Quote:
Originally Posted by lakegz
Just been thinking about this but doesn't a FAR of 30 seem pretty low, especially when headlines are saying that this area will be rezoned so "large" towers can be built to keep the area competitive?
I mean, a 30,000 sq foot lot (which I think is pretty big) can only have 900,000 sq foot max tower built on it. It seems like all the new large office towers of this generation are in the 1.2-1.8 million sq foot range. (heck 4WTC has 1.8 million sq feet)
I just think a FAR of 30 seems rather low for such an upgraded rezoning.
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It's double what's allowed now (15). The highest FARs in the Hudson Yards are 34 - and those are on sites that were previously unlimited. The original WTC complex was a state development, which supersedes City zoning, but even then you have to consider the size of the WTC site. The new towers at the WTC are large, but they are basically replacing space that was already there, even as the superblock is broken up. Were it strictly City zoning, it's not likely all of those towers would be as large.
The new zoning on the east side is meant to encourage owners of larger sites to build towers that can accomodate larger office buildings. As it is now, they cannot build up to even
current size, so more had to be done to encourage new construction. In other words, with the new zoning, not only would they be able to build as large, they could build larger, as of right. The larger the footprint, the larger the tower. But even if you demlished a tower today and built up to the same size, it will be taller because of the higher ceiling heights demanded of modern office towers.
To get that 30 FAR though, the design itself will have to be impressive enough to the City Council and City Planning which will have to grant approval. Look for Hines and SL Green to select from the growing list of "starchitects". It would be sweet justice if Nouvel were brought in to design another glorious tower here, especially since they are using the form of the Tower Verre as exceptional architecture.
