The impressive Superior Ink development occupies much of a full block in the West Village and combines a 17-story tower at 469 West Street with 62 condominium apartments overlooking the Hudson River and 7 townhouses on Bethune Street.

Its massing is somewhat similar to another waterfront project completed a few years earlier several blocks to the south, Morton Square.

This one was developed by the Related Companies and was completed in 2008.

It was designed by Robert A. M. Stern, who is best known for 15 Central Park West, the Chatham and the Brompton.

BOTTOM LINE

A very prime location between the charms and quirkiness of the West Village and the hip sophistication of the Meatpacking District and West Chelsea and the High Line Park, this development offers buyers the choice of a tower and three-story townhouse living.  The extremely handsome townhouses have elevators and gardens and access to the tower through an underground corridor to access its many amenities.

DESCRIPTION

The light-orange brick tower has a one-story rusticated stone base, a few setbacks and many slightly arched windows.  Its facade piers terminate in narrow ripples and its side facades have center protruding elements near the top.

The red-brick townhouses look like some of the best in Greenwich Village and Georgetown in Washington, D.C. Some have stoops and some have bay windows and all have multi-paned windows.

AMENITIES

The building, which is also known as 400 West 12^th Street, has a 24-hour concierge and  doorman, valet parking, a fitness center, an event room, a screening room, an entertainment lounge, a children’s playroom, a bicycle room, private storage, and some terraces.
 

The townhouses have their own garages.

APARTMENTS

Some of the apartments in the tower have great layouts and range in size from one-bedrooms to four-bedrooms.

Kitchens have Sub-Zero appliances and master baths have free-standing tubs and marble and mosaic tiled surfaces and vanities. Morado ebony floors are standard.

One apartment on the 11^th floor has a long entrance foyer that leads to a 34-foot corner living room that opens onto 13-foot-long dining room.  It also has a 29-foot-long corner media room that opens onto a 14-foot-long bedroom.  There are three other bedrooms in this apartment.

A three-bedroom on the east side of the tower has a 31-foot-long living area that opens onto a media-library room with three bedrooms down a long corridor.

HISTORY

This was a very controversial project in the Far West Village.

It is on the former site of the Superior Ink factory that had two tall chimneys and it is just to the north of Westbeth, one of the best known, and oldest, residential conversion projects in the city.

The Related Companies originally proposed a 270-foot-high, 23-story structure with residential condominiums for the site and that design by Gwathmey Siegel & Associates was similar in its configuration to the same firm’s design for Related at 445 Lafayette Street that was notable for its sinuously curved glass-clad tower.

This project outraged many preservationists who had desperately tried to save the old factory building and its 195-foot-tall smokestacks, urging the city to include the site in the West Village rezoning and historic district landmark districts. Community Board 2 voted against the project on the basis that all the findings necessary to obtain a variance had not been met and that its scale was out of context for the area.

In 2005, Related went to the Board of Standards & Appeals for a variance for a 20-story and three-story mixed-use project with a 6.5 F.A.R. for 469 West Street/70 Bethune Street on a lot zoned for manufacturing and a 5 floor-to-area ratio (F.A.R.). 

In January, 2006, Related modified the design and won a variance, which was amended in January 2007, for a tower on West Street with a three-story townhouse row on Bethune Street, with a maximum height of 186 feet 9 inches, including a bulkhead on the tower roof, and setbacks of 10 feet on West Street and 15 feet on Bethune Street. (Three residential towers with mostly glass facades that were designed by Richard Meier a few blocks to the south on West Street have a height of 199 feet.)

The new plans presented in January 2007 were designed by a different architect, Robert A. M. Stern, who has worked on previous residential buildings for Related. Mr. Stern is the dean of the Yale University School of Architecture and a co-author of the monumental series on New York architecture and planning including “New York 1880,” “New York, 1900,” “New York, 1930,” “New York, 1960,” and “New York, 2000.”