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Chimneys are not just for sweeps and Santa Claus, but also for "lookouts."
That?s the belief of Karl Fischer, the architect of The Power House, an 11-story condominium apartment building that is being reconstructed out of the former four-chimney power plant in Long Island City on the East River overlooking Manhattan.
His first plan called for erecting about 10-floors of condominium apartments above the 85-foot-high base of the plant. These upper floors would be in the space defined by the chimneys and the corner apartments would extend into the curved chimneys.
The city planners in Queens, however, wanted the developer, Cheskel Schwimmer of CGS Builders, to seek a variance from the city?s Board of Standards & Appeals and he opted to redesign his plans and build an "as-of-right" development that conforms to existing regulations and does not need special permits or zoning variances.
According to Mr. Fischer, the revised design calls for only four apartment floors above the base of the plant. The chimneys, which will about 180 feet high above the base of the building, recently were demolished, but Mr. Fisher?s new design calls for cylindrical ?recalls? of them at the four corners of the addition with the cylindrical shapes extending up above the roof. Spiral staircases within the apartments in these shapes would not only lead to the roof but extend upwards another floor to ?lookout? spaces.
The first phase of this development, which will be faced with glazed terra cotta, will contain about 230 condominium apartments. The plant, at one time the Pennsylvania Railroad Power Station, and then the Schwartz Chemical Company, is south of the Avalon apartment building.
Mr. Schwimmer?s and Mr. Fischer?s smokestack dreams, of course, need not founder in Queens as Manhattan has a few tall stacks along the East River that would make terrific lookouts and cozy nooks.
The notion of setting some apartment floors between four huge smokestacks conjures birds' nests and gargantuan hammocks and the spectacular megastructure visions of some architects in the 1960s.
That?s the belief of Karl Fischer, the architect of The Power House, an 11-story condominium apartment building that is being reconstructed out of the former four-chimney power plant in Long Island City on the East River overlooking Manhattan.
His first plan called for erecting about 10-floors of condominium apartments above the 85-foot-high base of the plant. These upper floors would be in the space defined by the chimneys and the corner apartments would extend into the curved chimneys.
The city planners in Queens, however, wanted the developer, Cheskel Schwimmer of CGS Builders, to seek a variance from the city?s Board of Standards & Appeals and he opted to redesign his plans and build an "as-of-right" development that conforms to existing regulations and does not need special permits or zoning variances.
According to Mr. Fischer, the revised design calls for only four apartment floors above the base of the plant. The chimneys, which will about 180 feet high above the base of the building, recently were demolished, but Mr. Fisher?s new design calls for cylindrical ?recalls? of them at the four corners of the addition with the cylindrical shapes extending up above the roof. Spiral staircases within the apartments in these shapes would not only lead to the roof but extend upwards another floor to ?lookout? spaces.
The first phase of this development, which will be faced with glazed terra cotta, will contain about 230 condominium apartments. The plant, at one time the Pennsylvania Railroad Power Station, and then the Schwartz Chemical Company, is south of the Avalon apartment building.
Mr. Schwimmer?s and Mr. Fischer?s smokestack dreams, of course, need not founder in Queens as Manhattan has a few tall stacks along the East River that would make terrific lookouts and cozy nooks.
The notion of setting some apartment floors between four huge smokestacks conjures birds' nests and gargantuan hammocks and the spectacular megastructure visions of some architects in the 1960s.
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.
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