still moving forward with planning out the new $64 million Beekman School. At a Community Board 1 Youth and Education Committee meeting Tuesday night, board members discussed how to zone the school and whether it should be structured as a K-8 or as a separate K-5 elementary school and 6-8 middle school.

“We are here to talk about the catchment area for a school that we are confident will get built. If we weren’t, it wouldn’t be on the agenda,” said Hovitz, who leads the committee, adding that Dept. of Ed. executive director of intergovernmental affairs Terrence Tolbert assured him in a private meeting that the schools would be built. “He said it would cost us more in a lawsuit than it would in a build out,” Hovitz said.

Board members agreed that the Beekman School should be zoned for C.B. 1 —the area south of Canal St. river to river. “Clearly we are the ones that fought for the new school,” said C.B. 1 district manager Paul Goldstein. “All the new development is in our district.”

The committee drafted a resolution to zone the new school for C.B. 1, with priority given to children living east of Broadway. It also added that the neighborhood’s existing elementary schools — P.S. 234, P.S. 89 and P.S. 150 — should be zoned for the entire area, with priority given to children in the immediate neighborhood. Battery Park City kids would be given priority for P.S. 89; children east of West St. and west of Broadway would be given priority for P.S. 234; and P.S. 150, an option school, would be open to kids in the entire neighborhood.

“The best thing we could do for local parents is give them a choice, choice is what people want,” said Goldstein.

P.S. 150 principal Maggie Siena was reluctant to support restricting the student body of her tiny, 150-student school to C.B. 1. “It’s hard for me to imagine how it would work,” she said. “This school has benefited from having kids from all over the city.” P.S. 150 gives preference to children living in C.B. 1, but accepts kids from all over District 2, which includes most of Lower Manhattan, the Village, Chelsea and part of the Upper East Side. “I don’t know how aware people are about the limits of space that the school has.”

The board was less certain about how to structure the new school, with some members voicing a preference for a K-8 structure and others supporting a separated elementary and middle school, similar to P.S./I.S. 89 in Battery Park City.

Klein has publicly voiced his support for a K-8 structured school. “I’ve seen the plans for the Beekman school. It has been designed as a K-8,” said Hovitz.

When the Beekman school was announced last year, Klein said it would be a continuous K-8, but Tuesday he told Downtown Express that he is open to different ideas. “We’re engaging in community outreach,” he said. “It’s very, very early in the process obviously; I hope we’ll be meeting with the community.”

With reporting by Lincoln Anderson

Ronda@DowntownExpress.com

http://www.nypost.com/realestate/comm/68921.htm
DOWNTOWN TOWER PLAN

May 23, 2006 -- THE Frank Gehry-designed project that Forest City Ratner is developing on the NYU Beekman Downtown Hospital parking lot is starting to shape up.

The tower's just-revealed 876-foot height will top off as the tallest City Hall area structure - yes, taller than the nearby venerable 792-foot Woolworth Building. Nevertheless, despite earlier reports, it will be shorter than all the new buildings at ground zero.

It will be taller, however, than the 740-foot Goldman Sachs headquarters being designed by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners at the World Financial Center in Battery Park City.

Plans just refiled with the Dept. of Buildings call for a 75-story building with residences above a new public school whose funding has been in doubt.

The 1.147-million foot project is being built in the middle of the block bounded on three sides by Nassau, Beekman, Spruce and Gold Streets. For all you development junkies out there, you can follow its progress on the DOB Web site with an 8 Spruce St. address.

The most intriguing nugget is a triplex unit at the top that will become one of the highest residences in the city. While it will share part of the 72nd floor with two other units, it will encompass the entire 73rd and 74th floors as well.

You can be sure its eventual price and occupant - Bruce Ratner or not - will end up being widely reported in the coming years.

These residences will all have unobstructed views of City Hall - and should we dare to say it - likely cast shadows on the park during a brief portion of some days.

Along with lobbies for each use, the first four floors host a school cafeteria, classrooms, a gymnasium and a library.

Medical offices for the hospital next door take up the fifth floor. The sixth is reserved for mechanicals such as the elevators. But above it is a pool on a building setback on the seventh floor, along with two community rooms for 150 people each.

The midsection includes what will likely be smaller luxury rental apartments - between 17 to19 units per floor.

Starting at the 37th floor, the sprawling condos take over with eight per floor. At the 44th floor, the count changes to four apartments, plus a gym and community room - which does not really mean open to anyone but the condo community. There are five units per floor from the 49th through 70th floors, three on 71 and then two plus the bottom of that triplex on 72.

Although no renderings have been released, it is likely that the top will taper gradually and that, unlike the uptown Trump World Tower, the upper floors won't be the same size as the lower ones.

Gehry's spirited and wavy designs are slowly taking shape as buildable ones for Forest City's other huge project in Brooklyn for the Nets and Atlantic Yards.

A Forest City spokesperson was unaware of the details and had no comment.

Carol Willis, director of the Skyscraper Museum, said, "I'm certainly curious to see it because I'm sure it will be a tower with personality, and I would welcome that on the skyline."

lois.weiss@nypost.com

Renderings....courtesy of www.curbed.com

http://img118.imageshack.us/img118/5629/200605curbedgehry17pt.jpg

http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/3489/200605curbedgehry25ph.jpg

Volume 19, Number 2 | May 26 - June 1, 2006

Under Cover

"The project also includes a 75-story, Frank Gehry-designed apartment building. A spokesperson for developer Bruce Ratner said Gehry’s new drawings will be released next week."

http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_159/undercover.html

Renderings....courtesy of www.curbed.com

http://img118.imageshack.us/img118/5629/200605curbedgehry17pt.jpg

http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/3489/200605curbedgehry25ph.jpg
:ohno: Im sorry that looks awful might look alright as being a few stories tall but something that tall needs a better design than that shit. :down:

that rendering makes me want to hurl. it's right there with the calatrava 80 south st. in terms of ugliness. what's even worse is the fact that this ugly tower's gonna be so close to the beautiful woolworth building and draw attention away from it.

I love it. Bring on the new architcture.

that rendering makes me want to hurl. it's right there with the calatrava 80 south st. in terms of ugliness. what's even worse is the fact that this ugly tower's gonna be so close to the beautiful woolworth building and draw attention away from it.

completely disagree - the future of lower manhattan is in the coming diversity of architectural syles.

im not against diversity of architectural styles. but it should be pointed out that just because a skyscraper's architecture's different from the norm doesn't automatically mean that it's good architecture. but i guess that's the trouble with skyscrapers with architectures that defies the laws of the norm. either you love it or you hate it. buildings like the Hearst Magazine Tower, HSBC, and Swiss RE are nice (yep, Norman Foster always seem to have the touch to make great architecture out of bizarre architecture) but others like Torre Agbar and 80 South St are IMO lacking in architectural quality.

i do appreciate your point of view....valid point. i guess i personally like the architectural quality of the proposed towers. everyones different i guess :)

this is a cool design
i totally dig it,

I'm not too high on the design but considering it's Gehry and he could've went way more over the top with his designs, I'll take it cause of the height. It's like a sculpture and a piece of art, more than an actual tower.

an new info? been over a year now :p

they're working on the foundation actually....look in the world forums, there's a thread with recent pics i believe