How many stories? This is very interesting. I just think it would look so odd next two those two story storefronts. I would just gaze at it and wonder why it isn't falling down. Still, I'm oddly liking it.

and the big bad wolf blew it all the way down...

A horrendous photo of King West in Toronto I took a couple of years ago.

 

I can't even imagine the swaying that the residents in the top floors are going to feel.  Probably enough to make you seasick.

 

I'd be scared out of my mind to be anywhere near that building when a Cat 2-3 hurricane hits NYC again!    :-o

Very impressive!!!  I can't believe they approved a project like that though...I would have thought that the city would of had concerns about its stability, sunlight issues, and neighborhood context.  But its cool to see it happening.

How many stories? This is very interesting. I just think it would look so odd next two those two story storefronts. I would just gaze at it and wonder why it isn't falling down. Still, I'm oddly liking it.

 

i'm oddly liking it too. the basic stats are: 556', 42 stories and 120 units. any unit above the bottom twenty should come with dramamine pills!

 

 

I can't even imagine the swaying that the residents in the top floors are going to feel.  Probably enough to make you seasick.

 

I'd be scared out of my mind to be anywhere near that building when a Cat 2-3 hurricane hits NYC again!    :-o

 

i agree! but i just looked again at the zoning map and the lot and also looking at that tower rendering i am wondering if there is a side 'wing' to the building we cant see from that rendering.  what do you think? if so that would give it more visible support. if not --- i suggest tenants get a porch glider couch & a waterbed for their apt, but dont get that little gift thing you put on your desk with the metal balls that hang on strings and clang or they'll go nuts!

 

 

Very impressive!!!  I can't believe they approved a project like that though...I would have thought that the city would of had concerns about its stability, sunlight issues, and neighborhood context.  But its cool to see it happening.

 

i wondered that too, but i noticed the blog above said, "...the recently-enacted Theatre Sub-District zoning regs" so it looks like the city changed the rules and is allowing some tall ones to go up on that stretch of the neighborhood. i wonder if that means more towers on the way?  i dk time will tell.

 

ps - of course i'll get some pics as this goes up.

 

 

 

I can't even imagine the swaying that the residents in the top floors are going to feel.  Probably enough to make you seasick.

 

I'd be scared out of my mind to be anywhere near that building when a Cat 2-3 hurricane hits NYC again!    :-o

 

i agree! but i just looked again at the zoning map and the lot and also looking at that tower rendering i am wondering if there is a side 'wing' to the building we cant see from that rendering.  what do you think? if so that would give it more visible support. if not --- i suggest tenants get a porch glider couch & a waterbed for their apt, but dont get that little gift thing you put on your desk with the metal balls that hang on strings and clang or they'll go nuts!

 

I thought the same thing at first, but in your original post, it mentions a public garden will be going in that space. 

 

Architecturally, I think it's pretty cool the way that they are meshing it with with the existing buildings.  It looks like the residential tower comes jutting out of the top of the 6 story glass building.

First Wrecking Ball to be Swung at Atlantic Yards

Tuesday, February 20, 2007, by Joey

 

In what is surely the most dramatic Tuesday in Brooklyn since, like, Junior's ran out of strawberry cheesecake or something, preliminary work on the Atlantic Yards megadevelopment is scheduled to kick off today. Yes, today. A bus depot is being prepped for demolition so that a temporary rail yard can be built on the eastern edge of the 22-acre site, and later this week, a former auto-repair shop on Flatbush Avenue will be torn down so that Miss Brooklyn can stand in its place. Folks, this is happening. For now, anyway. There's still the matter of that lawsuit filed by 13 folks who are still living and working in the project's footprint. Says a Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn Press Release on the matter: "The prep work is clearly premature, as Forest City Ratner does not own the rail yards necessary to construct the 8 million square foot project and they do not own the properties necessary to build the arena or to demap streets to build high-rise superblocks."

 

http://www.curbed.com/

Maybe we should chip in, buy some property over there and sit on it until RAT comes a callin' then reinvest the funds in UO and make MayDays image a reality

That is a really slick tower. I love the proportions. They wouldn't build it if it wasn't stable. I bet it has an L-Shaped cast concrete shear wall that is about 5' thick next to the elevator shaft. There is an extremely narrow, though not as narrow as this, condo going up in Miami that has 4' thick shear walls. Insane!

i smell a rat!

 

 

City: 100M for Yards land

Pols rip EDC plan to use public funds for private Ratner mega-project

BY JOTHAM SEDERSTROM

DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Friday, March 9th 2007, 4:13 PM

     

The city wants to spend $100 million to buy land tied to the Atlantic Yards project - money previously thought to be earmarked for improving infrastructure for the development.

