Trinity Real Estate gave a presentation last night to the land use and business development committee of Community Board 2 of its proposed rezoning of Hudson Square and it wants to develop a 429-foot-high residential tower at Duarte School with a 420-seat public school in the base, according to an article by Lincoln Anderson in this week's edition of The Villager.
A rendering by SHoP Architects, shown at the left, of the base of the tower, which has been designed by SHoP Architects, indicates an extremely handsome facade with multi-faceted windows. SHoP designed the superb Porterhouse Building on the southeast corner of Ninth Avenue and 15th Street, 290 Mulberry Street at Houston Street and a lattice-covered skyscraper planned for the South Street Seaport and has also done work recently for the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn and the Hunters Point South project in Queens.
"Calling Hudson Square's zoning 'outmoded,' Trinity Real Estate wants to rezone a major portion of the district to allow residential use, the article said, adding that "with the change, Trinity expects 3,000 to 3,500 new residential apartments over ten years would be added to the neighborhood - not counting the district's few existing legal residential units."
Its rezoning proposal includes some "height caps" for new construction, the article said, adding that "along wide streets, like Canal, Hudson and Varick and Sixth Ave., there would be a height cap of 320 feet, or 32 stories. For commercial use, the maximum floor area ratio, or F.A.R. (which determines how much square footage can be built.) would be 10, with current bonuses for including public plazas and arcades eliminated. On these wide streets, residential F.A.R. would be 9, which would get a bump up to 12 F.A.R. with the inclusion of 20 percent affordable housing. Currently, the whole district's F.A.R. ranges from 10 to 12. Plus, there's no height limit - which is how the Trump Soho condo-hotel could be built to 490 feet, equivalent to 49 stories, by acquiring air rights from adjacent buildings and using a plaza bonus."
"On narrow streets," it continued, "like Greenwich and Spring Sts., and other east-west streets, the height cap would be 185 feet, about 18 stories, and on mid blocks the F.A.R. would be lowered from the current 10 to 6.5, but could rise to 8.5 with affordable housing included. On Broome and Watts Sts., however, the F.A.R. would be even lower, 5.4, but could rise to 7.2 with the affordable-housing bonus. The height cap would be about 12 stories."
The tower Trinity hopes to build at Duarte Square - at the wide-streets intersection of Canal and Varick Sts. and Sixth Avenue - at 429 feet would be taller than other new construction. The public school in it would occupy four stories and be 100,000 square feet, and would not count toward the project's F.A.R. Trinity would build out the school's core and shell - and then give the space to the city for free - and rent free, for perpetuity, the article said, adding that "Trinity is also obligated to build a park on part of the property at Duarte Square as part of the development."
The article said that "a prime concern of Trinity is to preserve the jobs of current commercial tenants. Under the scheme, existing buildings of more than 50,000 square feet could not be residentially converted. If a commercial building of more than 50,000 square feet were demolished, then there would have to be a '1-to-1 replacement' in the new building - meaning it would have to have at least 50,000 square feet of commercial space. Buildings less than 50,000 square feet could be residentially converted, and the expectation is that many would be. According to Trinity, under the rezoning, about 90 percent of the existing square footage in the neighborhood would be preserved as is. Also, under the proposed change, new nightclubs would not be allowed to open in Hudson Square. Big-box stores would be banned, as well, with an exception for supermarkets."
A rendering by SHoP Architects, shown at the left, of the base of the tower, which has been designed by SHoP Architects, indicates an extremely handsome facade with multi-faceted windows. SHoP designed the superb Porterhouse Building on the southeast corner of Ninth Avenue and 15th Street, 290 Mulberry Street at Houston Street and a lattice-covered skyscraper planned for the South Street Seaport and has also done work recently for the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn and the Hunters Point South project in Queens.
"Calling Hudson Square's zoning 'outmoded,' Trinity Real Estate wants to rezone a major portion of the district to allow residential use, the article said, adding that "with the change, Trinity expects 3,000 to 3,500 new residential apartments over ten years would be added to the neighborhood - not counting the district's few existing legal residential units."
Its rezoning proposal includes some "height caps" for new construction, the article said, adding that "along wide streets, like Canal, Hudson and Varick and Sixth Ave., there would be a height cap of 320 feet, or 32 stories. For commercial use, the maximum floor area ratio, or F.A.R. (which determines how much square footage can be built.) would be 10, with current bonuses for including public plazas and arcades eliminated. On these wide streets, residential F.A.R. would be 9, which would get a bump up to 12 F.A.R. with the inclusion of 20 percent affordable housing. Currently, the whole district's F.A.R. ranges from 10 to 12. Plus, there's no height limit - which is how the Trump Soho condo-hotel could be built to 490 feet, equivalent to 49 stories, by acquiring air rights from adjacent buildings and using a plaza bonus."
"On narrow streets," it continued, "like Greenwich and Spring Sts., and other east-west streets, the height cap would be 185 feet, about 18 stories, and on mid blocks the F.A.R. would be lowered from the current 10 to 6.5, but could rise to 8.5 with affordable housing included. On Broome and Watts Sts., however, the F.A.R. would be even lower, 5.4, but could rise to 7.2 with the affordable-housing bonus. The height cap would be about 12 stories."
The tower Trinity hopes to build at Duarte Square - at the wide-streets intersection of Canal and Varick Sts. and Sixth Avenue - at 429 feet would be taller than other new construction. The public school in it would occupy four stories and be 100,000 square feet, and would not count toward the project's F.A.R. Trinity would build out the school's core and shell - and then give the space to the city for free - and rent free, for perpetuity, the article said, adding that "Trinity is also obligated to build a park on part of the property at Duarte Square as part of the development."
The article said that "a prime concern of Trinity is to preserve the jobs of current commercial tenants. Under the scheme, existing buildings of more than 50,000 square feet could not be residentially converted. If a commercial building of more than 50,000 square feet were demolished, then there would have to be a '1-to-1 replacement' in the new building - meaning it would have to have at least 50,000 square feet of commercial space. Buildings less than 50,000 square feet could be residentially converted, and the expectation is that many would be. According to Trinity, under the rezoning, about 90 percent of the existing square footage in the neighborhood would be preserved as is. Also, under the proposed change, new nightclubs would not be allowed to open in Hudson Square. Big-box stores would be banned, as well, with an exception for supermarkets."
Architecture Critic
Carter Horsley
Since 1997, Carter B. Horsley has been the editorial director of CityRealty. He began his journalistic career at The New York Times in 1961 where he spent 26 years as a reporter specializing in real estate & architectural news. In 1987, he became the architecture critic and real estate editor of The New York Post.
6sqft delivers the latest on real estate, architecture, and design, straight from New York City.
