There is no such agreement. There are no pre-set height limits for the western railyards.

We have no idea what will be built, outside of the fact that they have to include a school, there are some affordable housing requirements and it will (probably) be mostly residential.

My guess is that Related won't stop with Phase II. They're too invested in the neighborhood. They'll eventually take the Javits site, the bus garage site or the post office sorting site, or some combination of the three. Those three sites will be the next phases of whatever large-scale plans hit the West Side.

I just hope they dump the Frank Gehry building and hire Norman Foster instead.

thats what i thought about the height limits. i dk where nyguy got that general guidelines implication from, maybe he can post something about that? :shrug:

I doubt that Related has the money for do all this.

They wouldn't be doing it all at once, obviously.

Yes, it was well established in the guidelines that the towers would "slope" with the tallest of the towers being on the western half of the railyards (it's why pretty much all of the proposals had the tallest towers on the east). Now, Related has been able to tinker with the guidelines before, but don't expect anything taller than 30 Hudson to rise here.

Of course this is all generalization, but it's the order things were intended to go, and it's why every render put out by Related shows shorter towers.


http://m8.i.pbase.com/o10/06/102706/...IQLMYFF.d1.JPG

Any news on stalled Amtrak tunnel extension founding? I believe Phase 2 platform construction will not start until the tunnel under Hudson Yards West is completed, just like in Phase1.

^ Related, it's been reported that the Gateway funding structure is now dead.

https://www.enr.com/articles/43831-h...hattan-skyline

https://www.wsj.com/articles/calatra...ers-1518933320

Calatrava and Gehry Among Architects Selected for Hudson Yards Towers
Related Cos. and Oxford Properties Group are behind the 28-acre Hudson Yards development


https://si.wsj.net/public/resources/...0218103723.jpg


By Keiko Morris
Feb. 18, 2018

Hmmm.....

"Among" doubtless presupposes two or more.

What I'd do for dibs on the short list.....

^ Stern was also mentioned earlier. I think SHoP is on as well.

Gehry huh...hmmm. Expect something absurd and graceless.

Phase II portion on the Upper East bloc of Western Yards will be: office + residential @ 1.5 mil-sq ft. Should generate a sizable tower by the sounds of it.

Any guesses on which one will be Calatrava?

The two interconnected residential towers in the middle. Just a guess, but with the garden component, I could envision Calatrava working his magic on that,

8 Spruce is awesome.

Just as a quick aside here, re 8 Spruce:

There's a reason why one side of the tower is a flat surface.

My understanding of it is that the developers told Gehry to not go ham on the overall exterior form of the tower.

I think the initial fears were related to the understanding that a full-blown Gehry design would ruin it. IMO aside from the directive he as given, he otherwise made a remarkably subdued delivery on the facade.

This time, however, he may well be tasked with contributing to the open spaing component.

I don’t know why these NY developers like Extell, Related and others, that bring in big name starchitects at first but then either value engineer and waterdown their designs (smooth out the wrinkles, straightening out the curves, removing cross bracings, etc.) essentially back to plain boxes. Central Park tower, 35 HY, Girasole, 3 WTC come to mind.

If you are going to do that, then just use SLCE or Handels from the start and save us the big initial excitement and then the eventual letdown.

I'm shocked that Calatrava's reputation isn't completely trashed due to his numerous disastrous projects. And Gehry's name shouldn't hold much cachet anymore. His work has become very repetitive.

It would have been nice if they picked New York architects. The irony is that Chinese developers will hire New York architects to design whole megaprojects, and other cities are now hiring New York architects to ape their style, but they're not headlining a signature project like Hudson Yards?

I've spoken at length about the "shrine" fustercluck that had Calatrava's name on it; but it's worth pointing out that the reason for it had nothing to do with him.

Maybe the projects these guys work on will ultimately force them to go beyond their comfort zone.

Calatrava = OVERLY expensive projects.

The new Calatrava church is just a minor Calatrava-linked money pit. He's seriously tarnished.

https://www.fastcodesign.com/3039658...ated-architect

https://www.theguardian.com/artandde...rchitect-spain

I just hope Phase II is skinny towers. I am not a fan of tightly clustered bulky towers.

We will need that, especially with the Spiral, 50 Hudson, and 3 Hudson all getting underway.




It's one of the best of the new breed in the last decade or so.



All of this whining about what these architects could potentially build here - we haven't seen a rendering of what they have planned yet. Let's get a rendering, and then the whining could commence.

Anyway, about my earlier question, I think a Calatrava designed tower would most likely go in the center, SHoP desinged towers on the south, maybe Stern directly on 11th, south of the office tower. I don't see either of those firms doing the office tower. We'll see how close I am with that.



http://www.hudsonyardsnewyork.com/co...17-960x540.jpg
www.hudsonyardsnewyork.com

It doesn't matter what Calatrava builds.

