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  #141  
Old Posted Nov 21, 2014, 1:16 AM
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It's not bad. And still about the height of the UN.




http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2014/1...r_revealed.php







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  #142  
Old Posted Nov 21, 2014, 1:29 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by chris08876 View Post
Pretty good design. Like many, I do wish it was taller given a good site and opportunity, but, its better than nada.
Don't forget who you are dealing with here, some of the FiDi residents are hell bent to block this tower. From the article I posted above

Quote:
In short, their concessions—mainly, to shorten the building by 10 stories, but also to build a middle school and a waterfront esplanade—were simply not sufficient to satisfy community members or elected officials.
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  #143  
Old Posted Nov 21, 2014, 2:57 AM
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It looks great .
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  #144  
Old Posted Nov 21, 2014, 3:58 AM
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I like this new rendering. I also wish it was taller, but overall a good solid design.
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  #145  
Old Posted Nov 21, 2014, 4:15 AM
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Ooh nice, is there still a 1000 foot tower planned behind/next to this one?
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  #146  
Old Posted Nov 21, 2014, 4:33 PM
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Those people are all up in arms over nothing. How "out of place" will Barnett's 800 foot be next to the Manhattan Bridge? Sometimes buildings rise taller than everything else.

And I agree with de Blasio:

Quote:
“I don’t have any philosophical prohibition in my mind about putting a tower next to a historical district— this is New York City,” he said.

“Throughout this city we have some extraordinary modern buildings right next to historic buildings….






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  #147  
Old Posted Nov 21, 2014, 4:42 PM
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I like DeBlasio. Essentially another Bloomberg, who IMO, was the best mayor in the cities history; next to LaGuardia and Giuliani.
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  #148  
Old Posted Nov 22, 2014, 6:49 AM
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Originally Posted by chris08876 View Post
I like DeBlasio. Essentially another Bloomberg, who IMO, was the best mayor in the cities history; next to LaGuardia and Giuliani.
de Blasio is hardly another Bloomberg, and neither is anything like Guliani. But no need to get into that here.

The mayor understands the need to build.
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  #149  
Old Posted Nov 23, 2014, 2:26 PM
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SHoP is excited about their new design. But I wish they would give us more of 111 W. 57th, (and a sneak peek at 360 10th Ave or their tower in Brooklyn at 340 Flatbush).


http://shoparc.com/mediaitems/all




Quote:
We're excited to present our new design for the Seaport District!! #shoparchitects #seaport #nycwaterfront
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  #150  
Old Posted Nov 25, 2014, 2:58 PM
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Time to draw that line in the sand, and give the NIMBYs a swift kick in the butt...


http://www.downtownexpress.com/2014/...t-the-seaport/

Hughes Corp. head says we have no more to give at the Seaport





November 24, 2014
BY DUSICA SUE MALESEVIC


Quote:
The Howard Hughes Corp. says that as of now, there’s no viable alternative site for its proposed 494-foot tower at the the Seaport.

“We’re not ruling anything out,” said David R. Weinreb, C.E.O. of Howard Hughes Corp. at the Nov. 20 unveiling of its plan. “We’re completely open to looking at other areas with the recognition that if this building was not built that it would diminish at some level the vibrancy that we believe the district deserves.”

Those opposed to the tower have suggested a site near Wall St., where Pier 14, now demolished, once was.

“There’s no currently presented viable alternative site from an engineering, zoning, structural” or ownership perspective, said Jonathan Rosen, Hughes spokesperson.

“But the point is we haven’t said, ‘no, we wouldn’t look at that,’ “ said Weinreb. “It just doesn’t exist.”

At the unveiling, several community benefits were showcased: 100 percent affordable housing at Schermerhorn Row, a middle school that would be housed on three floors in the tower, a community center, a marina and more than $10 million pledged to the struggling Seaport Museum.

While the plan is a working proposal, when asked by a reporter if there was a moment where the asking price would be too high in terms of community givebacks and the developer would walk away, Weinreb said, “I think we’re there. We’re going to need something more to give more. We’ve put everything on the table that we have.”


