26-FEB-08

Marketing starts for Livmor Condos

Marketing has started for the Livmor Condos, a 73-unit apartment building at 2131 Frederick Douglass Boulevard in Harlem.

The 12-story building has been designed by Hugo S. Subotovsky Architects.

It will have a roof deck, a lounge and a gym and 3,087-square feet of commercial space and a 17,409-square foot church. Part of the site was formerly occupied by St. Stephen's Community African Methodist Episcopal Church.

The project is estimated to be completed next spring.

A building permit for the project was issued last December 24.

According to the Department of Buildings, the developer is 2131 8th Ave LLC of which Philip Morrow and Amon Shalhov are partners.

The development also has an address of 305 West 115th Street.

The red-brick building will have reflective-glass facades at its corners. It will also have a one-story, rusticated base and a setback with pergolas at the 9th floor, and two entrance marquees.

26-FEB-08

Architects' group withdraws proposed zoning changes

City Councilman Tony Avella and the Historic Districts Council announced February 22 that the New York chapter of the American Institute of Architecture has withdrawn its proposal for zoning text amendments for residential development.

Mr. Avella, the chair of the Zoning and Franchise Committee of the City Council, issued a statement that said that "some of their proposals would clearly have had a very negative effect on the many positive rezoning actions we have already implemented to protect residential neighborhoods throughout the City from overdevelopment."

Paul Graziano, the president of the Historic Districts Council, a civic organization, said that "these proposed zoning changes are counterintuitive to the contextually zoned neighborhoods throughout the five boroughs." "The changes," he continued, "would have created more density, height and profits for developers at the expense of light, air and space."

Many of the community boards in Manhattan have been studying the proposals for several months.

The AIA had been working on the proposed amendments for three years and formally proposed them last October and the Historic Districts Council that timing "did not allow for the issue to be brought up at Community board meetings until December during the holiday season."

The Historic Districts Council argued that the proposed amendments "disregard and ignore many of the planning principles articulated in Mayor Bloomberg's PlaNYC 2030": "three of the proposals...act to encourage the demolition of existing buildings to clear the way for larger development....Furthermore, the decrease in open space suggested by two of the zoning amendments...would probably result in less plantings and landscape, which in addition to its esthetic detriment, would diminish needed absorption of ground water."

"HDC finds it particularly galling," the organization continued, "for citywide zoning text to be revised with such broad strokes for more 'flexible design' and 'more efficient floor plans' while ignoring the very real problem of providing adequate affordable housing."

None of the proposed amendments would have increased F.A.R. (floor-to-area ratios) that establish the maximum bulk that can be developed on a specific site, but they modify allowable building envelopes.

One of the proposals would have increased from 80 to 100 percent the maximum lot coverage for corner lots of less than 5,000 square feet. "Although a desire for consistency is admirable, the resultant ceaseless solidity of the street wall has the potential to become over-bearing, especially when it leads to an extended commercial presence," according to the Historic Districts Council.

Another proposal would permit multi-family buildings on lots less than 18 feet wide and the organization maintained that this would be "a large incentive to demolish the existing buildings...and replace them with new, larger buildings." The organization said this would be "a back-door allowing the proliferation of uncharacteristically tall 'sliver' buildings."

Another proposal would permit dormers on rear setbacks, as shown in the illustration at the right, and the organization argued that this "would allow potentially massive incursions into the rear sky exposure plane, further cluttering the already miniscule backyards."

Another proposal would permit a 25 percent increase in maximum base height in some districts to match that of neighboring buildings. "While this might seem like a reasonable nod to urban consistency, this amendment has the potential to transform whole streets into dark canyons of shadow. On many historic blocks, there are buildings which pre-date the current zoning and are taller than what is currently allowed."

26-FEB-08

St. Vincent's Hospital 's plans debated at board meeting

Community Board 2 held a very crowded public hearing last night at PS 41 on building plans by St. Vincent's Hospital to build a new, 330-foot-high hospital building on the site of the very distinctive, nautically-styled O'Toole Building on the west side of Seventh Avenue between 12th and 13th Streets and plans to demolish nine of its existing buildings on the east side of Seventh Avenue between 11th and 12th Streets where the Rudin Organization plans to build a residential complex with about 500 units.