 

Full article at http://nydailynews.com/boroughs/brooklyn/2007/03/09/2007-03-09_city_100m_for_yards_land.html

i saw this in the a free morning newspaper today. they spend more $$ on lobbying in ny state than they do for anything back home -- are we surprized at all?

 

 

Report: Ratner among state lobby leaders

by amy zimmer / metro new york

MAR 20, 2007

 

BROOKLYN - Forest City Ratner spent roughly $2.11 million on lobbying efforts last year for its $4 billion Atlantic Yards development plan, making it the state’s third highest spender, trailing a health care lobbyist group and Verizon. The state’s recently released figures prompted outcry yesterday from project foe Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn.

 

 

link:

http://ny.metro.us/metro/local/article/Report_Ratner_among_state_lobby_leaders/7538.html

I get aggravated at Forest City every week it seems, but this is just obscene. They could have built a High School free in Cleveland for that money

I get aggravated at Forest City every week it seems, but this is just obscene. They could have built a High School free in Cleveland for that money

 

they could have planted the seeds to rebuild the infrastructure of various neighborhoods in cleveland.

Thank you for the renderings! And they kind of make Clarence Court look downright boring no? :-)

interesting that some "real numbers" finally came up in the news today:

 

 

 

Fun With Hard Numbers at Atlantic Yards

 

Monday, July 2, 2007, by Lockhart

 

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

 

Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards project—including Frank Gehry's sultry Miss Brooklyn (left)—finds itself, inevitably, back in the headlines. A big NYT story questions the risk of the project based on analysis of previously unseen internal documents. The nub of the issue: that Ratner & Co. may be underestimating construction costs, and overestimating future sales prices, which could make building out the entire project untenable. Naturally, the opposition jumped on the news, picking it apart in extreme detail, but what most intrigues us in the NYT piece are the detailed construction cost numbers that make it clear Ratner & Co. see nothing but boom times ahead for Downtown Brooklyn.

 

http://www.curbed.com/archives/2007/07/02/fun_with_hard_numbers_at_atlantic_yards.php#more

what is with the stacked boxes mini-craze in mahatttan? this is an office building version the new museum.

 

also, hey mts see below -- what is the story here with tw?

 

 

 

Harlem's Box Update: Bonus Mind-Exploding Rendering!

 

Tuesday, July 17, 2007, by Lockhart

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

There's not much new in a press release send to the Curbed inbox about Harlem Park, Vornado's forthcoming 21-story office tower slated for 125th Street and Park that we first revealed back in March. Nothing much new, that is, save for the above even more mind-exploding rendering, which does, if we may say so, a sublime job of showing how the structure crafted by the firm of Swanke Hayden Connell Architects blends seamlessly into the Harlem street grid. Or, as the archibabble puts it, "Set on an 85-foot podium, the 18-story main shaft of the tower features a unitized aluminum and glass curtainwall system with integrated vertical terra cotta color fins that create a unique enclosure echoing the predominant masonry construction of surrounding buildings." And how!

 

More from the press release:

 

According to Roger Klein, design principal for SHCA, the new tower, while taller than the surrounding neighborhood, is designed to complement the aesthetics and scale of the neighborhood. "The design is intended to enhance the transparency of the building, and harmonize with the surrounding masonry neighborhood," he pointed out. "Typically, the design of a tower would express its verticality. In this case, we countered the verticality with a composition of smaller-scale 'stacked boxes', which grounds the building in the scale of the neighborhood.

 

"There is great visibility from the Metro North Station, as one travels over the Triborough Bridge onto the 125th Street, and from Central Park," he added. "As a result, Harlem Park will be a true icon for Harlem and the city. In particular, the top box in the stack of compositional boxes—designed to be illuminated at night—is defined as a distinct cubic form."

 

Wow, this guy's good. Mr. Klein, Curbed salutes you. Meantime, for more hard data on the Harlem Park project, check this Curbed post. Hallelujah.

· What's Crawling Into Harlem's Box? [Curbed]

· Vorando's Harlem Park Insanity Revealed! [Curbed]

 

 

Posted in Architecture, Commercial Real Estate, Manhattan: Harlem & East Harlem

 

Reader Comments (28 extant)

 

1-27 = yada yada

 

28.

There was word at the last Urban Land Institute session titled 'Harlem in the 21st Century' from a Vornado representative that a possible anchor tenant could be Time Warner. For rent around $50 per sq/ft, there should be plenty of tenants willing to move their office locations from midtown to uptown. Consider this, crime is a lot lower in this part of town than what Jersey City was in the early 90's. Even then, many financial companies moved their offices there and shuttled employees to midtown. The great thing about this tower is the proximity to the Metro North. This should bode well for Westchester commuters.