The corporation will invest $305 million for infrastructure and community benefits, said Gregg Pasquarelli, principal architect of the project and a partner at SHoP Architects in Lower Manhattan.

The tower, which Hughes says was originally slated to be 650 feet was brought down to 494 feet, and will be financially viable at that height, said Pasquarelli.

“Working with the Seaport Working Group and the community, height was really an issue, it was a sensitive point to them, so we really worked really hard to see how we could reduce the size of the building,” he said.

The necessity of the height was reiterated by Weinreb, who was asked if 494 feet was the minimum the tower could be and still be profitable.

“To deliver the benefits and the infrastructure costs that we proposed … If you look at the dollars we’re proposing, that’s a significant number, yes, this is what we need” said Weinreb. “We could build a lower building, we have to start taking away benefits.”

He noted that the tower is “half the height of most of the new buildings that are being built in Lower Manhattan.”

At Community Board 1’s monthly meeting on Nov. 20, some residents and politicians were not swayed, saying during the public session that they were disappointed, shocked and underwhelmed by the Hughes plan.

“It is critical that anything that move forward, move forward around the guidelines,” State Sen. Daniel Squadron, a working group member, said at the meeting. “Until those guidelines are meet or the Seaport Working Group … for some other reason those goals have changed, I don’t believe that something should move forward … Those guidelines represent compromise.”

Squadron said he was pleased that the Hughes Corp. would talk to C.B. 1, which passed a resolution Thursday night that was “diametrically” opposed to the tower at the New Market site and supported an alternative site.

The New Market site is outside of the historic Seaport district.

Pasquarelli said that ships and sails were the inspiration for the tower, which is wider at its base and tapers at its top.

“We believe it’s much better to have slightly taller building that’s much thinner and will have much less of an impact than a having a shorter building that’s wider and actually blocks more,” he said.


Under the zoning for the site, which was approved last year with the Pier 17 mall redesign, the building could be as high as 350 feet, but it could also be much more squat, blocking more sightlines to the Brooklyn Bridge than the current proposal.

The first two floors of the tower would be retail and then the next three floors will be dedicated to a middle school. He said they were considering building materials such as zinc, glass and wood for the structure instead of stone and brick.

Construction is currently ongoing for Pier 17, which should open by the end of the 2016, said Christopher Curry, senior executive vice president of development for Howard Hughes.

The Tin Building, part of the South Street Seaport Historic District, will be “dismantled and catalogued,” said Pasquarelli, and then will be rebuilt 30 feet back from its current location. The building will be restored with its the original material — galvanized metal — and colors. One floor will be added to its top.

Fulton and Beekman Sts. will be extended and the East River Esplanade will connect, he said, and there will more waterfront access.

James Corner of Field Operations, the landscape architect who did the High Line, will design the public space.

Also part of the plan is a lighting system off the F.D.R. that will softly glow at night, Pasquarelli said.

Schermerhorn Row will be restored and be 100 percent affordable housing. The empty lot at John St. will be, what Pasquarelli called, an infill building. The building may house the Seaport Museum or the community center, he said.

“The program is still being figured out with the museum,” he said.

There is also a marina, a place where the Seaport Museum could bring ships for exhibits.

“This marina will be a marina for the people,” said Weinreb.

Weinreb acknowledged it was an ongoing process.

“We’re going to continue to refine and adjust and listen to everyone’s input,” said Weinreb. “Out of the working group came a lot of great ideas that we incorporated. These are passionate people, I don’t think that the process will end and we’re going listening and keep adjusting to the extent we can.”


Another preview from SHoP...

http://shoparc.com/mediaitems/all


#archmodelmonday #seaport #shoparchitects



Other shop models, presumably work for other developments...

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  #151  
Old Posted Dec 1, 2014, 8:10 AM
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http://nypost.com/2014/11/30/save-the-seaport/

Save the seaport


By Post Editorial Board
November 30, 2014


Quote:
Even on Planet Progressive, some folks know a good deal when they see one.

