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Posted Dec 5, 2013, 11:35 PM
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don't *meddle*...
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Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: New York City / Wien
Posts: 4,016
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...
Quote:
Manhattan West
Rail passengers are taking their last looks at the brief flash of light they are used to receiving just after emerging from the Hudson River tunnel, and just before they dive into the bowels of Penn Station. Soon this 12-track channel will also be plunged into darkness, but it will be in exchange for Manhattan West’s 1.5-acre (0.6-hectare) landscaped public plaza, set between two 60-story towers by SOM. Unlike Hudson Yards, the tower foundations at Manhattan West are on terra firma. But in order to support the plaza between them, a highly innovative, post-tensioned, precast segmental bridge technology had to be devised to span the active rail lines below, without interrupting train movements. The platform alone is a $290 million investment, said Philip Wharton, Senior Vice President of Development for Brookfield Office Properties, the owners of Manhattan West.
The plaza represents a continuation of 32nd St. as a pedestrian walkway that stays level while the streets on either side drop to the west. If Brookfield can reach an agreement with Hudson Yards to their west, this corridor could theoretically provide an uninterrupted pedestrian pathway from Penn Station, through the future Moynihan intercity rail station, and through both mega-developments, all the way to the Hudson River and High Line.
A portion of the pedestrian corridor could pass directly through an existing building positioned over the rail yards, 450 W. 33rd St., a heavy-set concrete ziggurat that once housed both the New York Daily News printing presses and stored furniture for retailer E.J. Korvette. While the building can structurally support and is zoned for a skyscraper, the current plan calls for re-cladding the structure and leasing to tenants in need of large floorplates, Wharton said. Including the two SOM towers, the project will comprise 6.2 million square feet (576,000 square meters) of office, residential and retail space.
Although Hudson Yards dwarfs Manhattan West in size, Wharton says the project’s ideal positioning between the High Line, which receives 3.5 million people per year, and Penn Station, which receives 600,000 travelers each day (219 million per year), will be beneficial for both developments.
“Retail and residential feed off each other,” Wharton said. “Retail wants to be near retail, and near residential. The Fairway grocery store in the [Hudson Yards] Coach building will be great for us. Office is more competitive. But for two out of the three uses, we are very happy about the complementary nature.”
The idea that the Javits Convention Center, High Line, Chelsea art-gallery district, Penn and Moynihan stations will be fused together at the double ship-knot of Hudson Yards and Manhattan West is staggering to comprehend, even in a city used to superlatives.
“It’s going to be amazing,” Wharton said. “Once this all is built out, it will be a whole other city here. There will be 25 million square feet of office space, 15,000 apartments, and maybe 150,000 to 200,000 people coming to work here each day.”
Atlantic Yards
While scheduling prevented a visit to Greenland Holdings Group / Forest City Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, great insights into that project were presented during October’s World Architecture Day 2013 (WAD 13).
Atlantic Yards will include about 6 million square feet (557,418 square meters) of residential space, 247,000 square feet (23,000 square meters) of retail, and about 336,000 square feet (31,000 square meters) of office space.
Speaking on a panel devoted to affordable housing at WAD 13, David Farnsworth, CTBUH New York City Representative and principal at Arup, expressed high hopes for the most distinguishing factor of Atlantic Yards’ housing component – modular construction. Atlantic Yards B2 Tower will become the tallest modular building in North America when completed.
“We need to reach a new paradigm of construction methodology in order to increase the supply of affordable housing,” Farnsworth said. “The only way to get prices down is to get supply increased. When construction costs are rising and rent rates are stagnant, there comes a point where there is no financial incentive for developers to build. I have confidence that, with modular, we can make all housing more affordable, not just subsidized housing.”
Like the other projects, transit connectivity is key to the success of the development, Farnsworth said. Like Hudson Yards, Atlantic Yards is also situated over a Long Island Rail Road yard and terminal, and is connected directly to the Atlantic Ave. subway station, where nine lines intersect, generating traffic of more than 11 million people a year.
Transit and pedestrian connectivity is the lynchpin of success for each of these tall-building projects.
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