Work Begins at ODA/HMWhite's "Forest Tower" at 75 Nassau, See New Renderings of the Landscaped Spaces

By Ondel Hylton | From Future New York Thursday, December 7, 2017

75 Nassau Street (ODA New York)

Lexin Capital’s long-awaited residential tower proposed for the Financial District site is showing signs of life. First publicized in 2014, 75 Nassau Street will be a 45-floor rental-condo hybrid designed by the popular firm of ODA New York. Crews of construction workers can now be seen erecting scaffolding, readying the humble huddle of 19th-century buildings for their upcoming rendezvous with the wrecking ball (more like a slow dismantling).

The project site is midblock on Nassau Street between Fulton Street and Maiden Lane, and behind the Fulton Street Transit Center. Nassau is one of our favorite streets in the area because of its narrowness, crookedness, lack of car traffic and ambiance of Bishop’s Crook lampposts and small storefronts. As is the case of many century-old, unprotected low-slung structures in Manhattan, walking away from them runs the risk of them being gone upon your return.

Demolition prep beginning as of early December (CityRealty)

CityRealty

CityRealty

The 307,000-square-foot project will remove five buildings whose ousted tenants include a New York & Company, a coffee shop, and the clothing chain De Janeiro, which has since relocated across the street. According to The Real Deal, the site and air rights were purchased in 2014 for $63.4 million. Since then, most of the buildings have sat vacant with one being demolished.

75 Nassau Street (ODA New York)

75 Nassau's pedestal composed of small volumes may help maintain the intimate scale of Nassau Street (ODA New York)

Renderings of ODA’s design surfaced in 2015 depicting a 500-foot-tall slab topped by greenery and a midsection of eaten-away corners. The architect’s description is a bit more profound. They say, “The proposed 48-story tower is a hybrid of the two prominent skyscraper typologies in Manhattan: The heroic 1930's limestone tower that rhythmically reduces its volume to a sharp peak and the utilitarian glass box of the 1960's.” The tower will rest upon a 4-story commercial podium containing retail and offices. Rentals will be assembled up to the 20th floor and condos will continue above. Revised permits show the floor count has grown to 45, up 5 floors since the initial filing in 2015.

(ODA)

The top of the tower is conceived to be a “forest-like experience in the center of Manhattan's downtown.” The landscape architects of HMWhite were selected to make the glossy renderings showing an old-growth forest of evergreens, more realistic.

Per their page, the roof will be a “vegetative beacon” occupied by native trees and a series of vine curtains that are revealed as architectural extensions. Multi-level roof terrace gardens are programmed and designed as extensions of their adjacent interior amenity space and a three-story waterfall links the fifth- and second-floor terraces, offering sound and a dramatic landscape feature to draw powerful connections to exterior social spaces. “Experienced in its aggregate, residents will come to find their home gardens to be their sanctuary and source of calming resolve and repose,” says the firm.