We’re referring to a group called Friends of the Seaport. When they gather tonight, many of them will be backing a promising plan to upgrade and improve Manhattan’s financial district.

Specifics are in flux, but the Howard Hughes Corp. has already offered $300 million for a spate of new goodies at the South Street Seaport.

They’d be part of a project Hughes is pushing that includes a residential tower — and maybe a middle school, subsidized housing, renovation of the decaying piers, a marina and other treats.

What’s not to like? Plenty — if you’re a historical-preservation purist, anti-development stick-in-the-mud or a community shakedown artist looking to squeeze yet another private investor.

“Building a tower at the South Street Seaport is like building a tower at Colonial Williamsburg,” says Manhattan beep Gale Brewer.

Doesn’t she realize that her borough, unlike Colonial Williamsburg, is famous for its skyscrapers?


Still, some do see the value of Seaport investment. Friends of the Seaport’s Lisa Gorke notes “the needs of our bursting, under-serviced community of families.”

She rejects comparisons to historical sites like Williamsburg and Gettysburg. “No one lives on the fields of Gettysburg,” she says, but downtown is “a living, breathing and growing community.”

Without investment, the piers will continue to rot, the city will lose out on a host of goodies and Mayor de Blasio won’t get more of the subsidized housing he wants.

To put it another way, the South Street Seaport project will test whether New York’s progressives actually favor progress.
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  #152  
Old Posted Dec 2, 2014, 3:48 PM
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Pro-Development Group Rallies Support for Seaport Plans



Tuesday, December 2, 2014, by Evan Bindelglass

Quote:
The opposition to Howard Hughes Corporation's plans for the South Street Seaport, which include a 42-story-tower where the New Market Building now sits, has been very vocal. But what about those in the area who support the project? They do exist and have formed a group called Friends of the Seaport. Financial District residents Maria Ho, Joy Martini, and Lisa Gorke started the group, and they hosted a town hall meeting Monday night at the Pine Street School. They stressed the need for revitalization and that they are not on the Hughes payroll.

Martini talked about history a bit and noted that the proposed tower sits outside the South Street Seaport Historic District. She spoke about how the South Street Seaport Museum has been in trouble since long before Hughes came along. She pointed to other coming developments that show promise, such as Domino in Brooklyn and Astoria Cove in Queens, and said that new development would help businesses still struggling over two years after Hurricane Sandy.

Some of the criticism leveled against Hughes has been because the company is from Texas. People are angry about what they see as some Texans coming in and destroying their city. Referencing NYC's history of immigration, Martini asked, "Are the best things about our city native?"

Up next was Hughes's Chris Curry, who made sure to note that he went to NYU and lives in Chelsea. He said they are trying to create "a town center where there wasn't one before."

Curry and SHoP Architects' Partner Gregg Pasquarelli gave a detailed presentation of their plans for the Seaport area (largely the same presentation that SHoP gave in their offices two weeks ago). Pasquarelli noted that he and most of the staff at SHoP live in Lower Manhattan. He pointed out that the condition of the platform where the New Market Building sits makes it currently unusable and it needs to be entirely rebuilt for any development, regardless of whether or not it's a tower. He noted that the Tin Building, which would be moved away from the FDR Drive, isn't really the original Tin Building, since it was rebuilt after a fire. He also mentioned that the building would have to be moved because it needs to be raised to accommodate the floodplain, which can't be done where it is because raising the building would literally result in it crashing into the FDR Drive. He said he was "very excited" about the project.

South Street Seaport Museum President Jonathan Boulware spoke of how the seaport is the "birthplace of modern New York" and how Schermerhorn Row was the city's first world trade center. He said that, going forward, the museum would need to be "leaner" and that probably means fewer ships. Local food market expert Bob Lewis (he co-founded the city's Greenmarkets) spoke at length about the great markets of the continent and the wonder that would be the weekly market at this project.

