NEW YORK | New East River access

[NYguy]

http://downtownexpress.com/de_330/pierwork.html

Pier work begins on East River waterfront


A new waterfront park that is meant to do for the East Side what Hudson River Park did for the West Side broke ground at a ceremony Tuesday morning.

With swiveling cranes in the background, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the timing could not be better to start construction of the East River Waterfront, a project he promised to build four years ago. The $150 million park, funded mostly by the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., will create about 400 construction jobs during the recession, Bloomberg said.

Bloomberg stood alongside the governor, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, Borough President Scott Stringer and State Sen. Daniel Squadron to describe the first phase of the project, which will stretch 2 miles from the Battery Maritime Building up to Pier 35, connecting the West Side greenway to East River Park. That work is slated to finish in 2011.

The award-winning design by SHoP Architects includes retail and community-use pavilions under the elevated F.D.R. Dr.; amphitheater steps descending toward the water; wider paths for cyclists and pedestrians; and bar-stool seating along a rebuilt esplanade.

The East River Waterfront will be “as innovative and exciting as the High Line,” City Planning Commissioner Amanda Burden said.

A second phase, which does not yet have funding or a timeline, would convert Pier 42 to public use with an urban beach and would create a plaza in front of the Battery Maritime Building.

At the groundbreaking, the mayor highlighted plans for a new double-decker Pier 15, whose concrete piles are already rising from the East River. The pier will include a marine education center, concessions and space to dock boats on the lower level, and an open lawn and plantings on the upper level.

The city also unveiled new plans for Pier 35, at Rutgers Slip, which will become an “eco pier” featuring flora and fauna native to the East River shoreline.

The mayor first mentioned the possibility of improving the East River waterfront in 2002. Part of the reason the East River Waterfront project it took so long to get off the ground was because of the many permits required, Deputy Mayor Robert Lieber said. The project also underwent an extensive public review, with more than 70 community meetings.

Borough President Stringer thanked Bloomberg for consulting Community Boards 1 and 3 so extensively.

“You’ve done something I didn’t think was possible,” Stringer said to the mayor. “I think you’ve tired them out.”

— Julie Shapiro

[NYguy]

http://www.thelodownny.com/leslog/20...esplanade.html

East River Park Opens Another Section of Esplanade

October 22, 2009

A new stretch of the ongoing East River Park Promenade project opened yesterday. The new esplanade continues south
behind the running track for another 2200 feet down behind the ball fields. We were told by the Parks Department that another 400 feet or so,
stretching to the tennis courts, should be open by next week. They have just been waiting for the rain to stop so they can lay some sod.

[NYguy]

http://www.archpaper.com/e-board_rev.asp?News_ID=4002

Greenpoint Rising
Developer proposes Pelli-designed towers for North Brooklyn waterfront






Nov 2
Matt Chaban


When the neighborhoods of Williamsburg and Greenpoint were rezoned in 2005, a parade of luxury condominium towers were expected to replace moribund factories and warehouses along the North Brooklyn waterfront. Few of those towers materialized before the collapse of the real estate market, though, and with thousands of apartments already under construction in the area—and many sitting empty—it could be years before developers renew their march to the water.

But this is New York City, where developers never cease to dream. And so, up in the far reaches of Greenpoint, first-time developer Jonathan Bernstein is plotting what would be the tallest tower on the waterfront—nearly 20 percent taller than current zoning allows—making it among the most audacious projects in the borough to date.

Located two blocks from the last G-train stop before Queens, the project is being designed by marquee firm Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects. Adjacent streets would be transformed into parkland. Piers would be built to accommodate historic ships, ferries, and Water Taxi service. A new beach would offer sorely needed waterfront access. And all of these perks would help blunt community concerns about the project’s blockbuster proportions.

So far, the plan seems to be working.

“It’s a beautiful project with a hard sell,” Ward Dennis, chair of local Community Board 1’s land-use committee, said in an interview. “What the community needs to decide is where that balance is between density and open space and affordable housing. And really, that’s what all of these projects come down to.”

