New York City Development News

[desertpunk]

Curbed

Metropolitan Musem of Art Finally Plans New Fifth Ave Plaza



The crowded and, well, blah plaza outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art is headed for a makeover, now that museum trustee and philanthropist David H. Koch has promised $60 million for the project. The Times has the details on the redo, which could begin this fall if various city departments give the thumbs-up. The plan from Philly-based firm OLIN involves smaller fountains—"programmed by computer to provide a variety of water patterns during the warm months"—which will become reflecting pools in winter. The revamped plaza will have double the current number of trees, including some topiaries; benches and retractable parasols; bronze kiosks for information and food; spots for street vendors; and night-time LED lighting

[...]

[AAndreAA]

... great thread and very useful ... it is a pleasure to browse through the pages Many congratulations and thanks to continuous updates .... allow us to dream ...

[jotrespo]

+1
indeed

[jotrespo]

Does anyone know the BEST college in NYC to study architecture?
I'm looking for a 4 year college, so then i can get a master and so somewhere else like the NYU but for the moment i need a college not too expensive, one that accepts FAFSA
A school that is very helpful, how about the people? a don't want to sound racist, but i'd like to go somewhere not too guetto.

NYIT
citycollege
also NJIT
whats the best in everything?

thanks

[Nexis]

Alot of my friends go to NJIT which has a very good program.... City College is terrible , and NYIT is expensive compared to NJIT.

[yankeesfan1000]

Cooper Union is probably up there as one of the best programs in the city. But Google is your friend. Use it.

[desertpunk]

Originally Posted by jotrespo

Does anyone know the BEST college in NYC to study architecture?
I'm looking for a 4 year college, so then i can get a master and so somewhere else like the NYU but for the moment i need a college not too expensive, one that accepts FAFSA
A school that is very helpful, how about the people? a don't want to sound racist, but i'd like to go somewhere not too guetto.

NYIT
citycollege
also NJIT
whats the best in everything?

thanks

Many schools in NYC such as Pratt, Cooper Union, New School and Parsons offer either partial architecture programs or BFA programs in Architecture. Fully accredited post-graduate programs are fewer and mainly confined to Columbia, NYU, CUNY, NJIT and NYIT. Except for NJIT and CUNY which is most affordable for residents of New York State, these programs are offered at steep costs but financial help at schools like NYU and Columbia is ample for those who meet their rigorous entrance standards. NYIT is about half the cost of NYU ($28,000 per year) while NJIT offers good value for New Jersey residents and costs about the same as NYIT for non-residents.

As for which is best, that's fairly subjective so I can only recommend searching comments and other criteria online or visiting each school and talking to students and faculty there. I'm personally wary of those 'Best Schools' lists as each individual's experience can vary regardless of some ranking and considering that at the undergraduate level, these programs are probably equally good.

Good luck!

[desertpunk]

NY Times

In Long Island City, Pepsi Sign Gets More Company

image hosted on flickr


By ALISON GREGOR

Published: February 9, 2012

TWO more glass skyscrapers are being added to the growing collection of towers on the waterfront in Long Island City in Queens.

The rental towers are part of East Coast, a project being developed by one of the city’s most prolific builders, TF Cornerstone. When completed in early 2014, East Coast will consist of six skyscrapers clustered around the giant Pepsi sign on the East River waterfront, with almost 2,800 units.

The East Coast collection already includes 47-20 Center, a tower with 498 rentals built in 2006, and the View, a condominium building with 185 units at 46-30 Center, finished in early 2010. One of the new buildings, a 42-story tower at 46-15 Center Boulevard, will open next month. The building is angled so that every one of the 367 apartments has at least a small view of Manhattan, and most have sweeping vistas of the city skyline. A second tower, at 45-40 Center, with 32 stories, has 345 apartments and should be renting by June.

A third tower, with 820 rental apartments, at 45-45 Center, is already under construction, along with a 1,000-car parking garage and a fitness and recreation center with 50,000 square feet of outdoor space. The recreation center will have a great lawn, two tennis courts, a beach volleyball court and a children’s playroom, among other amenities. It will be open to all residents of East Coast buildings, though each building also has its own small fitness center.