Finally, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, Howard Hughes Corporation President David Weinreb, and City Councilwoman Margaret Chin all spoke, though it seemed almost an afterthought. Brewer, who opposes the current plan, said of the parties involved, "We have a mutual goal." While she said they "need a school" (the tower would house a middle school on floors three through five), this is not the way to get it. She said she'd love to find Hughes a non-Seaport site for their tower. Chin spoke briefly and emphasized that "it's not a done deal." She has joined Brewer in criticizing the project, particularly the tower.

Weinreb spoke of having a "deep respect" for both his supporters and challengers. He said he wants a "vibrant, sustainable South Street Seaport district." "We will not let this community down," he said. On the whole, Hughes got a balanced reception Monday night. There were plenty of applause, but also some who spoke out against the proposal or in disbelief of what they were being told. This project is a long way from becoming a reality, but Hughes should begin the public review process next spring.
http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2014/1...medium=twitter
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  #153  
Old Posted Dec 2, 2014, 6:01 PM
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Finally, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, Howard Hughes Corporation CEO David Weinreb, and City Councilwoman Margaret Chin all spoke, though it seemed almost an afterthought. Brewer, who opposes the current plan, said of the parties involved, "We have a mutual goal." While she said they "need a school" (the tower would house a middle school on floors three through five), this is not the way to get it. She said she'd love to find Hughes a non-Seaport site for their tower. Chin spoke briefly and emphasized that "it's not a done deal." She has joined Brewer in criticizing the project, particularly the tower.

Time for de Blasio to start swinging the bat, or send in his goons.
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  #154  
Old Posted Dec 3, 2014, 5:43 AM
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Last public meeting before land use review



Quote:
Howard Hughes Corporation is expected to hold its last public meeting Wednesday before the South Street Seaport redevelopment project enters the seven-month Uniform Land Use Review Procedure.

The developer hopes to sway members of the Seaport Working Group who have been skeptical of the development’s public benefits. Construction of the proposed 42-story tower requires demolition of city-owned property.

The developer is looking to construct a taller and thinner structure than zoning currently permits. Opponents of the project are concerned about the proposed location and height of the building.

Howard Hughes is spending $300 million to fix the infrastructure of the pier and provide public amenities. David Weinreb, CEO of Howard Hughes, told the New York Post that the firm’s total investment in the project would be roughly $1.5 billion. - See more at: http://therealdeal.com/blog/2014/12/....8I1CcE0B.dpuf
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  #155  
Old Posted Dec 3, 2014, 9:08 PM
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The market part of the development looks great but I'm not a fan at all of the tower design. I still believe the original was best even if it had to be scaled down. This surprises me because SHOP usually designs great buildings. The main problem I have with this design is that I don't see it aging well. It already looks like a plain suburban office building.
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  #156  
Old Posted Dec 5, 2014, 2:31 PM
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http://www.downtownexpress.com/2014/...to-next-phase/

NEWS ANALYSIS: Elbows sharpen in Seaport tower fight





December 4, 2014
BY JOSH ROGERS


Quote:
Do you hate towers more than you love schools and affordable housing?

That’s essentially the question, really the challenge, Howard Hughes Corp. is putting to community leaders with its latest plan to develop the South Street Seaport.

No wonder that after it was released two weeks ago, one of the opponents said both sides understand it’s time to “play hardball”

The fight over whether community needs such as a middle school were more important than reducing the size of the proposed tower (now almost 500 feet) by the South Street Seaport Historic District, was predictable, but community leaders were able to stave it off for most of the year with a new idea, the Seaport Working Group. The group included local politicians, community leaders and Hughes executives.

But with the changes, Hughes executives made it clear they were ready too say goodbye in effect, to the working group, which they nevertheless continue to praise for improving the plan.

Some of the “goodies” they added — most notably a middle school, 70 units of affordable housing, and a community center — were things the working group never asked for.

David Weinreb, C.E.O. of Hughes Corp., acknowledged that financially, it could be a wash to reduce the height of the building more than the 150 feet they’ve already done.

“We could build a lower building, we have to start taking away benefits,” he said two weeks ago.