For a 100,000-square-foot lot on India Street currently occupied by a warehouse, Bernstein—who was once Donald Trump’s personal attorney—is proposing two muscular glass towers, one rising to 470 feet, the other to 200 feet. As with all new projects on the North Brooklyn waterfront, the towers are surrounded by a base of more contextual row buildings that rise no higher than 65 feet. And the project is not only taller than zoning allows but also bigger, containing roughly 890,000 square feet, as opposed to the 660,000 square feet potentially allowed as of right.

“We are asking for radical changes to the zoning, but we do think it’s way different than anything that’s been proposed on the waterfront,” Bernstein said during an informal presentation to the community board’s land-use committee last week. “We think it will be a gateway to Manhattan and Greenpoint.”

Bernstein has employed some clever zoning tactics to make his radical moves. Under the 2005 rezoning, the most a developer could expect to build would be two towers, one at 400 feet, the other at 300 feet. More typically, buildings top out in the range of 300 feet and 150 feet, as is the case at the Edge condominiums further to the south. So far, no building has even reached 400 feet, though a third tower at Northside Piers is planned for that height.

Even more unorthodox is Bernstein’s proposal to demap all of neighboring India Street and part of Java Street. Bernstein wants to turn these streets into parkland that connects with a larger-than-required park on the waterfront, replete with an amphitheater, sand dunes, and wetlands designed by W Architecture and Landscape Architecture. By incorporating thousands of square feet from the roadbeds into his project, Bernstein would significantly increase the project’s density, and hence the tower’s permitted height.

Bernstein said he must build big in order to afford his project, citing the expense of creating required public amenities, even arguing that zoning restrictions are one of the main reasons the waterfront remains under-developed. “We have to pay for these things,” Bernstein said. “We’re trying to create something that is good for the community and yet financially feasible.”

While the tower would be an eye-popper for such a lowrise neighborhood, it would not be the first in the area to exceed zoning restrictions. This spring, 155 West Street, an Ishmael Leyva–designed project proposed for a site directly north of Bernstein’s, won approval to rise to 400 feet, instead of a permitted 300 feet.

On that site, however, a sewer easement prevented the developer from building out the entire lot. Instead of a 300-foot tower and a 150-foot tower as of right, the two were combined into a single, 400-foot tower, plus a $2 million waterfront park. Moreover, in this case the developer was simply shifting density, unlike Bernstein, who is seeking to increase it.

Bernstein has yet to seek the numerous city approvals it would take to realize the project, including permission from the city planning, transportation, and parks departments, and one of his associates emphasized that specifics could still change ahead of public review. Bernstein said he has spoken with these agencies, though, and that they’ve expressed enthusiasm for the project. (He has even signed a contract with the city’s Economic Development Corporation to serve as the Greenpoint stop in an East River ferry service program.) Representatives of the agencies did confirm such meetings to AN, but said it was premature to make any judgments before a formal public review.

Elected officials, including local Assemblyman Joseph Lentol and Brooklyn Democratic Party chairman Vito Lopez, have expressed reservations. A Lopez spokesperson said that he is particularly uncomfortable with the project’s height: “He’s against anything that’s not contextual with the neighborhood, especially a 45-story tower.”

Some in the community believe this opposition is why Bernstein has come to them first, seeking their support ahead of a formal public review expected in the next few months. And despite reservations about the project, locals have been keeping an open mind, such as Christine Holowacz, co-chair of the Greenpoint Waterfront Association for Parks and Planning. “I love the open space on the project,” Holowacz told AN. “I’m not so sure about the tall towers.”



Bernstein is not the first developer to flaunt zoning restrictions in the area. A project immediately to its north designed by Ishmael Levya
received approvals earlier this year to rise to 400 feet, 100 feet higher than allowed under the zoning

[NYguy]

http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories...int_tower.html

Is this tower too big for Greenpoint?



By Will Yakowicz
for The Brooklyn Paper

A first-time developer is planning to build what would be the tallest luxury condo tower on Greenpoint’s waterfront — but he’s going to need a “radical” change in zoning to get it done.

Jonathan Bernstein’s proposed Cesar Pelli-designed 47-story tower, with a 20-story sister building, cannot be built on his India Street lot under current zoning without demapping a portion of India Street and some of Java Street as well.

Without the demapping, Bernstein would be allowed to build a 40-story building and a 30-story secondary tower — but both would be much less dense and, therefore, less lucrative.

“The building will never get built unless it is big,” Bernstein said, anticipating community opposition to his $623-million project. “Lenders won’t lend money if you can’t build an original and financially viable plan.”

That may have been true a few years ago, but the recession has dried up a lot of financing. And there is a glut of luxury units at still-unfinished projects nearby, such as the Edge, Northside Piers and the still-unstarted 155 West St.

Bernstein had an answer for that, too. “In Brooklyn, housing is an absolute crying need, so we are proceeding as if the economy will improve tomorrow,” he said. “The truth is that the world will get better and you have to tend to your business.”

In another attempt to curtail opposition, Bernstein said his project would include thousands of square feet of parkland, an amphitheater, a beach, sand dunes, wetlands, two piers for three historical schooners (for educational purposes), and ferry service.

Ward Dennis, the chairman of Community Board 1’s land-use committee, called Bernstein’s plan “a beautifully designed project,” but said he was concerned about radically the zoning would be altered to accommodate it.

Current zoning allows a total density of 660,000 square feet. Bernstein’s project surpasses that by almost 35 percent.

“The big thing is the question of density,” Dennis told The Brooklyn Paper. “How many people can the G train handle? How many people can the community handle at its schools? Where will all these services come from?”

Bernstein admitted that he would be asking for “radical changes to the zoning,” but said his project was so unique that it would become a gateway to Manhattan and Greenpoint.”

“Every city planer comes a across a spot that is overlooked, but is perfect and Greenpoint is inevitable for my plan,” he added. “It has a spectacular world-class view and is a natural and wonderful place to live.”

[NYguy]

Shades of Governor's Island...
http://www.archpaper.com/e-board_rev.asp?News_ID=4041

Fort of Solitude
Long inaccessible Fort Totten prepares for new public park


North Park, a new 8-acre section of Fort Totten park designed by Nancy Owens Studio, will open this spring.


One of the most impressive New York sites you may have never heard of, Fort Totten is a 149-acre peninsula jutting off the coast of Bayside, Queens, with Civil War–era fortifications, meditative grounds, and views of Long Island Sound. But over the last half-century it has had few visitors, being home to a U.S. Army installation and largely barred to the public until 2005, when the first limited access opened to 50 acres acquired by the New York City Parks Department.

Now the next stage of the fort’s public debut is at hand: a new, eight-acre park known as North Park, set to open in the spring. Designed by landscape architecture firm Nancy Owens Studio, which also created a masterplan for the fort, the project came with its share of challenges, not least of which was the setting. “I wanted everything to be the right scale,” said principal Nancy Owens, “but there was a lot of competition with the shore and the military architecture.”

Owens responded by recalling the site’s long and layered military history, which includes a fortification known as a water battery that sits along the waterfront. As a gesture to this and another battery buried on the grounds, Owens built a 200-foot-long ridge rising eight feet. Dubbed King Battery Mound, this sculptural landscape will provide visitors with views of Long Island Sound. Meanwhile, planting strategies focus on the site’s natural history, restoring native vegetation with 200 new trees and 10,000 grasses. The subtly structured approach and soft design lines make the park about more than just military geometry.

[u]Since parts of Fort Totten fall under the jurisdiction of different agencies—including the Coast Guard, the U.S. Army, and the New York City Fire Department—implementation of more ambitious designs has been difficult. A proposed pedestrian promenade along the waterfront, for instance, would cross Coast Guard property, but until the Coast Guard grants approval, visitors must walk along a paved road that runs through the middle of the peninsula./u] Owens addressed the property boundaries in her design, using the King Battery Mound to obscure views of Coast Guard property to the west, and positioning a bioswale as a natural demarcation between the park and the Fire Department’s property.