Thanks to Vandelay, I've been schooled on the degree of liability his presence in this collaborative effort would present.

If he's picked for sure, they'd best have him shunted to the non-highrise side of it, whatever that entails...the school, most likely. They literally can not afford give him room to dictate a price tag.

That they even considered his name for contribution to this phase of the project IMO indicates that they haven't quite grasped the big takeaway from previous experience:

You don't always get what you pay for...and if you do, make sure it's on schedule.

https://www.politico.com/states/new-...-access-470061

Hudson Yards developer seeking same federal funds Gateway has struggled to access

By DANA RUBINSTEIN
06/18/2018

I’m sure the city could help out if additional funds are needed.
Tax breaks always help. :rolleyes:

Site plan looks intact on this model...


https://www.instagram.com/p/Bn10XU5n...-by=juansterus

https://scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram...45399040_n.jpg

Any ideas as to what that gray wall will be composed of? It would be awesome to see some upper Manhattan looking natural stone there or massive granite blocks, something monumental is in order here.

That would be nice, because at that point the platform is above both the High Line and street level. Haven't seen any real ideas on it.

Just think Park Avenue viaduct where it starts at 105th. Something like that but even taller would be gorgeous.

The landscape arthictects are supposed to be the same. Hopefully they will get it right.


https://static1.squarespace.com/stat...g?format=1500w
https://www.designdistill.com/landscape-viz/



https://static1.squarespace.com/stat...g?format=2500w



https://scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram...45399040_n.jpg

I'm curious on the unit amount that will ultimately rise. It will be in the 1000's, but I wonder how many. :D

This site is good for the MSG in 2023. ;)


https://scontent-iad3-1.cdninstagram...45399040_n.jpg

What's the plan for that ^ gray area next to 34th street?

That's state property. There have been a few different ideas on what to do with it, but as far as I know, nothing concrete yet. The state is supposed to be moving the truck yard.
But I think there should be at least one office tower built directly west of 55 Hudson.

If you look at one of Related's older site plans, you see a plan for a mirrored development of the railyards just to the south. I would be surprised if Related got their hands on that lot.


http://a4.pbase.com/o9/06/102706/1/1....siteplanB.JPG



The City wanted a bus garage there....
http://www.nyc.gov/html/mancb4/downl...aling-Yard.pdf

The gray area next to 34th street is owned of Javits Center.

http://i1.wp.com/www.streetsblog.org...t_side_map.jpg

http://nyc.streetsblog.org

Yes, everything highlighted in yellow there is owned by the state. The truck yards that currently occupy the site are being moved as part of the current Javits renovation.

This part reminds me a bit of the Lakeshore East development in Chicago.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/28/r...son-yards.html

By C. J. Hughes
Feb. 28, 2019

Site of Phase 2:

Millions of more sq-ft will rise! :cheers:



https://static1.squarespace.com/stat...g?format=1500w
Credit: FC

am i seeing this right? according to the map above on the lower left/sw it looks like another tower will be straddling over the highline park ???

That's correct.

This graphic doesn't reflect design but shows placement of towers.


https://a4.pbase.com/o12/06/102706/1...ken_24x758.png

When is construction supposed to start on Phase II?

Platform construction is expected to begin 1Q 2020.

I assume the actual tower designs will be released in the near future, but who knows. They hired individual building architects years ago, so they probably have the designs ready.

when are the official/final renders going to be released?
it has got to be sometime soon.

Second phase of Related’s Hudson Yards development stalled by LIRR
POSTED TODAY, AUGUST 9, 2019 BY DEVIN GANNON

http://thenypost.files.wordpress.com...8&h=410&crop=1

http://www.6sqft.com/second-phase-of...alled-by-lirr/
http://nypost.com/2019/08/08/billion...-hudson-yards/

As far as I can remember, the western platform was always going to rise higher than the High Line, the rails are at street level.



https://therealdeal.com/2020/01/13/n...700-foot-wall/

Next phase of Hudson Yards could include 700-foot-long wall
Related says any discussions about it are “very, very preliminary”

TRD New York
January 13, 2020





https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/10/a...expansion.html

Hudson Yards Promised a Park. They Didn’t Mention the Giant Wall.
For phase two, the developer imagines a 700-foot-long structure overshadowing the High Line. “The last thing New Yorkers need is a wall,” a state senator said.






From original planning...


https://a4.pbase.com/o6/06/102706/1/...cnb7.plat3.JPG

^ BUILD THE WALL :cheers:

Or at least build the wall but make several areas stepped up to the plaza/park. :yes: