The Manhattan Plan’s projection also includes 800 units that are planned as part of a project that will also create a new facility for the Bloomingdale Library in Manhattan Valley on the Upper West Side.
__________________ NEW YORK is Back!
“Office buildings are our factories – whether for tech, creative or traditional industries we must continue to grow our modern factories to create new jobs,” said United States Senator Chuck Schumer.
“Office buildings are our factories – whether for tech, creative or traditional industries we must continue to grow our modern factories to create new jobs,” said United States Senator Chuck Schumer.
With City of Yes for Families, we'll build 800 units of housing alongside a brand new library on the Upper West Side. Creating what is known as the Living Library. The largest in city history.
__________________ NEW YORK is Back!
“Office buildings are our factories – whether for tech, creative or traditional industries we must continue to grow our modern factories to create new jobs,” said United States Senator Chuck Schumer.
intrresting — cleveland has a couple nice u/c developments that are libraries being rebuilt with housing too, albeit not on this scale of course. maybe its a public housing trend? city of yes most definitely needs to make use of any and all available sites.
This is great. They also need to start developing all of the nycha parking lots. I have never seen a NYCHA parking lot at full capacity.
NYCHA shouldn't even have parking lots in my opinion. Like if you need subsidized housing how can you afford a car? I especially love nearly getting run over by BMWs/Lexus' while crossing NYCHA driveways
Street grids should be reconstructed through NYCHA projects wherever possible. This should be the first step towards the complete transformation of the complexes most begging for it.
101 St, 102 St and 103 St could all be rebuilt through the Frederick Douglass Houses which would help facilitate a redevelopment over a period of a decade or so. All current residents could be rehoused in the new mixed-income buildings while the overall unit count could be dramatically increased. It's currently about 2,000 units. That is insane. An area this big should have a minimum of 20,000 apartments.
__________________ Everything new is old again
Sic semper tyrannis
Last edited by Busy Bee; Jan 13, 2025 at 11:02 PM.
NYCHA shouldn't even have parking lots in my opinion. Like if you need subsidized housing how can you afford a car? I especially love nearly getting run over by BMWs/Lexus' while crossing NYCHA driveways
Street grids should be reconstructed through NYCHA projects wherever possible. This should be the first step towards the complete transformation of the complexes most begging for it.
101 St, 102 St and 103 St could all be rebuilt through the Frederick Douglass Houses which would help facilitate a redevelopment over a period of a decade or so. All current residents could be rehoused in the new mixed-income buildings while the overall unit count could be dramatically increased. It's currently about 2,000 units. That is insane. An area this big should have a minimum of 20,000 apartments.
I completely agree with you here, so much land is wasted and can be better utilized. build baby build
The Department of Housing Preservation and Development is proposing to rezone 395 Flatbush Avenue Extension in Brooklyn to make way for a 1.5-million-square-foot residential tower. The project would have 1,263 apartments, of which 253 to 379 would be affordable to those, on average, earning at or below 80 percent of the area median income, according to details released Monday.
The new building planned for Flatbush Avenue will have an FAR of 21.8.
State officials have indicated that a residential project planned on the Far West Side will also exceed FAR 12. The same goes for the project planned for HPD’s headquarters at 100 Gold Street, where the city plans to build more than 1,000 units of housing.
The Flatbush Avenue project is on track, however, to be the first site to use a higher FAR under the new rules. A public scoping hearing is slated for June 5.
__________________ NEW YORK is Back!
“Office buildings are our factories – whether for tech, creative or traditional industries we must continue to grow our modern factories to create new jobs,” said United States Senator Chuck Schumer.
“Office buildings are our factories – whether for tech, creative or traditional industries we must continue to grow our modern factories to create new jobs,” said United States Senator Chuck Schumer.
Education and housing, now that's a win for this parcel!
The City of Yes is going to usher in so many good things. If what's present is a taste to come.
Yeah, 850 units on top of this library is a lot, and this will certainly affect the skyline. Yes to the City of Yes!
__________________ NEW YORK is Back!
“Office buildings are our factories – whether for tech, creative or traditional industries we must continue to grow our modern factories to create new jobs,” said United States Senator Chuck Schumer.
City Proposal Would Replace an UWS Library Building and Add Housing with Affordable Units
July 30, 2025
By Scott Etkin
Quote:
With New York City desperate for more housing, plans are in the works to bring as many as 850 apartments, including affordable units, to the Upper West Side in an unlikely place: the site of an existing branch of the New York Public Library (NYPL).
The redevelopment project would begin with demolishing the current Bloomingdale Library building at 150 West 100th Street. The building has served as a branch of the NYPL since 1960. In its place, the city is proposing to build a new library and health services facility, with housing, including affordable units, stacked on top.
The project is in its early phases, meaning that it’s too early to tell exactly how big the building would be, how many affordable units it would have, and how much its units would cost
Quote:
“The City is aiming for the project to deliver approximately 850 residential units, including permanently affordable homes,” a representative from the New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC), the organization leading the redevelopment, wrote in response to questions from the Rag. A press release from Mayor Eric Adams’s State of the City address referred to the project as “the largest co-located library project in New York City history, bringing over 800 units of mixed-income housing.”
The project stems from the mayor’s executive order for all NYC government agencies to identify potential opportunities to build housing on their sites. The site of the Bloomingdale Library “was identified as having high potential,” the EDC spokesperson wrote.
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The current library is expected to remain open until construction begins, after which it will relocate to a temporary site for the duration of the project.
In addition, the EDC is partnering with the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which currently uses 160 West 100th Street—on the same site—for a food safety training course that certifies food service employees. The building also houses administrative offices for the department’s Family and Child Health programs.
The original Bloomingdale Library branch opened in 1826 at 206 West 100th Street as part of the New York Free Circulating Library system. In 1831, it became part of the New York Public Library. Although the original building still stands and is landmarked, the branch relocated to its current site in 1960. Most recently, the building underwent renovations in 2021 to improve accessibility, update infrastructure, and add new amenities.
__________________ NEW YORK is Back!
“Office buildings are our factories – whether for tech, creative or traditional industries we must continue to grow our modern factories to create new jobs,” said United States Senator Chuck Schumer.
The City Initiatives Bloomingdale Library Redevelopment
Aug 20, 2025
Quote:
At a virtual session on Tuesday night (8/19), representatives from the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC), The New York Public Library (NYPL), and The Department of Health (DOH) discussed plans to redevelop the structures at 150 & 160 West 100th Street.
The EDC plans to manage the project, which will be a joint endeavor between the Public Library, the Health Center, and an unnamed Future Developer. Leaning into the NYC Living Libraries Initiative (Executive Order 43) and enhanced by the City of Yes, the EDC hopes to replace the 65-year-old structure designed by Harry M. Prince, which currently houses the Bloomingdale Branch Library and the Riverside Health Center.
The EDC expects to partner with a developer who, in exchange for the land, not only will replace both the health center and library on site, but develop 850 new units of housing, some of which will be permanently affordable, and the balance will be market rate.
The EDC currently does not have any massing diagrams for the site, although a neighbor noted that her 21-story building held about 200 units, and this site is much shallower.
When asked what the zoning for the site will be (currently, R7-2), EDC replied that they would make the zoning “meet the goals” of the project, which sounds a lot like spot zoning to us.
Although there is an adjacent parking lot, the team’s proposal would not use that, but instead develop temporary facilities elsewhere in the neighborhood. Thus far, there are two instances where the NYPL (which serves Manhattan, The Bronx and Staten Island) has partnered to redevelop locations to include new housing. The first, in Inwood, opened in 2024. This project includes 174 units of permanently affordable housing in a 14-story structure. The second, (currently under RFP review), is along the Grand Concourse in the Bronx. The composition of the future structure is not yet clear.
The West 100th Street site, adjacent to the Urban Renewal holdout, Trinity Lutheran Church of Manhattan, would be their third such project and a significant scale shift for the block.
“Office buildings are our factories – whether for tech, creative or traditional industries we must continue to grow our modern factories to create new jobs,” said United States Senator Chuck Schumer.
Does Manhattan Need More Luxury Towers?
Proposed towers in Greenwich Village and on the Upper West Side have generated opposition. A tower on West 66th Street would be about 1,200 feet tall.
By James Barron
Oct. 6, 2025
Quote:
The height question has also come up on the Upper West Side, where there are already concerns about replacing a two-story library with a taller building that would include roughly 850 apartments, a mental-health facility and a new library. That project is not even officially on the drawing board yet. Another larger project — whose centerpiece would be far taller — has begun demolition of the stretch of West 66th Street where ABC had television studios and offices for generations.
Quote:
The mayor mentioned one of the projects on the Upper West Side — the one to replace the library, the Bloomingdale branch of the New York Public Library — in his State of the City address in January. He said the project would have “over 800 units of mixed-income housing,” along with a “community hub.”
A spokesman for the New York City Economic Development Corporation said that “the only way out” of the city’s housing affordability crisis “is to build more housing, and public libraries like the Bloomingdale branch present the perfect opportunity.” The library building, which dates to 1960, was a candidate for replacement because of “aging facilities that required a capital investment.”
But the details of the building have yet to be worked out. The city has not chosen a developer or even solicited proposals. The spokesman said the economic development agency hoped to do so this year and “make a selection by 2026” — when a new mayor will take over at City Hall. Whatever plan emerges would have to go through the city’s land use review process.