Ground has not yet been broken on a fourth tower, at 46-10 Center, which will have 586 rentals, and will be on the waterfront in front of 46-15. Rents in 46-15 Center will start at $2,000 a month for a lower-floor studio apartment; $2,600 for a one-bedroom; and $3,350 for a two-bedroom unit, said K. Thomas Elghanayan, the chairman of TF Cornerstone. Rents in 45-40 Center, the tower opening in June, will be a bit higher, and that building will also have three-bedroom apartments for families, he said.

[...]

[jotrespo]

Thank you guys.

[desertpunk]

TRD

Memorial Sloan-Kettering denies community pleas to build taller

February 10, 2012 01:00PM


Rendering of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

In a bizarre twist to the typical community board complaints of a developer building too tall, neighbors of the planned 172,000-square-foot Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center at York Avenue and 61st Street are urging the hospital to build a taller tower. And Sloan-Kettering refused.

According to DNAinfo, residents of the co-op at 440 East 62nd Street are concerned that the hospital’s current plans would block apartment windows and box the building in, so they’ve asked Sloan-Kettering to build a taller, slimmer tower above an 85-foot base.

[desertpunk]

TRD

Toll, Equity to stick with Christian de Portzamparc design at 400 Park Avenue South
February 13, 2012 12:00PM



After more than a decade in the works, a Christian de Portzamparc-designed tower at 400 Park Avenue South will be built by the site’s new owners, Toll Brothers and Equity Residential, which purchased the development lot in December, the New York Observer reported.

Toll and Equity Residential decided to retain the plans laid out by the previous developer, who fell victim to the recession, because it would streamline the process of getting construction off the ground, since the design was already approved by the city. The plans call for a 40-story condominium and rental apartment tower.

“If we wanted to abandon that design, we could have actually built something much taller, but it was a sort of pencil building going straight up,” said David Von Spreckelsen, senior vice president at Toll. “At the end of the day, it was too inefficient, because too much of it would have been taken up by the core. You weren’t going to have the living space on the floors.”

In what was the most expensive development site deal of 2011, the partners reportedly paid $134 million for the large development site.

“It’s obviously really going to change the way Park Avenue South looks,” Von Spreckelsen said. “I know that it’s one of Christian’s favorite buildings he’s ever designed, and I know the city administration loves it, so I think it’s going to be great for everyone.”


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[desertpunk]

The Real Deal

Steiner plans 720-unit rental in Downtown Brooklyn
February 13, 2012 08:30AM



The Steiner family is planning a 52-story, 720-unit tower at Flatbush Avenue and Schermerhorn Street in Downtown Brooklyn with 50,000 square feet of retail space, the Wall Street Journal reported.



As The Real Deal previously reported, the family acquired the four-parcel site late last year for $30 million, in a deal where a commission lawsuit filed by Massey Knakal Realty Services is ongoing.

Steiner, famous for developing a film production studio at the Brooklyn Navy Yards, plans to invest at least $100 million in the $325 million to $350 million project, and will seek financing for the remaining costs through the “80/20″ subsidized housing program. The developer plans to rent the market-rate units for $40 to $50 per square foot.

[...]

[desertpunk]

LIC: East Coast crane at work behind the Pepsi sign.

image hosted on flickr

Pepsi and Crane by -ytf-, on Flickr

[3tmk]

After more than a decade in the works, a Christian de Portzamparc-designed tower

Well there's the problem, the design is starting to look dated.
It would look odd on Park Avenue though.

[desertpunk]

Originally Posted by 3tmk

Well there's the problem, the design is starting to look dated.
It would look odd on Park Avenue though.

Maybe but compared to the kind of banal boxes that keep getting thrown up in NYC, this one's not so bad!


see this:

TRD

Moinian, Starwood Capital pay $6M for air rights at Theater District hotel site, source says
Additional square feet allows developers to up project to 34 stories from 27 stories

February 13, 2012 01:30PM
By Adam Pincus



Developer Joseph Moinian and partner Starwood Capital Group paid $6.125 million to the Shubert Organization for 25,000 square feet of air rights that will be used for the development of a hotel at 237 West 54th Street, a source familiar with the deal said.

The additional air rights are needed to increase the size of the project, located between Broadway and Eighth Avenue, to 34 stories, from the 27 approved stories the city’s Department of Buildings has issued permits for.

[...]

[desertpunk]

WSJ

NY TRANSIT FEBRUARY 11, 2012.
New Setback For Moynihan Station Plans
Project's First Phase Being Scaled Back.
By TED MANN



State and federal officials wary about mounting costs plan to scale back the first segment of work for the future Moynihan Station, the latest setback for an ambitious project almost two decades in the making.