 

By Anonymous at July 17, 2007 5:20 PM

 

 

 

Time Warner Corporate isn't moving anywhere  - However, that location would be sweet for me as it would be two minutes from my crib!

 

As I'm not in mergers/acquisitions/real estate, I would speculate the "Time Warner" tenant is a Time Warner Cable of NYC retail office.

thx thats about what i thought.

lol  You had me scared for a minute when I first read that.  But then I got excited thinking I could roll out of my bed at 7:15 AM and shower, get dressed, walk to 125 and be in my office by 8AM

^ nice call. here's an update i saw today:

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://curbed.com/archives/2007/10/01/public_service_announcement_that_thing_on_48th_street.php

 

moma shakes out a new tower in ny that actually looks like it might be exciting. what do you think? from the nytimes:

 

 

Next to MoMA, a Tower Will Reach for the Stars

By NICOLAI OUROUSSOFF

Published: November 15, 2007

 

A rendering of the Jean Nouvel-designed tower to be built adjacent to the Museum of Modern Art.

 

The interior of Jean Nouvel’s building, which is to include a hotel and luxury apartments.

 

 

Cass Gilbert’s Woolworth Building, William Van Alen’s Chrysler Building, Mies van der Rohe’s Seagram Building.  If New Yorkers once saw their skyline as the great citadel of capitalism, who could blame them?  We had the best toys of all.  But for the last few decades or so, that honor has shifted to places like Singapore, Beijing and Dubai, while Manhattan settled for the predictable.  Perhaps that’s about to change.

 

A new 75-story tower designed by the architect Jean Nouvel for a site next to the Museum of Modern Art in Midtown promises to be the most exhilarating addition to the skyline in a generation.  Its faceted exterior, tapering to a series of crystalline peaks, suggests an atavistic preoccupation with celestial heights.  Commissioned by Hines, an international real estate developer, the tower will house a hotel, luxury apartments and three floors that will be used by MoMA to expand its exhibition space.

 

MORE: http://gothamist.com/2007/11/15/ny_times_hails_nouvels_skyline-enhancing_tower.php#comments

 

holy shit that looks tall! I don't know about this one...looks kind of post appocolipto to me.

^ i know! sign of the times. thats why i like it (so far).

 

also, it's esp a nice contrast as the other new tower moma built on the other side of the museum is boring.

Well this one is.. unique??

Very interesting. 

 

I generally like Jean Nouvel's strategy of designing a new building - which is to individually design the building based on what this particular building needs on this particular site.  This is the opposite of many starachitects penchant for designing in a marketable "style".

 

That being said - I think I really like this tower.

Hard to undertand why MOMA didn't leave before the previous expansion to some other part of the city and sell its property on this block which would have allowed for a whole gang of similar residential towers.  But I wonder if under New York law the presence of non-profit space in the new tower somehow exempts the whole tower's property tax. 

jmeck as for the tax loophole, you can bet there is something to that. i'll keep an eye out for news and post if i see any.

 

as for moma moving, rather ironically it seems they have been too conservative an organization to do that bold of an action. i think their future expansions will remain via annexes like p.s.1 in queens and at most perhaps something new at some point along those lines. the original museum site will remain indefinately. for now -- at least they get a little more space with this tower.

 

When I went to MOMA after the most recent renovation it was so crowded it was a solidly unpleasant experience.  I hardly noticed the renovations and expansion.  The first time I went there was I believe 1995 and I remember it being dim and cramped.  But the new renovation seemed to have at least three cafes an numerous gift shops wasting an incredible amount of what could have been exhibition space.  I also went to it when it was temporarily in Queens which was a bit bizarre.  It's unclear what the future of this institution will be since Modernism is dead, dead, dead.

But I wonder if under New York law the presence of non-profit space in the new tower somehow exempts the whole tower's property tax. 

 

Property Tax exemption in NY requires both a tax exempt owner and a tax exempt purpose, so the only tax benefit that could flow by virtue of the MOMA occupancy would accrue only to the MoMA space itself, assuming its structured as a condo MoMA owns.   

 

That said, NYC/State still offers a myriad of property tax programs left over from the dark days of the 70s when the city was desparate for any type of private construction activity, so depending on what sort of on or off site affordable housing the developers provide, the buyers of these 7-8 figure condos may in fact get a free ride.  Needless to say, NYC's property tax system is in an absurd state.

 

oh come on jmeck -- etruscan or medieval art is dead dead dead too, but they aint gonna tear down the met anytime soon - lol! not to mention its much more overrun than moma.

