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Extell Development has plans to erect a 33-story apartment building at 40 Riverside Boulevard that will be designed by Stephen Hill, a partner at Goldstein Hill & West Architects and a former employee of Costas Kondylis & Partners that designed many of the other buildings to the north on Riverside Boulevard, according to an article today at crainsnewyork.com by Amanda Fung.

Mr. Hill has been involved in the design of 10 of the buildings on the boulevard and most recently helped Extell design the Rushmore, Aldyn and Ashley. Donald Trump developed the other buildings on the boulevard to the north and Extell has commissioned Christian de Portzamparc to design five towers to the south.

The tower at 40 Riverside Boulevard is part of a new residential cluster originally proposed almost a decade ago to rise at the former Pennsylvania rail yards between West 59th and West 72nd streets along the West Side Highway.

The 650,000-square-foot residential tower will boast more glass than any of the other new buildings north of it.

The new tower at 40 Riverside will have a stone base but transition into more glass as it rises, he said. It will have an "appearance of a curtain wall." "It will look cleaner, sleeker and more beautiful," said Mr. Hill, the article said.

The boldly patterned base is like a symmetrical Mondrianesque skirt conjured to gently shift in the river's breezes, providing a nice wiggle to the otherwise statuesque tower.

"While Mr. Hill could not disclose how many apartments the tower will include," the article said, "he noted that it will have a mix of units ranging from one-bedrooms to larger duplexes and single-floor units toward the top of the building. The tower will also be chock full of amenities, such at swimming pools and regulation-size basketball courts that Extell's previous buildings are known for."

The article said that Mr. Hill observed that "The original buildings were governed by zoning and design guidelines that were restrictive in the amount of glass and stone used," adding that "With this building we have more freedom with its facade and materials." He did not indicate when construction would begin.

The article said that "the guidelines expired six years ago, according to the Riverside South Planning Corp. website."

"In 1992," the article continued, "the city approved plans to develop the 77-acre Riverside South. Donald Trump was the original developer of the first residential towers on the northern portion of the site, which also became known as Trump Place. But in 2005, Extell bought the undeveloped parcels on the site from Mr. Trump and his partners. Late last year, Extell received city approval to build Riverside Center, a proposed 3.1 million-square-foot, mixed-use property consisting of five high-rise towers on the southern end of the site, between West 59th and West 61st streets."
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.