NEW YORK | 495 11th Avenue | 680 + 653 FT | 56 + 55 FLOORS

[Raysiri]

If this conjoined building is going to be a supertall, that would make New York a cyberpunk city.

[NYguy]

https://patch.com/new-york/midtown-nyc/a...hells-kitchen-lot-inch-closer-to-reality

Skyscrapers On Vacant Hell's Kitchen Lot Inch Closer To Reality
The skinny towers on 11th Avenue will include a hotel and hundreds of affordable housing units — and have the support of neighbors.





By Nick Garber
Oct 20, 2021

The proposal to build a pair of residential skyscrapers on a long-vacant lot in Hell's Kitchen inched closer to reality this week, as the city developers filed plans to begin construction.

The plans call for a 680-foot-tall apartment tower containing 275 affordable units, as well as a hotel building standing 653 feet in height. The city-owned lot on 495 11th Ave., near West 139th Street, is known as "slaughterhouse" for the meatpacking business that stood there until the 1990s.

Unlike some contested rezonings, however, the slaughterhouse development is facing little, if any opposition — in no small part because neighbors have been given significant input into the project for years.

Starting in 2005, Community Board 4 began pushing to develop the site into affordable housing, winning a commitment from the city as part of the Hudson Yards rezoning process. It picked up again in 2015, as the city's Economic Development Corporation began seeking development proposals.

Community Board 4 voted unanimously to support the project in June, citing "decades-long advocacy" by board members and praising the plans' inclusion of affordable housing and a supermarket.

The buildings will be designed by Gene Kaufman Architect, a firm whose other projects include the Radisson Hotel at 525 Eighth Ave., the Hilton Homewood Suites at 312 West 37th St. and a residential building at 76 Eighth Ave. in the West Village.

At the base of the two towers will be a commercial podium, consisting of nearly 8,900 square feet of office space, a 4,790-square-foot supermarket, a hotel lobby, a restaurant and a pedestrian walkway to the Javits Convention Center.

Construction will be completed in 2025, according to planning documents filed in April.

[BK1985]

We definitely dodged a bullet if this remains as the design.

[MAC123]

Originally Posted by BK1985

We definitely dodged a bullet if this remains as the design.

Yeah I just saw the previous designs recently, and they were not very good to say the least.

[JMKeynes]

https://therealdeal.com/2021/11/10/developers-file-applications-for-3000-plus-apartments-in-nyc/

2. 495 11th Avenue, Manhattan
Radson Development filed plans to build a pair of mixed-use towers on a city-owned site in Hell’s Kitchen. The proposed 795,000 square-foot structure consists of a 55-story south tower with 683 hotel units and a 56-story north tower with 358 residential units. The development will also include a 4,800 square-foot supermarket, 8,900 square feet of office space and vehicle storage space for the NYPD, which has used the site as a parking lot for decades. Gene Kaufman Architect is listed as the architect of record.

[chris08876]

For a Kaufman its not terribly bad IMO. There are some true horrors floating around, the Kaufman's and Sam Chang's that populate the Garment District.

The reason for blank walls on the designs are for people to piss on. That's the purpose of some of those blank walls. Fortunately a lot of them are short in nature so they get lost amongst their peers.

For something over 650 ft, two towers... this is not terribly bad. Somewhat mediocre but won't encourage urinating in public.

[Busy Bee]

The footprint of each tower is surprisingly small. They look like they are maybe 60x60?

[JMKeynes]

Originally Posted by chris08876

For a Kaufman its not terribly bad IMO. There are some true horrors floating around, the Kaufman's and Sam Chang's that populate the Garment District.

The reason for blank walls on the designs are for people to piss on. That's the purpose of some of those blank walls. Fortunately a lot of them are short in nature so they get lost amongst their peers.

For something over 650 ft, two towers... this is not terribly bad. Somewhat mediocre but won't encourage urinating in public.

Kaufman's building on 14th and 8th is really nice. Maybe Sam Chang dictated those insane, crappy designs, and Gene just followed his orders.

[chris08876]

Site Of Two-Skyscraper Development Awaits Activity At 495 Eleventh Avenue In Midtown West, Manhattan

At number 20 on our year-end countdown is a pair of mixed-use residential skyscrapers at 495 Eleventh Avenue in Midtown West, Manhattan. Designed by FXCollaborative with Gene Kaufman Architects as the architect of record, the 589,842-square-foot project consists of a 680-foot-tall, 57-story edifice paired with a slightly shorter 653-foot-tall, 56-story sibling that will rise along Eleventh Avenue between West 39th and West 40th Streets, next to the Jakob K. Javits Center. NYC Economic Development Corporation is listed as the owner behind the applications that were filed back in late October.