Councilmember Margaret Chin, one of the leaders of the Seaport Working Group, said the firm was “adding a lot of benefits to the community. We just wanted revisions to the fundamental tower proposal.”

This week Weinreb didn’t give a full answer as to why his firm — under its own parameters — chose not to come closer to meeting the working group’s goal to eliminate the residential tower. He did say the affordable housing was added nearby as a nod to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration.

“We know that the administration is deeply committed to affordable housing so we left a number to accommodate that request,” Weinreb told Downtown Express Monday, immediately after the first meeting of Friends of the Seaport.

An official with the Economic Development Corp., which manages the city-owned Seaport properties, speaking on background, confirmed that there have been active discussions with Hughes about adding affordable housing.

During the meeting, Weinreb said Hughes Corp. was “completely ambivalent” about how to allocate its own estimated community investment of $305 million as long as roughly half is spent on the repair and infrastructure work necessary to activate the dormant sites.

“There’s a big bucket of money that can be spent to make the Seaport community better,” he told the mostly sympathetic crowd.

The new Seaport Friends group is made up mostly of Lower Manhattan parents who favor the Hughes project. It just formed, surprisingly, with the encouragement of Councilmember Chin after leaders told her they were frustrated with the anti-tower bias at other public meetings.

The founders — Joy Martini, Maria Ho, and Lisa Gorke — are FiDi mothers who argue the project will bring many needed benefits to the area, including resurrecting a decrepit area that otherwise would have no hope to get the necessary funds.


“If we’re going to have a conversation about preservation, please, let’s address the blighted buildings along South St.,” Martini said. “These rundown structures are a menace to growth and an absolute threat to public safety.”

She attacked the comparison to building a tower in Colonial Williamsburg, made frequently by Borough President Gale Brewer.

“Colonial Williamsburg is an attraction, not a community — populated by actors and tourists — not us, not residents,” she said.

Although there has been grumbling that the new group is a creation of the Hughes firm, by all appearances it looks to be a genuine and separate initiative.

That said, Friends of the Seaport’s effort does help Hughes’ desire to go beyond the working group and other tower opponents.

On Wednesday, Hughes released some of the results of a survey of 405 Lower Manhattan residents. The results showed strong support, 84 percent, for the Hughes plan, but some raised serious questions about the objectivity of the poll, conducted by Global Strategy Group.

Jenifer Rajkumar, a Democratic district leader in Battery Park City, was one of the people who was surveyed Nov. 19, and she said it was clearly a “push poll” intended to get a specific result.

She said the tower was only mentioned in connection with the community benefits and the opponents were described as “a small group of activists.”

When shown some of Rajkumar’s notes on the poll, a Hughes spokesperson said they were “not entirely accurate,” without being any more specific.

According to Hughes, one of the poll questions was: “Do you support or oppose the redevelopment and revitalization of the South Street Seaport area, including redeveloping Pier Seventeen and refurbishing the historic district?”

The question is misleading in at least one sense, since Hughes’ plan to rebuild a new Pier 17 mall building was approved last year, and will presumably continue to proceed even if the current plan to redevelop the New Market Building with the tower and restore the Tin Building is rejected.

The poll was clearly an effort to confirm the corporation’s long-held belief that the number of tower opponents only appears to be large.

“A very vocal minority has been heard for years on this project,” Chris Curry, senior executive vice president of development for Hughes, told Downtown Express back in January, before the working group was formed. “What we haven’t heard from is all of the people who live here, don’t have time to come to neighborhood meetings, that don’t come out to City Council meetings or to Community Board 1 meetings or town hall meetings but still want to give us their input.”

Gregg Pasquarelli, the project’s chief architect, said although the tower is tall, it is also narrow, so it would have far less visual impact than a squat 350-foot building allowed under the site’s zoning.

That new zoning passed with the support of Chin, who will play a pivotal role in the new plan once the formal land use application is filed, perhaps early next year.

Before that can happen, Hughes will need approval by the city Landmarks Preservation Commission, which won’t begin reviewing the project until January at the earliest.