Subsequent phases of construction, which are not currently funded, call for rebuilding the deteriorating sea wall, which would enable public access to parts currently off-limits without a guide, including the water battery and the shoreline. Another proposal would introduce a step-stone wall that would meander through the park and terminate in an expanse of stones that would serve as both an amphitheater and a Native American memorial.

Owens would also like to see electrical wires buried and outdoor lighting installed, design elements not implemented in the first phase of construction, possibly because nearly a third of the project’s $3.8 million budget went to the demolition of 19 abandoned houses on the site. That work, at least, offered a chance to incorporate the foundations into the design. “We tried to keep the house pads as memory zones to retain some of the historical energy,” Owens said.

The North Park is quite a young park in its current condition, and will require the passage of time for the new flora and fauna to settle in, as well as to knit together elements of the park’s complicated past. “We hope that everything looks seamless,” said Owens. “We’re trying to restore history and make it sustainable.”

Victoria Monjo


A 149-acre peninsula off Bayside, Queens, Fort Totten is being converted piece-by-piece from a fort into a public park.


The battery, a section of North Park that was once home to canons protecting the city from Long Island Sound.

[NYC4Life]

Funny how I myself never heard of this site either. Looks like an impressive proposal.

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by NYC4Life

Funny how I myself never heard of this site either. Looks like an impressive proposal.

Really? I've never been on the site, but I try to familiarize myself with the geography of the surrounding area. There's so much more to New York than what people generally think, even New Yorkers.

[NYguy]

http://curbed.com/archives/2009/11/2...lliamsburg.php

East River Park Promenade Gets an Eyeful of Williamsburg



Wednesday, November 25, 2009, by Pete

In our business it always pays to keep a close eye on the Williamsburg waterfront, but ever since the Lower East Side's man-made mountain got hauled off, we've lacked a good vantage point. No longer, as the prime place for perusal is the recently reopened East River Park Promenade just north of Houston Street, a ribbon of waterfront renewal offering front row seats of 184 Kent, the two Northside Piers towers, Edge and all the other nabe favorites, not to mention Williamsburg's own little patch of waterfront green. A cross-river stare down seems imminent. Can't we all just get along?

[NYguy]

More Queens and Brooklyn riverfront news...

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/...eeing_red.html

Residents worry about river access, artificial turf at new 11-acre Hunters Point park



BY Brendan Brosh
December 1st 2009


A new 11-acre park is in the works as part of the Hunters Point South mega-development in Long Island City, officials said.

But some residents are concerned about river access and the use of artificial turf in designs recently unveiled to the public.

The park is to feature the rehabilitation of an old pier, two dog parks, a bike path, a fitness area, volleyball court, waterfront promenades, a toddler play lot, kayak launch and other amenities.

The most prominent feature of the project is a large pavilion and green that city officials said would be covered with artificial turf.

Parks Department officials said maintaining the egg-shaped green is easiest when it's an artificial surface - especially when compared with grass, which needs constant replanting and is magnet for certain birds.

"We believe that synthetic turf is the most playable surface," said Charles McKinney, chief of design of the agency's capital projections division. "We believe synthetic turf is less attractive to geese."

Using grass would require that the green be closed for long periods of maintenance, he added. A Parks crew would regularly wash the synthetic surface to keep it clean, McKinney added.

But that plan didn't sit well with some audience members at a recent public hearing.

"When someone goes to a park, they're expecting nature," said Tom Paino, a local architect. "On a very hot, sunny day, you won't be able to use it."

A Daily News investigation in July 2008 found that artificial turf surfaces at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park could get as hot as 162 degrees.

"Our first preference is natural grass," Community Board 2 Chairman Joe Conley said at the meeting. "But Parks needs to know who is going to provide the maintenance."

The park construction is slated to occur in two phases, with work on the northern portion starting first.

A pier for a water taxi to shuttle commuters to Manhattan and elsewhere is just to the south of the pavilion area.

Local kayakers said the proposed watercraft launch at the end of Second St., which is part of the second phase of the project, was incomplete.

"Currently there is no provision for the storage of kayaks," said Erik Baard, who has been active in opening up the river to recreational canoeists and kayakers.

The park also includes a passive recreation area with a small peninsula that offers views of neighboring boroughs, crushed stone footpaths and a lawn bowl for picnicking.