__________________ NEW YORK is Back!
“Office buildings are our factories – whether for tech, creative or traditional industries we must continue to grow our modern factories to create new jobs,” said United States Senator Chuck Schumer.
“Office buildings are our factories – whether for tech, creative or traditional industries we must continue to grow our modern factories to create new jobs,” said United States Senator Chuck Schumer.
City, residents weigh future of Upper West Side library site
BY Louis Finley Manhattan
October 15, 2025
Quote:
The city wants to tear down the Bloomingdale Library and a Department of Health building on West 100th Street on the Upper West Side — rebuilding the site into a new library, a clinic and roughly 850 apartments above them.
“City-owned property should not be handed over to developers to decide on affordable housing. All of these apartments should be 100% affordable,” resident Patricia Loftman said.
Quote:
At Wednesday night’s Community Board 7 meeting, neighbors questioned the city’s plan to mix market-rate and affordable units on public land.
“We had a big renovation of the library just, maybe, three years ago. [It] cost about $3 to $4 million, and our current library is now brand-new and beautiful,” neighbor Diane Lichtman said.
The city calls it part of a broader plan to build 10,000 homes on public property “living libraries” with housing on top.
But neighbors worry the construction could upend their block.
“You lose a lot of sleep when you have construction next to you. This is going to be five years of construction,” neighbor Diane Lichtman said.
Quote:
Officials say market-rate rents would help fund affordable apartments, the new library and a rebuilt health department facility.
“We’re going to petition for 100% affordable housing at the library site,” neighbor Joan Strasbaugh said.
In a statement, the Economic Development Corporation said, “New York City is in the throes of a decades-long housing affordability crisis due to stagnant growth. The only way out of that crisis is to build more housing.”
Two citywide ballot proposals this fall could fast-track housing projects and limit community board input, like at Wednesday’s meeting.
__________________ NEW YORK is Back!
“Office buildings are our factories – whether for tech, creative or traditional industries we must continue to grow our modern factories to create new jobs,” said United States Senator Chuck Schumer.
UWS Meeting Erupts Over 850-Unit Housing Plan: “This is Going to be a Disaster”
Mike Mishkin
November 20, 2025
Quote:
A routine Community Board 7 meeting turned into one of the most contentious neighborhood showdowns of the year on Wednesday, as residents and board members sharply criticized the city’s plan to demolish the Bloomingdale Library and replace it with a massive mixed-use development containing roughly 850 apartments.
The proposal — led by the New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC) and supported by the New York Public Library — is moving toward an expected Request for Proposals (RFP) release within the next 45 days. But last night made clear that the community’s patience has reached a breaking point.
Residents unleashed some of the strongest pushback heard since the project was announced earlier this year. One longtime neighbor, frustrated with gridlock on nearby streets, warned that the development (at 150 West 100th Street, between Columbus and Amsterdam avenues) would make an already strained area dangerous for emergency response.
“The traffic congestion existing is so bad that first responders often can’t get down the block on 97th Street from Columbus to Amsterdam.” They added, “This is a ridiculous, absolutely absurd proposition.”
Quote:
CB7 members went after the city just as forcefully. One board member blasted EDC for planning to issue the RFP without sharing a draft with the community first.
“I just don’t understand how you can go in and send out an RFP without having made any calculations as to the mix of affordable and market rates. Just seems to me the height of irresponsibility.”
Another said the city’s entire framing — asking developers to decide the affordability mix — made no sense.
“This seems childish. It seems just irrational.”
Quote:
The hottest debate of the night centered on how much of the project should be affordable housing.
Some residents demanded 100% affordability. EDC officials insisted that was impossible without massive city subsidies, which they say won’t come to a site this valuable.
“Because our land is valuable, we are going to be significantly more burdened than other communities while getting less affordable housing,” one responded.
“We’re still going to wind up with a very tall building and not that much affordable,” another added.
Board members argued fiercely over whether the RFP should include a specific minimum percentage. Some pushed for at least 35%. Others warned that setting a number could scare away developers and sink the entire project.
Ultimately, the committee passed a new motion requiring that the RFP prioritize “the greatest percentage of affordable housing square footage possible… along with the deepest affordability possible.” That line — now formally adopted — will be included in CB7’s letter to the city.
Quote:
Despite the blowback, EDC reiterated its position: New York needs housing, and this site offers rare potential. One EDC representative said “The value of the land… pays for the library and pays for the relocation and pays for the permanently affordable.”
Another stressed that Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH) requirements — 20–30% affordability — are only the minimum, not the limit. “MIH is a floor for affordability. It’s not the ceiling here.”
Screw these people. Build the housing.
__________________ NEW YORK is Back!
“Office buildings are our factories – whether for tech, creative or traditional industries we must continue to grow our modern factories to create new jobs,” said United States Senator Chuck Schumer.
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