On Dec. 10, Community Board 1 will consider the landmarks application at a public meeting at St. Paul’s Chapel, 209 Broadway, at 6 p.m.


http://tribecatrib.com/content/new-g...velopers-plans

New Group Professes 'Love' for Tower and Seaport Developer's Plans




From left, Maria Ho-Bruge, Joy Martini and Lisa Gorke at the meeting they organized to show support for the Howard Hughes Corp.'s Seaport redevelopment plans, including a 496-foot-high tower, rendering at left, where the New Market Building now stands.




Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer spoke out against a tower "right in the middle of the Seaport" while Seaport Museum interim president Jonathan Boulware said he supports the principles of the Seaport Working Group. Among those principles is the desire that “any building on the New Market site should be contextual with the buildings within the South Street Seaport Historic District.”





http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article...is-red-herring

EDC chief: Seaport alternative is 'red herring'



BY CHRIS BRAGG AND ERIK ENGQUIST AND ANDREW J. HAWKINS
DECEMBER 4, 2014

Quote:
As Manhattan Councilwoman Margaret Chin and Borough President Gale Brewer continue to object to a proposed tower that would fund $305 million worth of improvements to the South Street Seaport area, city Economic Development Corp. President Kyle Kimball dismissed the idea of relocating the building, as opponents suggest.

"Moving it to the south is a red herring," Mr. Kimball said during a Crain's editorial board meeting Wednesday. The alternative site floated by foes is just a block away, but would result in higher costs and thus generate less money for community benefits. It would also require building a new pier, whereas the developer's plan calls for rebuilding the deteriorated one, as the administration wants. Moreover, it would require starting from scratch on a rezoning and on negotiations for state Department of Environmental Conservation approval.

The comments by the head of the city's primary economic-development agency reflect Mayor Bill de Blasio's desire to see the City Council and developer reach a deal on the $1.5 billion proposal at hand, which checks off all the boxes on the mayor's wish list for the project, beginning with affordable housing.
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  #157  
Old Posted Dec 10, 2014, 1:52 PM
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http://observer.com/2014/12/renewing-the-seaport/

Renewing the Seaport


By The Editors
12/09/14


Quote:
The Howard Hughes Corp. wants to invest a billion and a half dollars in and around the South Street Seaport. This being New York, not everybody is on board with the plan. Some apparently prefer the neighborhood’s economic malaise and untapped potential to the dynamic change Hughes would bring. Hopefully, as the Hughes proposal moves through the city’s land-use bureaucracy, saner voices will prevail.

It has been more than a generation since South Street was transformed from a tired relic of the city’s past into an attraction for tourists and, yes, even the occasional Manhattan resident (although good luck finding one who’ll admit to it). Authentic it wasn’t, but the bars, restaurants, museum, and tall ships berthed adjacent to the Pier 17 shopping mall at least added some vitality to one of the city’s oldest commercial districts.

Recent times have not been kind to the Seaport area. The recession of 2008 brought a noticeable decline in business, but it was Superstorm Sandy two years ago that literally wiped out portions of the neighborhood. Pier 17, which for some New Yorkers symbolized the Seaport’s brilliant reinvention nearly three decades ago, re-opened briefly but it is now just a memory. So are many of the small shops that made the area a must-see stop on any tour of Manhattan.

The Hughes Corporation, which owns the Pier 17 site and other locations in the area, wants to build a $42 million tower outside of the seaport’s historic district, on the site of the old Fulton Fish Market, which moved to the Bronx in 2005.

As part of the company’s broader strategy to revitalize the area, it plans to spend about $300 million to redevelop Pier 17 and to add other public amenities. In response to neighborhood concerns, it included a new middle school on several floors of its proposed tower.

Some neighborhood residents want to keep things as they are. They envision the old fish market as a community marketplace where artisans can hawk their wares, from fresh fish to cheese to produce, to like-minded consumers. But the city doesn’t lack for public markets, and the neighborhood itself needs more than artisans to bring back its vitality.