The project is slated for further review by the community board.

"The community is looking at the project with great excitement," said Christian Gabriel, of Thomas Balsley Associates, a landscape architecture firm working on the park. "We'll keep checking in with the community to make sure their concerns are heard."


curbed.com

_____________________

http://curbed.com/archives/2009/11/3...za_project.php

New Rendering Not Enough to Make CB1 Like Rose Plaza Project



Monday, November 30, 2009
by Sara

After seeing one rather mellow rendering in mid-2008, we didn't hear much from South Williamsburg's proposed Rose Plaza on the River development...until now.

Brownstoner brings the news that Community Board 1's land-use committee voted 8-1 last week against a zoning change needed for the project. Board members criticized the 801-unit, three-tower complex for being composed mostly of studios and one-bedrooms, with only 20 percent of the units designated as affordable. The developers' response: the project will bring construction jobs to the neighborhood, the market will rebound, and the units will be an easy sell. Okay then!

The architect's website originally projected Rose Plaza's completion in 2009, which is -- like the developers' sales predictions -- perhaps a tad optimistic, but 2009 has at least brought the project a more fearsome rendering.

[NYguy]

http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_34...aterfront.html

East waterfront work continuing with revisions

Julie Shapiro
December 25 - 31, 2009

Two thousand eleven will be a big year for the East River Waterfront, the city’s $150 million renovation of a gritty 2-mile walkway.

That year, the city plans to open the first sections of the rebuilt esplanade and bikeway on the East Side of Lower Manhattan, stretching from the Battery Maritime Building up to Maiden Ln. As work on that section continues, the city this week showed new designs for the southernmost portion of the esplanade, south of Wall St., featuring maritime foliage, wooden furniture, bike racks and an undulating railing.

Because the current walkway is only 8 feet wide in some of these southern sections, the city is currently driving piles to expand the path over the East River. Originally, the plans called for the walkway to separate from the shoreline and curve out over the water, to give views of the Lower Manhattan skyline, but the state Dept. of Environmental Conservation vetoed that idea, said Nicole Dooskin, project manager for the city Economic Development Corp.

As a result, the new esplanade will stay adjacent to land and will be just wide enough to fit a 12-foot walkway, a buffer and a 10-foot bikeway. In some sections south of Wall St. there will also be room for wooden furniture and plantings of juniper and ornamental grasses. In other sections, there will only be room for a decorative aluminum screen.

__________________________________

http://tribecatrib.com/news/2009/dec...esplanade.html

[NYguy]

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article...TATE/100419858

City looks to liven up E. River waterfront
Seeks tenants for three new pavilions on under-utilized Pier 15 near base of Wall Street; attempt to lure residents and tourists alike.


By James Comtois
April 19, 2010

As a further attempt to draw New Yorkers and visitors to the city's once overlooked waterfront, the New York City Economic Development Corp. issued two requests for proposals on Monday. The agency is looking for parties interested in leasing, operating, and maintaining pavilion spaces and associated outdoor space along the East River waterfront in lower Manhattan.

According to an EDC press release, it is seeking proposals for three pavilions: two in the Pier 15 commercial and Maiden Lane pavilions, and one in the Pier 15 maritime pavilion.

“These RFPs are a major step toward realizing the city's vision for the East River Waterfront Esplanade and Piers Project by transforming an underused segment of our waterfront into a vibrant and inviting public open space,” said EDC President Seth Pinsky, in a statement.

Potential uses may include food and beverage service, recreation or market space. The Economic Development Corp. is also interested in receiving additional use concepts from respondents.

The Pier 15 commercial and Maiden Lane project will include a 3,500-square-foot pavilion located at the intersection of South Street and Maiden Lane, directly beneath the elevated FDR Drive, and a 1,000-square-foot pavilion currently under construction. That request for proposal follows the response EDC received when it released a request for expression of interest last April for the Maiden Lane pavilion.

Responses are due by 4 p.m. on Friday, June 11.