Plans to revamp a concourse and upgrade passenger amenities in a portion of Penn Station were narrowed after officials determined that bids for the estimated $267 million project came in too high, said Patrick Foye, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which is assuming control of the long-delayed venture.

The board of directors of the Moynihan Station Development Corp. voted to reject the bids last week.

The first phase was intended as the cheaper and simpler of the project's two-phase timeline: a series of improvements, with full funding already secured, that would make it easier for current Amtrak, New Jersey Transit, Long Island Rail Road and New York City subway passengers to circulate in the cramped Eighth Avenue station. Penn Station is the nation's busiest rail passenger hub.

The changes would have helped set the stage for the more challenging—and far more expensive—second phase: the transformation of the James A. Farley Post Office, a Beaux Arts landmark with soaring ceilings occupying two city blocks, into a new Amtrak passenger terminal and multilevel shopping center.

The lowest bid came under the projected cost but didn't include a big enough cushion for possible cost-overruns, a person familiar with the project said.

"The response of the federal government, state government, MTA and Port Authority to the higher-than-expected bids is a unified approach to reduce the scope of phase one and thereby reduce the amount to be spent," Mr. Foye said in an interview on Friday. "Phase one is funded and all government parties are working closely together to move phase one forward."

[...]

Billions for a PATH station at WTC and this arguably more important, busier hub gets bupkis!

[desertpunk]

Brookfield’s Heart of Glass: Developer Fetes New Glass Pavilion at World Financial Center

In a cordoned off and seemingly unremarkable construction site situated along the West Side Highway, a collection of high-ranking Brookfield Office Properties executives, construction managers and architects donned hardhats and stood in front of a symbolic pile of dirt that had been lined up neatly atop wooden boards.


A Rendering of the new Glass Pavilion at The Winter Garden (courtesy of Brookfield Properties)

Holding a platinum shovel, the sun refracting off its blade that’s been buffed to a flawless shine, Brookfield’s Sabrina Kanner, senior vice president of design and construction, joined eight of her colleagues in digging their shovels into the symbolic dirt while holding big smiles for the press cameras.

The occasion was the official groundbreaking ceremony for the new glass pavilion at the World Financial Center, seen as the complex’s new front door on West Street.

It is also part of the World Financial Center’s $250 million renovation project, which will include a new dining and retail center for the ever-changing landscape of Lower Manhattan.

Construction on the new pavilion will bring back several people who worked on the original construction of the World Financial Center when it was first erected in the late 1980s.

[desertpunk]

TRD

Seattle firm to turn telephone building into mighty data center
February 15, 2012 12:00PM



Seattle-based data center developer Sabey is set to transform the New York Telephone Company building at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge into one of the largest data centers in the city, the New York Times reported.

The 1975 building, which has been vacant for many years, was purchased by Sabey for $120 million in partnership with Youngwoo & Associates last year; it will have approximately one million square feet with access to 40 megawatts of electricity when it opens, enough to power 2,000 average-size homes.
[...]

[desertpunk]

New renders for 51 Astor Place: http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2012/0...stor_place.php


http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2012/0...stor_place.php

Developer Edward Minskoff describes his Starbucks-crushing 51 Astor Place office building as "black glass with black granite and silver fins," and for a few years now we've had just one rendering to demonstrate that. Now the building's teaser website is up, with a few more images of the 12-story Fumihiko Maki-designed building. Above, one look we haven't seen before. A few notable building features: a private green roof on the fifth floor, a tenant-accessible green roof on the 13th floor, and an urban plaza on the corner of Astor Place and Third Avenue. The lobby will include a James Carpenter-designed art installation "constructed of back-lit cast glass, which complements the building's overall design." The Astor Place plaza, meanwhile, gets an Alexander Calder sculpture.

[desertpunk]

Hudson Square 30 Story Tower And Park Proposed

Edison Properties will build a residential development and a public park on a site that is currently a parking lot in Hudson Square if a zoning proposal goes through, DNAinfo reported.

The lot Edison owns, between Dominick and Spring streets and Varick and Hudson streets, could become Dominick Street Park and a 230-unit residential tower at 270 Spring Street. The tower would have ground-floor retail and 46 of the units would be affordable housing.