The new residential buildings would include a 265-foot-high building on the avenue and low-rise buildings on the side-streets.

The sites fall within the Greenwich Village Historic District and the Landmarks Preservation Commission is expected to hold a hearing on the hospital's plans in April. The commission will rule on the appropriateness of the proposed demolitions as well as the appropriateness of the designs for new structures.

Some speakers criticized the hospital for plans to discontinue "affordable" housing for some of its staff residents and many members of the audience wore stickers proclaiming "Don't Destroy the Historic District."

The community board is expected to vote on whether to recommend that the commission approve the plans at its March 20 meeting.

A coalition of neighborhood organizations, including the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, has proposed an "alternative" plan that would lower the height of the proposed new hospital building from about 330 feet to about 190 feet and calls for a second new hospital building on the east side of the avenue that might be connected to the one on the west side by a tunnel under the avenue.

An article by Albert Amateau in the February 22, 2008 edition of The Villager, stated that hospital officials were drafting a response to the community plan that was presented to the hospital January 28, and that the officials said that the New York State Department of Health "would not approve a new hospital complex that would require patients to be brought down in an elevator in one building and taken up a second elevator in another building."

The article quoted Bernadette Kingham-Bez, St. Vincent's senior vice president for communications and planning, that the tunnel under Seventh Avenue, running between hospital buildings on 12th St. on the east side of the avenue, to the small building and loading dock in the triangle on the west side, is used to move hospital material, equipment and waste by hand carts and for storage, adding that the tunnel does not connect under 12th St. to the O'Toole Building.

The triangle was formerly occupied by the Loew's Sheridan movie theater, the largest in Greenwich Village.

The tunnel was built by the hospital with a revocable permit from the city. Ms. Kingham-Bez told The Villager that dual hospital buildings on both sides of the avenue would present an insurmountable obstacle to phasing the change from the old to the new facility.

Andrew Berman, the executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, said that the hospital's "precedent-setting proposal...has drawn opposition not only from throughout the Village but from across the city," adding that "St. Vincent's and Rudin are proposing to build the two largest buildings ever built in Greenwich Village and ever approved in any historic district in New York City."

26-FEB-08

Building site at 115 Norfolk Street sold

A 27,000-square-foot site at 115 Norfolk Street between Delancey and Rivington Streets has been bought for $10 million by 115 Norfolk Realty LLC of which Nathan Vinbaytel is a principal from Yabba LLC of which Zeyad Aly is a principal.

According to Michael DeCheser, the Massey Knakal Realty Services broker for the seller in the transaction along with Brian Hanson, the sale includes fully approved plans for a residential condominium building on the site designed by Grzywinski Pons Architects, the same firm responsible for the nearby THOR (The Hotel on Rivington Street) at 107 Rivington Street, a handsome, green-glass, 20-story mid-block tower that has a "womb-like" entrance, and interiors that are both wild and elegant.

The plans call for 16 one-bedroom units, 5 two-bedroom units and 3 three-bedroom duplex penthouses. Ground floor apartments will have private rear yards and 13 of the apartments will have balconies or terraces.

A buildings permit was issued February 22, 2008 for the 7-story building, which will have a roof garden with a lap pool and a garage.

Mr. DeCheser said that the property sold for $370.37 per square foot to a Brooklyn developer and that "Ultimately nearly 40 offers were procured." Caitlin Hughes of The Corcoran Group represented the buyer in this transaction.

This block of Norfolk Street has two other recent new condo developments: the "Switch" building at 109 Norfolk Street, a 7-story building designed by Narchitects with a zig-zag facade of angled floors; and "Blue" at 105 Norfolk Street, a 16-story building, designed by Bernard Tschumi, with an angled facade of different shades of blue glass.

115 Norfolk Street will be distinguished by an open-top atrium entrance and by its random design of fretted glass windows.

