The City Planning Commission voted 12 to 1 yesterday to approve Extell Development's Riverside Center plan on the Upper West Side.
Planning commission chair Amanda Burden called it "a unique opportunity to re-envision and reshape a bleak eight-acre parking lot and former rail yard as an exciting addition and major amenity to this thriving West Side neighborhood," according to an article yesterday by Leslie Albrecht at DNAinfo.com. She said it had "distinctive and compelling" architecture and a "thoughtfully designed public realm" and Commissioner Richard Eaddy said "this project, when completed, will be an exciting addition to the New York landscape," the article said.
The plan calls for building five residential towers, a retail space, a garage and an automobile showroom on a site west of West End Avenue between 59th and 61st Streets.
Christian de Portzamparc is the architect. He is also designing a major midtown skyscraper called Carnegie 57 for Extell on West 57th Street and in 1999 designed the angular mid-block building on East 57th Street for LVMH between Fifth and Madison Avenues.
Commissioner Karen Phillips said she cast a "reluctant" yes vote, the article continued, because she wants to see more affordable housing at Riverside Center and that "providing more units for middle-income New Yorkers ensures that the character of this area better reflects the character of the Upper West Side."
The article said that Commissioner Anna Levin cast the only no vote, stating that she was concerned that the development "is just too big" and that Extell had not done enough to build a school to accommodate the children the development will bring to the neighborhood. Some Upper West Side parents and Community Board 7 had called on Extell to build a 150,000-square-foot, K-8 school at the site, but the developer has only committed to paying for the outer shell of a 75,000 square-foot school. Extell president Gary Barnett has said that building an entire school could add $35 to $40 million to the cost of the development.
In July Community Board 7 issued a 42-page report on its recommendations for the project that included the elimination of one tower to provide more open space, a significant reduction in the number of parking spaces and a major increase in the number of affordable housing units on the site. Subsequently, the plan was revised with fewer parking spaces.
Planning commission chair Amanda Burden called it "a unique opportunity to re-envision and reshape a bleak eight-acre parking lot and former rail yard as an exciting addition and major amenity to this thriving West Side neighborhood," according to an article yesterday by Leslie Albrecht at DNAinfo.com. She said it had "distinctive and compelling" architecture and a "thoughtfully designed public realm" and Commissioner Richard Eaddy said "this project, when completed, will be an exciting addition to the New York landscape," the article said.
The plan calls for building five residential towers, a retail space, a garage and an automobile showroom on a site west of West End Avenue between 59th and 61st Streets.
Christian de Portzamparc is the architect. He is also designing a major midtown skyscraper called Carnegie 57 for Extell on West 57th Street and in 1999 designed the angular mid-block building on East 57th Street for LVMH between Fifth and Madison Avenues.
Commissioner Karen Phillips said she cast a "reluctant" yes vote, the article continued, because she wants to see more affordable housing at Riverside Center and that "providing more units for middle-income New Yorkers ensures that the character of this area better reflects the character of the Upper West Side."
The article said that Commissioner Anna Levin cast the only no vote, stating that she was concerned that the development "is just too big" and that Extell had not done enough to build a school to accommodate the children the development will bring to the neighborhood. Some Upper West Side parents and Community Board 7 had called on Extell to build a 150,000-square-foot, K-8 school at the site, but the developer has only committed to paying for the outer shell of a 75,000 square-foot school. Extell president Gary Barnett has said that building an entire school could add $35 to $40 million to the cost of the development.
In July Community Board 7 issued a 42-page report on its recommendations for the project that included the elimination of one tower to provide more open space, a significant reduction in the number of parking spaces and a major increase in the number of affordable housing units on the site. Subsequently, the plan was revised with fewer parking spaces.
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.
