Posted Dec 9, 2017, 6:42 AM
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New Yorker for life
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Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Borough of Jersey
Posts: 52,906
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This reminds me of something I wanted to talk about at another time, New York's war on skyscrapers...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/08/n...e=sectionfront
Tower Planned for Upper West Side May Be Too Tall and Too Late
By CHARLES V. BAGLI
DEC. 8, 2017
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In a city seemingly exhausted by a long-running construction boom, the number of pitched battles over new developments appears to be growing.
Community groups and elected officials are challenging a planned 668-foot condominium skyscraper at 200 Amsterdam Avenue, as well as a trio of towers in the Two Bridges neighborhood in Lower Manhattan. Opponents have also brought to a halt a planned 800-foot tower near Sutton Place on the East Side.
Now, the developer Gary Barnett, who built the first super-tall tower along what has become known as billionaire’s row on 57th Street and has a second under construction, is pushing forward with yet another ultra high-end skyscraper that is already drawing opposition.
The tower is set to rise 775 feet, or 69 stories, on a side street on the Upper West Side. The limestone and bronze tower designed by the architecture firm Snohetta with chamfered corners and a butterfly-shaped crown is slated to include 127 condominiums with views of Central Park. There would be an outdoor terrace on the 16th floor with a garden and swimming pool.
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Helen Rosenthal, the City Council member who represents the area, said the proposed tower was “out of context for the neighborhood, and part of the creep of Midtown West into the heart of the Upper West Side.”
“We thought our zoning laws protect the area from very tall buildings,” she said. “This is truly Sisyphean.”
Not only is Mr. Barnett, the principal at Extell Development, facing off against the neighborhood, he is swimming against a tide of developers who believe the superluxury market has gone cold.
...“I guess I didn’t get the memo,” Mr. Barnett said.
He said that he is convinced that New York will remain a haven for wealthy New Yorkers and foreign investors, who pay a premium for height.
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Despite its reputation as a skyscraper city, New York has had a mixed view of tall buildings. In 1915, many New Yorkers recoiled from the sheer size of the 545-foot tall Equitable Building downtown, fueling passage of the city’s first zoning plan regulating height and setbacks.
Even the development-friendly administration of Edward I. Koch in the 1980s blocked attempts by Donald J. Trump and G. Ware Travelstead to build the world’s tallest tower.
And in 2007, the even more developer-friendly Bloomberg administration shaved 200 feet off the height of Jean Nouvel’s proposed 1,250-foot tower near the Museum of Modern Art in Midtown before approving it.
Ms. Rosenthal, the City Council member, and Gale Brewer, the Manhattan borough president, are questioning whether Upper West Side zoning allows Mr. Barnett to build so high without going through the city’s approval process.
But Mr. Barnett, a former diamond trader-turned-New York real estate mogul, is confident. He hired a zoning lawyer, David Karnovsky, the former general counsel to the city’s Department of City Planning.
“It’s a beautiful site,” Mr. Barnett said. “It’s a true residential location.”
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To build an even taller tower, Mr. Barnett also bought a substantial chunk of unused development rights — 132,054 square feet — for $55 million, from ABC, the owner of a building on the west side of the Guild property.
He initially filed plans with the Buildings Department for a 25-story building, even as he continued to acquire other property. Critics contend that Mr. Barnett used a “bait-and-switch” tactic to lull the neighborhood into complacency. Although he knew that the Upper West Side would be characteristically combative, Mr. Barnett said, he filed a plan for what he could build at the time.
Councilwoman Rosenthal contends that the zoning does not permit a 775-foot-tall building.
But Mr. Barnett and his zoning lawyer argue that it allows for a slim tower of unlimited height as long as 60 percent of the building’s bulk is in a podium no higher than 150 feet tall.
“A 700-footer doesn’t even rank anymore” as a super-tall tower, Mr. Barnett joked.
If the opposition doesn’t stall the project, the building will be ready for occupancy in another three years when, presumably, the market is hot again.
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