The EDC says it is looking for potential tenants with programming concepts that would increase waterfront activity and attract residents and visitors to the area. The pavilions are being constructed as part of the city-initiated East River Waterfront Esplanade and Piers Project, which is designed to transform an underutilized portion of the East River waterfront into a new, pedestrian friendly, publicly accessible open space.

The EDC will construct the core and shell of the pavilions, while the tenants will be responsible for all internal build-out and improvement costs to the structure.

The Pier 15 maritime pavilion will be a 2,250-square-foot structure located on the newly-constructed Pier 15, a key component of the Esplanade.

Although the EDC seeks programming proposals that incorporate a mix of uses for the Pier 15 maritime proposal, they must also feature a maritime or environmental educational component.

The EDC anticipates the Maiden Lane pavilion will be ready for build-out by late spring 2011, and the Pier 15 commercial pavilion by fall 2011. The firm anticipates the Pier 15 maritime pavilion to be ready for fit-out in fall 2011.

[NYguy]

Been meaning to replace the lost thread for Domino since the development came back on the scene, just haven't gotten around to it yet. In the meantime, its just one of many east river developments providing access to the waterfront...

from ny1

• Video Link

[NYguy]

http://www.observer.com/2010/real-es...ct-gets-moving

Bloomberg’s Middle Income Housing Project Gets Moving



By Eliot Brown
June 7, 2010

Nearly four years after unveiling a plan to build a giant middle income development along the Queens waterfront, the Bloomberg administration today sent out a request for proposals to find a developer to kick off the first two sites on a strip of land near Long Island City.

The first phase of the project, called Hunter's Point South, calls for 1,000 apartments to be built in the southwestern corner of Queens, with at least 600 of them available to families making between $63,000 and $130,000 (for a family of four).

Proposals are due by September, and the city's housing commissioner, Rafael Cestero, told the Times he was expecting many of the larger developers in the city to bid.

This project, however, is by no means the fastest moving in the mayor's portfolio. It was first announced in 2006, with planners gradually plodding away on planning and infrastructure work ever since. While planned city-led developments such as Coney Island and Willets Point have seen their budgets rise or stay flat, Hunter's Point South's budget has been cut substantially, and there is not enough funding for the full 5,000 apartment project.

One thing that is clear from this is that middle income housing is not cheap to build.

Despite the fact that the land is owned by the city (i.e. developers don't have to buy it on their own) and 40 percent of the apartments will be market rate waterfront property, the city is still offering subsidy of to $90,000 per moderate- and middle-income apartment. (The RFP says that bids "will be rated based on providing the most affordability with the least subsidy.")

This is in part because, unlike projects that contain some low-income apartments, the development is not expected to be eligible for tax-exempt financing, adding a substantial cost.

And unlike low-income housing, there's not a ton of precedent nationally for middle-income developments of this scale, given that in much of the rest of the country, city governments leave the private market to develop middle income housing on its own. The impetus in New York City is that there's a housing shortage, and if the market were left to its own devices, it would make it hard for anyone making a teacher's or firefighter's salary to find housing anywhere close to central Manhattan.

[Busy Bee]

And unlike low-income housing, there's not a ton of precedent nationally for middle-income developments of this scale, given that in much of the rest of the country, city governments leave the private market to develop middle income housing on its own. The impetus in New York City is that there's a housing shortage, and if the market were left to its own devices, it would make it hard for anyone making a teacher's or firefighter's salary to find housing anywhere close to central Manhattan.

A[nother] good example of why I'm not a republican.

[NYguy]

http://www.archpaper.com/e-board_rev.asp?News_ID=4816

Kahn's Four Freedoms Park Finally Breaks Ground
Memorial to FDR finally arrives on Roosevelt Island with laying of 36-ton granite blocks


Roosevelt Island yesterday during the Four FReedoms Park Groundbreaking.

Alyssa Nordhauser
9.14.2010

Nearly 40 years after famed architect Louis Kahn designed it in 1972, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park has begun to take shape as the first granite blocks were lifted and lowered into place on the site on Monday. The city and state’s top politicians, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Governor David Paterson, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, were all on hand to appreciate the long-delayed moment.