The atrium is slightly off-center to the south of the building's frontage on Norfolk Street. The atrium will be enclosed in glass on Norfolk Street but its west wall is angled upwards and towards the west and rises a bit above the roofline. The atrium's top is open to the sky and the angled west wall is somewhat reminiscent of the Austrian Cultural Institute at 11 East 52nd Street designed by Raimund Abraham and opened in 2000.

Apartments that overlook the atrium will have the same fretted glass windows as the Norfolk Street facade. Mr. Grzywinksi told CityRealty.com when plans were first disclosed for the project that these windows will have random "cloud" shapes in angled fretted designs. This decorative touch is somewhat reminiscent of Lindy Roy's sinuously-shaped balcony "amoeba-shaped" scrims for a new project now under construction at 519 West 23rd Street known as Highline 519.

Mr. Grzywinksi said that his firm had been working on the project before it learned about the "Blue" project. "When we saw it, we chuckled," he said, adding that the street's "concentration" of new projects is "a hot bed for progressive architecture."

The street will now compete with Bond Street west of the Bowery as "the" destination street downtown for lovers of contemporary architecture.

Mr. DeCheser told CityRealty.com today that the original plans will be used and only slightly modified.

22-FEB-08

Madison Square Garden considers alternate plan to Farley move

An article by Eliot Brown in today's on-line edition of The New York Observer said that "representatives of Madison Square Garden were curiously absent" from a meeting yesterday with community groups, advocacy groups, the state and project developers on the redevelopment of the Farley Post Office building. The projects developers are Related Companies and the Vornado Realty Trust.

"When the developers' project manager, Vishaan Chakrabarti, was asked bout the Garden's absence," the article stated, "he said the Dolans had decided not be a part of the Section 106 process," but added that he was hoping "they would rejoin the process."

The redevelopment plan for the post office building has been based in part on creating a new facility for Madison Square Garden in the rear of the building to clear the way for the demolish of the existing Garden to permit a major redevelopment of Penn Station.

Preservationists have indicated they are opposed to major alterations that the Garden wants that would replace a courtyard wall with a glass wall that would better highlight the Garden.

"The Garden feels they need to protect themselves in the event that the project doesn't happen, but we remain hopeful that we're going to be able to strike a deal with the Garden," Seth Pinsky, the president of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, was quoted in the article.

In a statement issued to CityRealty.com this afternoon, Mr. Pinsky declared that "we continue to be supportive of the project and are actively engaged in negotiating with all of the various parties and remain hopeful we will reach an agreement with all of them including Madison Square Garden."

The lead article in this week's edition of Real Estate Weekly by Daniel Geiger said that "Dissatisfied with the constraints that the state has put on the planned overhaul of the Farley Building, Madison Square Garden is drafting a 'Plan B' to renovate its existing arena rather than move into Farley's western annex." The Pataki Administration had originally planned to convert the eastern portion of the Farley Building into an extension of the train station, but subsequently the plan was expanded by the private developers to relocate the Garden and redo the existing train station.

"After feuding with the state about what type of presence it will be allowed to have in the eastern annex of Farley, MSG is said to be threatening to back out of the preliminary commitments it has made to relocate. According to a source close to the Garden's development team...in the last few weeks, MSG has told its architects, a team from the Toronto firm Brisbin Brook Beynon, to draft plans for a makeover of the current arena. The design would renovate the Garden's aging facilities, but it is also said to include the construction of a new row of corporate boxes and a glass-enclosed complex of retail space that would bring the now barren Eighth Avenue side of the area," Mr. Geiger wrote in his article.

In a separate development, an article by Chris Shott in today's online edition of The New York Observer said that Gregory Jones, a preservationist leading a campaign to have the Hotel Pennsylvania on Seventh Avenue between 32nd and 33rd Streets declared a landmark, received a message February 14, from the Landmarks Preservation Commission that stated that "at this time, the property does not appear to meet the criteria for designation and will not be recommended for further consideration as a New York City Landmark."

The hotel is owned by Vornado Real Estate Trust that has indicated it would like to demolish the hotel, which was designed by the architects of the demolished Penn Station, and once the largest in the city and where many of the leading bands of the 1930s and 1940s played.