A hotel is slated to be included in the design program and would be tucked in the southern tower with a total of 683 guest rooms, while the northern edifice would house 358 homes, as well as 45,344 square feet of community facility space. Other aspects include storage for 86 bicycles on the cellar level spanning 774 square feet, a ground-level storage room for 96 bicycles measuring 861 square feet, NYPD parking spaces, offices, retail space, and supportive housing units.

Below are renderings released earlier this year that depict the southern structure with a flat western profile and a series of gradual setbacks on the eastern elevation. The opposite northern tower features a more straightforward massing with a repetitive stack of floor plates with a composite mixture of light and dark façade panels. Mechanical bulkheads cap each building and are wrapped in identical envelopes.

Subway access can be found either by heading east on West 42nd Street to the Port Authority Bus Terminal, servicing the A, C, and E trains with extensive access to both the Times Square-42nd Street and 42nd Street-Bryant Park stations, or by taking a brisk walk to the 34th Street-Hudson Yards station, serviced by the 7 train at Bella Abzug Park by Related Companies‘ first phase of Hudson Yards.

Demolition permits have yet to be filed for the New York Police Department parking lot, and an estimated completion date for 495 Eleventh Avenue has not been announced.

===================
NYY

[JMKeynes]

These look great.

I'd like to see these towers, Affirmation, and 3 Hudson rising simultaneoulsy.

[JMKeynes]

/2021/12/20/manhattan-borough-board-approves-radsons-slaughterhouse-towers/[/url]



NYC is the Biblical Promised Land!

Thank God that this vile piece of Gahenna wasn't selected.

[chris08876]

Yeah we kind of dodged a bullet with the previous design. No slouches either, typically would fall in line with the average Midtown Plateau.

[NYguy]

Happy to see 11th Avenue being developed and pulled into thecrest of the city. For so long it’s been a wasteland.

[NYguy]

[JMKeynes]

I think that this is better than Extell’s proposal for 5th and 46th.

[NYguy]

[NYguy]

Hopefully this moves ahead with construction, doing more to fill in the gaps on the West Side.

[BuildThemTaller]

Anything to help break up the relentless blue glass monotony on the West Side

[NYguy]

Finally (and slowly), the wheels begin to move for both 418 and 495 11th Avenue...although I will say I don't know how much of this is now necessary given Hochul's announcement that residential projects will no longer have to undergo environmental review...




























https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/let-the...orms-cut-red-tape-and-build-more-housing

Let Them Build: Governor Hochul Unveils Landmark Reforms to Cut Red Tape and Build More Housing and Infrastructure


Jan 13, 2026

“New York has always been a place of boundless ambitions: from the Erie Canal to the Empire State Building. But for too long, unnecessary red tape has stood in the way of new housing and critical infrastructure.” Governor Hochul said. “If local leaders want to deliver new investments for their communities, I say ‘Let Them Build.’”

Studies have quantified how State-mandated environmental review can slow down housing projects by an average of two years, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars per project, at a time when New Yorkers can least afford the wait for the housing they need to continue to live and thrive in New York.

To speed up the development of housing to create a more affordable and sustainable New York, Governor Hochul will propose to amend the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) to exempt certain types of housing projects that have no significant impacts on the environment, which are still subject to local zoning, from additional SEQRA review.

.....In New York City, the State will set caps on the size a building must be to avoid the requirement of additional SEQRA review, with caps varying on the basis of the density of the neighborhoods as determined by the City. In the rest of the state, to avoid additional SEQRA review, housing projects must be on previously disturbed land, connected to existing water and sewer systems, and subject to additional unit caps.

https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/new-york...ZddC6epxcSNOFMdCKtSkthovYWAy_SVocg%3D%3D

New York State to Loosen Environmental Rules to Speed Up Homebuilding
Review process can add two years and hundreds of thousands of dollars in costs to housing projects


By Rebecca Picciotto
Jan. 13, 2026

New York is preparing to loosen its environmental law to make it faster and cheaper to build housing in the state, the latest government effort to tackle high housing costs as affordability becomes a centerpiece of this election year.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday proposed new reforms to exempt the majority of housing projects from the State Environmental Quality Review Act, or Seqra. State lawmakers would need to approve the reforms.

[ChiND]

This is a very nice project.