City Councilwoman Jessica Lappin, who worked hard to get city funding for this $45 million project in her district, was especially pleased with the park’s progress. “It’s not every day in New York City that we reclaim waterfront land and give it back to the public,” she said. Four Freedoms Park will be administered as a state park, though it is funded by a public-private partnership between the city, the state, and the Roosvelt Institute, which has been leading the charge for the new park for years.

Located at the southern tip of Roosevelt Island, it will be the only work of Kahn's in New York City. Mitchell | Giurgola Architects, the associate architects executing Kahn’s plans, have been exacting in their approach to the memorial, ensuring it looks just as Kahn envisioned it—with only a few minor alerations to account for new code requirements. The project is due for completion sometime in 2012.

A modest crowd gathered at the site of the future park to celebrate the placement of the first of the granite columns that will make up the Room, a 72 foot square that Kahn designed to be a contemplative setting where visitors will be able to take in the words of the former president that will be engraved in the surrounding granite. Each 36-ton block, quarried in Mount Airy, North Carolina, measures 6 feet by 6 feet by 12 feet.

Once completed, the four acre park will be the first memorial to the former New York governor in his home state. Named after FDR’s famous 1941 speech. Construction is expected to create 200 jobs.

“Four Freedoms Park will be a civic place of universal significance and provide a permanent reminder of President Roosevelt’s vision for a better, more peaceful world,” said William vanden Heuvel, chairman emeritus of the Roosevelt Institute and a longtime advocate of the memorial. He also noted the importance of urban greenspaces, adding that the park “will preserve, in perpetuity, one of most majestic open waterfront spaces remaining in New York City.”

Mayor Bloomberg spoke movingly about this small but special patch of green. “We have added hundreds of acres of new parkland to New York City in the last nine years, but Four Freedoms Park, in the shadow of the United Nations Secretariat building, has a special significance,” Bloomberg said. “I think this is more than just a park. I really do think that this is to remind us of somebody, who at a pivotal point in our history, rallied the country.”

Mayor Bloomberg (left) and Governor Paterson at yesterday's groundbreaking.

[NYguy]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...googlenews_wsj

Tidal Shift on the Waterfront



September 20, 2010
By ANTON TROIANOVSKI

From the East River, two new residential projects on the Williamsburg waterfront look like towering glass edifices. On the other side, they meet the neighborhood as six-story brick apartment buildings.

The two-faced design is an outcome of the city's ambitious plan, approved in 2005, to turn the industrial waterfront of the Williamsburg and Greenpoint neighborhoods of Brooklyn into a dense residential area. At the time, planners and local advocates were concerned about how high-rise, high-priced condos would fit with the largely low-rise, mixed-income community that's inland from the waterfront.

City officials responded by calling on developers to use design to connect inland neighborhoods to the waterfront. The tallest buildings, the city said, should be close to the water where they would "frame new open spaces." Shorter buildings would be built at the neighborhood's edge to create "a smooth transition in building scale and form." The city also allowed developers to build taller if they created more affordable-housing units.

The two new projects, Northside Piers and the Williamsburg Edge, both near the intersection of North Fifth Street and Kent Avenue, are early signs of how the rezoning could change part of the Brooklyn waterfront. The Edge consists of two high rises, with 565 market-rate apartments, 299 feet and 150 feet tall, that tower over the river with a facade of oversize windows, translucent blue balconies, and cream-colored concrete panels—a sharp contrast with the aging storage tanks and rusty piers a few hundred feet away. Behind the towers, the Edge also includes two lower-rise apartment buildings, which include 347 affordable units and face Kent Avenue with a facade of light and dark brick that echoes older brick buildings nearby.

"What we were trying to do was to create a project that sort of melds into the urban context," says Stephen B. Jacobs, architect of the Edge.

To critics, however, the new towers are a portent of a future barrier of high-rises stretching along the western edge of north Brooklyn. "These bland towers marching all the way along—it's going to wall off the entire water," said William Menking, an architecture professor at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.

City Launches Biotech Park Project

New York City has been trying for years to leverage its numerous hospitals and schools to build a biotech industry. Now it's launching its most ambitious project so far: a $750 million biotech park overlooking the East River between East 28th and East 30th streets.