 

also, moma's ps1 is a huge complex in queens and very popular for up to the minute artwork. in fact thats what its for:

 

http://www.ps1.org/

 

most likely someday moma would expand again around there in lic someplace, but certainly they have enough on their plate with this new tower project for the time being.

Yeah I've been to PS1 several times, I think the first time was in 2000 but I refuse to attend any of their dumb techno parties.  I took the train over to visit in 2006 after being away for three or so years and couldn't believe all the new stuff.  That whole area was completely desolate even up to about 2002-2003. 

 

lol - ya just cant please some people!

hmm, i just noticed these are kind of redundant with that update above, but what the heck --here are a pack of pics i took of this construction on thanksgiving day. it's tall and skinny that is for sure.

 

wow, that's ridiculous.  I'm actually wondering why they didn't try to demo and expand into the vacant structure on the corner.  Couldn't have been too costly to acquire if you're talking about a tower of this size.  Even if they didn't go up 42 stories with the whole footprint (which they couldn't have), they could've done something more with the foundation.  And is that the north facade that features a beautiful concrete wall?  What's up with that?

 

I wonder how many they've sold already...

i see on wiredny it has 110 condos, i dk how many are sold.

 

yeah, that's the north side. i think all res towers like that are supposed to have a concrete wall inside of some sort, like it's a rule in nyc. not sure about that, i read it somewhere. it might be that is what allows them to be built today, because the funny thing is that slivers were banned in nyc in 1983 after a slew of them went up and people freaked out.

 

as for the corner, on wiredny below it said the owner is a well-known "nut."

 

more info & discussion here:

http://wirednewyork.com/forum/showthread.php?t=9353

 

here's another nice pic of it from wired:

 

That last picture from wiredny puts the sliver tower into a better context.  It looks more "natural", if that makes sense. 

 

Those other photos showing the tower rising from a block of low-risers make it seem extreme.  And maybe it is, but those proportions are very fascinating.

That is one tall skinny mofo!  I wonder is Sharon Stone will be taking a bath on camera in there someday.

 

And is that the north facade that features a beautiful concrete wall?  What's up with that?

 

Since the developer couldn't acquire the corner building or, apparently, its unused air rights (there are a lot of nutty hold-outs, and stubborn cheapskate developers out there), the north side is the lot line, and any windows built there couldn't be depended on to meet building codes (NYC, unlike lots of other jurisdictions, requires a window in each legal bedroom).  The south facing windows are a tell tale the developer bought the unused air rights over Gotham City which gave the developer both the extra height and also the light and air easement ensuring those poor millionaires wouldn't have their exhilarating south facing views bricked over by a neighboring building.  That blank wall sure isn't a pretty result.

:-o      WOW!

Wow.. how awesome!!

posters on wiredny are envisioning giant hanging billboards off the north face of it -- even tho that side does not face traffic. we'll see. i'll go back when they get some glass and cladding on it.

The south facing windows are a tell tale the developer bought the unused air rights over Gotham City which gave the developer both the extra height and also the light and air easement ensuring those poor millionaires wouldn't have their exhilarating south facing views bricked over by a neighboring building.  That blank wall sure isn't a pretty result.

 

Amazing...we are having the same exact problems here in Cincy.  :laugh:

time for an update on this mega project:

 

 

Judge Throws Out Petition To Stop Atlantic Yards Project

January 12, 2008

 

Opponents of the plan to redevelop Brooklyn's Atlantic Yards say they will fight on after a judge throws out a petition to stop the project.

 

the video news report is here on ny1:

http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?stid=1&aid=77425

 

I'm just glad that Jersey is losing the Nets.  Ha.  Take that Jersey!

yeah, but brooklyn will be gaining lebron.

 

i know, i know. but you watch.

Uh huh..

any delays in atlantic yards may be costing forest city ratner $4m-$6m per month!  :-o  owwch. maybe it's no wonder they don't invest in downtown cleveland?  :whip:

 

details:

http://atlanticyardsreport.blogspot.com/2008/02/does-ay-delay-cost-6m-month-12m-forest.html

yeah, but brooklyn will be gaining lebron.

 

i know, i know. but you watch.

 

That would be the ultimate kick in the gut: A Cleveland-linked company steals Lebron from Cleveland and puts him in NYC.

yeah, but brooklyn will be gaining lebron.

 

i know, i know. but you watch.

 

That would be the ultimate kick in the gut: A Cleveland-linked company steals Lebron from Cleveland and puts him in NYC.

 

At the pace this project is going, Lebron will look like "Old Lebron" before he plays in the new Nets arena!

God knows there are plenty of people in Brooklyn who would like to see this project delayed indefinitely...