A spokesperson for Forest City Ratner said today that its plans for a mixed-use tower at 8 Spruce Street in Lower Manhattan are "still in design," but could not confirm a report that it will be taller and contain more apartments than previously disclosed.
A report in The New York Observer today said that the developer was "looking to compete for some of New York's scarce tax-exempt bonds to finance" the planned tower that is being designed by Frank O. Gehry. The article said that the tower would be 950 feet tall and have "some 920 titanium-and-glass-clad apartments," adding that it is now planned as an "all-rental building, according to documents on file at the city's Housing Development Corporation."
Previous reports last May indicated that the 74-story, 876-foot-high project would have a school, some facilities for the NYU Downtown Hospital and 666 rental and condominium apartments.
The Forest City Ratner spokesperson, Joyce Baumgarten of Geto & DeMilly, told CityRealty.com today that the figures mentioned by The New York Observer for the building's height and number of apartments and kind of apartments are not accurate as far as she was aware. She said she told the New York Observer that the building's excavation has begun because of concerns to keep the school "on schedule."
The project, which has the address of 8 Spruce Street and also has frontage of Beekman Street, has been designed by Mr. Gehry, the celebrated architect of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, and of a large mixed-use project known as the Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn for Forest City Rattner, the developer of the Metro Tech center in downtown Brooklyn.
Mr. Gehry's first major building to rise in Manhattan has been a mid-rise building for IDC/Interactive, a concern headed by Barry Diller, on West Street south across from the Chelsea Piers. It is a white-glass-clad building whose facades resemble sails.
Apart from the planned Freedom Tower at the former World Trade Center site not far away, the Forest City Ratner tower is one of the most anticipated designs in Manhattan in recent years.
According to plans filed more than a year ago with the Department of Buildings, the building will have a garage, a bicycle room, resident's cellar storage and the first floor will contain two residential lobbies, a school lobby, a medical offices lobby, a cafeteria and retail space. The second through the fourth floors will contain classrooms, a library and a gymnasium for the school. The fifth floor will have medical offices as an accessory to the hospital. The sixth floor will be mechanical and the seventh floor will have an accessory gym, an exterior pool, and two community rooms. Floors 8 through 14 will have 19 apartments each. Floors 15 through 22 will have 18 apartments each. Floors 23 through 35 will have 14 apartments each. The 36th floor will be mechanical.
Floors 37 through 43 will have 8 apartments each. The 44th floor will have a few apartments, an accessory gym and a community room. Floors 45 through 48 will have 7 apartments each. Floors 49 through 70 will have five apartments each. Floors 71 and 72 will have two apartments and the lower third of a triplex the rest of which are on the 73rd and 74th floors.
If floors 23 through 43 are rental there would be a total of 505 rental units and if floors 45 through 74 are condominiums there would be 161 condominium apartments.
Originally, it was also intended to contain expansion facilities for Pace University, but that institution withdrew from the plan.
A report in The New York Observer today said that the developer was "looking to compete for some of New York's scarce tax-exempt bonds to finance" the planned tower that is being designed by Frank O. Gehry. The article said that the tower would be 950 feet tall and have "some 920 titanium-and-glass-clad apartments," adding that it is now planned as an "all-rental building, according to documents on file at the city's Housing Development Corporation."
Previous reports last May indicated that the 74-story, 876-foot-high project would have a school, some facilities for the NYU Downtown Hospital and 666 rental and condominium apartments.
The Forest City Ratner spokesperson, Joyce Baumgarten of Geto & DeMilly, told CityRealty.com today that the figures mentioned by The New York Observer for the building's height and number of apartments and kind of apartments are not accurate as far as she was aware. She said she told the New York Observer that the building's excavation has begun because of concerns to keep the school "on schedule."
The project, which has the address of 8 Spruce Street and also has frontage of Beekman Street, has been designed by Mr. Gehry, the celebrated architect of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, and of a large mixed-use project known as the Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn for Forest City Rattner, the developer of the Metro Tech center in downtown Brooklyn.
Mr. Gehry's first major building to rise in Manhattan has been a mid-rise building for IDC/Interactive, a concern headed by Barry Diller, on West Street south across from the Chelsea Piers. It is a white-glass-clad building whose facades resemble sails.
Apart from the planned Freedom Tower at the former World Trade Center site not far away, the Forest City Ratner tower is one of the most anticipated designs in Manhattan in recent years.
According to plans filed more than a year ago with the Department of Buildings, the building will have a garage, a bicycle room, resident's cellar storage and the first floor will contain two residential lobbies, a school lobby, a medical offices lobby, a cafeteria and retail space. The second through the fourth floors will contain classrooms, a library and a gymnasium for the school. The fifth floor will have medical offices as an accessory to the hospital. The sixth floor will be mechanical and the seventh floor will have an accessory gym, an exterior pool, and two community rooms. Floors 8 through 14 will have 19 apartments each. Floors 15 through 22 will have 18 apartments each. Floors 23 through 35 will have 14 apartments each. The 36th floor will be mechanical.
Floors 37 through 43 will have 8 apartments each. The 44th floor will have a few apartments, an accessory gym and a community room. Floors 45 through 48 will have 7 apartments each. Floors 49 through 70 will have five apartments each. Floors 71 and 72 will have two apartments and the lower third of a triplex the rest of which are on the 73rd and 74th floors.
If floors 23 through 43 are rental there would be a total of 505 rental units and if floors 45 through 74 are condominiums there would be 161 condominium apartments.
Originally, it was also intended to contain expansion facilities for Pace University, but that institution withdrew from the plan.
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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