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Originally Posted by NYguy
Louis R. Cappelli and Donald J. Trump Celebrate 'Topping Off' of Trump Plaza, Westchester County's Tallest Building
Monday July 31
Rising 435 feet above downtown New Rochelle, Trump Plaza will offer magnificent panoramic views of the Manhattan skyline, Long Island Sound and the Hudson Valley area. Designed by the nationally recognized architectural firm of Lessard Architecture of Vienna, Virginia, Trump Plaza features 187 one-, two- and three-bedroom residences.
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Looks like New Rochelle wants to unseat White Plains as city with Westchester's best skyline...
Journal News
Another 400-foot tower proposed in New Rochelle
By KEN VALENTI
July 30, 2006
NEW ROCHELLE — The next big downtown project, complete with plans for another 400-foot-plus tower, has come on deck.
Skyscrapers that might have seemed unthinkable several years ago are boosting the city's skyline. Louis Cappelli's Trump Plaza is reaching its full height of almost 450 feet, and Avalon on the Sound's second phase is well on its way to reaching a similar height.
Now the city is reviewing a study of the effects expected from a tower planned off Main Street, where it would replace a green-painted steel parking deck built in 1973 between Church and Division streets off Main Street.
In all, that would mean four towers at or near the maximum height allowed downtown, with Cappelli's LeCount Square project also planned. The Simone project would be the first to incorporate Main Street.
"We think that this project will dramatically change Main Street forever," said Joseph Simone, president of the company.
Earlier this month, the City Council accepted a draft study of the impacts the project would create; a hearing is scheduled in August.
The tower's exact height is not yet determined. It would rise 39 stories with a softly lit "retro-deco" element concealing mechanical equipment on the roof, said James Davidson, design partner with SLCE Architects, designers of the project. The building is designed to seem slimmer by angling its narrow sides toward Long Island Sound and toward the Interstate 95 and Main Street side, he said. Two tiers taper the building as it rises, and it is designed with a lighter appearance using clear glass and pre-cast stone in a "warm, honey-colored limestone" look designed to fit in with Main Street.
It would include "curved glass balconies to recall sails that would give a lofty look to the building," Davidson said.
It will also include a plaza and 44,000 square feet of stores by the base of the tower, another 2,500 square feet of commercial and office space, and a plaza of about two-thirds of an acre. A key piece of the project would be an 860-space parking garage on the block to the southeast, bounded by Division and Prospect streets, Centre Avenue and LeRoy Place. It would be surrounded on three sides by a park slightly smaller than the plaza.
Simone said the building will hold some 400 condominiums. A second parking structure in the base of the building would offer some 730 spaces for residents and merchants. The study submitted to the city projects that 763 people would live there.
The project raises a potential issue of conservation because it would mean taking down three Main Street buildings that the developer said could once have been considered for national historic designation. They include the distinctive 1932 former Palace Shoe Store, with its black glass panels and parapet lined with terra cotta ornamentation.
The plan comes as the city plans to apply to have its Main Street district placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Acting City Historian Barbara Davis said that the Palace building facade would likely contribute to a historic designation and that the building is considered intact because it has much of its original material, notwithstanding missing glass panels that have been replaced by plywood.
"The facade is a very important feature to Main Street," she said.
Simone said the stores would be replaced with an entrance to the plaza.
The other stores to be removed are A.R. Kings clothing store and the New Rochelle Variety Store. A man identifying himself as the manager of the clothing store would not talk on the record; Sam Kwon, owner of the variety store, said he planned to move to a nearby storefront.
Anthony Miceli, a barber at Frank's Hairstylist across South Division Street from where the plaza would go, said the ongoing development is good for the city. While at first he said the towers may be rising too tall too fast, he reconsidered and said that the new residences would bring life to the downtown. Waving at people shopping at the farmers market down the street, he said: "Look at what we've got coming in here. It's beautiful."
The study projects that the development would bring more than $1 million a year in property and sales tax to the city and $2.8 million annually to the school district. That would more than pay for the $850,000 the developer calculated as the cost of taking on 53 new students.
"We think you have the best of all words in that location," Simone said. "You've got very easy access to the roadways if you need it. You've got unbelievable water views, and you've got access to beach and country clubs."
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New Rochelle weighs height limit for downtown
By KEN VALENTI
July 9, 2006
NEW ROCHELLE —
A proposed zoning law would put a limit on exactly how high a downtown tower could rise, setting it at 448 feet, 6 inches.......
King said the law would formalize the approach that has long been taken by city planners. They consider the current 390-foot height limit to apply only to space to be occupied, while mechanical space for elevator equipment, air handling machinery and other items could be placed on top. But it became necessary to set the approach into law now that several buildings under construction or planned will reach the height limits.
It also means that New Rochelle is unlikely to become the home of Westchester's height champion in the current building boom.
Cappelli's Renaissance Square on Main Street in White Plains includes two towers now rising to 484 feet.
A rendering of Renaissance Plaza,
two 40-story-high towers in White
Plains,
The New Rochelle law would set a maximum height for mechanical space at 15 percent of the height of the usable space. That means an additional 58.5 feet for a building reaching the maximum 390 feet for usable space. The existing law also allows for spires, cupolas, belfries and masts that could "exceed the otherwise maximum permitted building height" by up to 10 feet, but it was not clear if those would be allowed in addition to the extra room for mechanical space.
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Earlier construction shots of Trump Plaza
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Construction shots of Renaissance Plaza
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