Eli Lilly and Co.'s ImClone Systems subsidiary this month will begin moving into the first building to be completed in the Alexandria Center for Life Science-New York City, part of a planned complex being developed by Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc. that is slated to be about 1.1 million square feet when completed. About 160 people from ImClone, which will research potential cancer-fighting products at the site, will occupy more than 90,000 square feet in a 16-story glass and steel tower.

The building's opening comes in the wake of a broader New York City effort to attract businesses that spin out from discoveries and research taking place in its universities and hospitals. The city is hoping the specialized lab space offered in the new center and in several other expanding or new locations around the city will help New York compete for jobs and companies in the biotech industry that has been dominated by established hubs such as Cambridge, Mass., and the San Francisco region.

The addition of the center and its critical mass of lab space is the last missing piece needed to win over more biotech companies, says Kathryn Wylde, president of the Partnership for New York City, which has helped to develop the park. "It's certainly a breakthrough," says Ms. Wylde of the center." When somebody starts a company, makes an investment and recruits staff, they want to know there's a place to grow."

The center's 310,000-square-foot tower is more than 50% leased and nearly all of the remaining space in the tower is in negotiations to be leased, says Joel S. Marcus, chief executive of Alexandria Real Estate Equities. He says he hopes to complete the full project by about 2017.

[NYguy]

http://www.observer.com/2010/real-es...rs-point-south

Seven Vie for Huge Queens Middle-Class Housing Complex



By Matt Chaban
September 23, 2010

One of the largest development sites left in the city has attracted some serious interest from some serious players. The Journal is reporting that seven bids have been made for the first phase of Hunters Point South, a planned 6,000-unit housing complex in Queens that was originally to be the site of the city's Olympic Village, had we not failed in attracting the 2012 Olympics.

The city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development, which is administering the RFP, would not say who was in, but according to the Journal, AvalonBay, Douglaston Development, and a Durst Fetner/Jonathan Rose joint venture have been confirmed.

The bidders are vying for the first two of six parcels on the 30-acre site, with the requirement to build 1,000 units of housing and a 1,100-seat school. The project is meant to be a haven for the city's increasingly squeezed middle class, with 60 percent of its units being set aside as affordable housing for families of four making between $63,000 and $130,000. The project was conceived in part as a paean to the loss of Stuytown—which is of course now not so lost, so maybe we don't need this anymore?

Why, with the real estate economy so bad, is there so much interest in this project? Besides the obvious fact that it's such a prime spot, just across the East River? Besides the fact that this thing isn't exactly going up tomorrow? Maybe it has something to do with affordable housing being one of the few real estate sectors that can actually still get financing.

[NYguy]

http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2010/0...to_nowhere.php

Getting Down with East River Promenade's Stairway to Nowhere



Wednesday, September 29, 2010, by Lockhart

Ever get the feeling that we're all just characters in a giant urban planning throwdown between the High Line and the East River Promenade? If so, let's award act XVII to the South Street Seaport area, which now sports the above, er, feature, as reported harder by NYC The Blog.

"Just like an unfinished painting, this will all start to make sense as more work is completed, and these stairs likely 'get-downs,' or access point to get close to the river," NYCTB opines.

To confirm this suspicion, we reached out to Gregg Pasquarelli, one of the forces of nature at SHoP that's overseeing the East River Promenade makeover. He emails: "The East River image is, in fact, a get-down. It's an amphitheater type seating area that allows you to get down closer to the water."

To recap: the East River Promenade now features a seating area that lets the alert participant descend a few feet closer to the swirling waters of the East River.

http://nyctheblog.blogspot.com/2010/...stairs-to.html

[NYC4Life]

^^^ Sounds like a tragic ideal, literally. God i hope no one drowns here. The East River is notorious for its fast currents.

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by NYC4Life

^^^ Sounds like a tragic ideal, literally. God i hope no one drowns here. The East River is notorious for its fast currents.

It's not completed. The city is surrounded by promenades along the various rivers. You can jump into either one of them at any given time.