Several key elected officials are lining up to oppose the Hughes plan. That’s unfortunate, for their vision seems clouded by a longing for a Manhattan that disappeared a long time ago, if it ever existed at all. The seaport district needs a jolt of old-fashioned capital, and Hughes is eager to provide it. And that capital will create businesses and new residences that will transform the neighborhood for the better.


South Street, vibrant, noisy, tumultuous, profane, and pretty darn smelly, serves as a reminder of New York’s roots as a seaport and as of its place in the world of global trade. It has always been a place of change and reinvention.

The Hughes project will re-imagine the neighborhood for the 21st century. It deserves support from local officials.
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Old Posted Dec 11, 2014, 10:54 PM
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http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/2014...-redevelopment

Hundreds Pack Meeting on Controversial Seaport Redevelopment









By Irene Plagianos
December 11, 2014


Quote:
Several hundred people packed into St. Paul’s Chapel Wednesday evening to hear new details and give their opinion on Howard Hughes Corporation’s controversial plans to redevelop the South Street Seaport.

At the Community Board 1 meeting, officials described specifics of the sweeping plan, including moving and reconstructing the historic Tin Building, erecting a new, five-story building on John Street and adding lights underneath the FDR. Those are all pieces of the proposal that will need the city Landmarks Preservation Commission's approval to move forward.

The most controversial part of the proposal — a 494-foot luxury residential tower — was not officially on the agenda at Wednesday's CB1 meeting because it sits outside of the Seaport's historic district and does not need the Landmarks Preservation Commission's approval. But that didn't stop people from voicing their opinion about it.

The overhaul plans, including the tower, got a mixed reaction at the meeting, as some slammed the design, while others welcomed the revitalization of the Seaport. Cheers erupted, along with a smattering of hisses and boos, as more than 70 people spoke up on the plan.

"When I look at this [proposal] I really get the feeling of Las Vegas," said Paul Hovitz, a CB1 member. "I don't get a lot of feeling of the old Seaport."

Financial District resident Luis Vasquez, who was one of many people wearing yellow and blue T-shirts emblazoned with "See/Change Happen" to support Howard Hughes, said the community needed the redevelopment.

“We need more schools, more community space…Howard Hughes has a plan to make that happen,” said Vasquez.


The pro-development group Friends of the Seaport provided the T-shirts and offered free ice skating, drinks and food after meeting to those who wore shirts.

Howard Hughes revealed its latest version of the Seaport development plan earlier this fall, with a shorter tower than was previously proposed.

Some in the community say the tower is still too tall, but the developer maintains that it is a necessary piece of a project that also carries with it $300 million in community amenities.

The development would include a middle school, retail and 150 condo units in the tower, plus 70 units of affordable housing in historic buildings nearby on Schermerhorn Row.

Howard Hughes also wants to build a new marina east of Pier 17 and revive the cash-strapped South Street Seaport Museum.

Under the plan, the landmarked Tin Building would be moved 30 feet closer to Pier 17 and lifted 6 feet to prevent it from flooding. It would also be turned into a food market.

Wednesday night's meeting was the first of two hearings CB1 will hold before the plan moves to the Landmarks Preservation Commission. The next meeting will be held on Jan. 4, when CB1 will vote on whether or not to support the changes.

The plan will then go to the LPC, followed by an extensive public land use review process.






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Old Posted Dec 15, 2014, 12:03 PM
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  #160  
Old Posted Dec 24, 2014, 7:48 PM
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Archicritic: Howard Hughes Seaport Tower Is a Bad Idea

Wednesday, December 24, 2014, by Jeremiah Budin
Quote:
The neighbors hate Howard Hughes Corporation's plans for a 500-foot tower at the base of Pier 17 at the Seaport, and they're not alone. This week, New York's Justin Davidson weighed in, calling the SHoP Architects-designed tower "a neighborhood-killer" and "a Faustian bargain that the city must reject." Davidson concedes that the project would bring much needed improvements to the area including a middle school, a new home for the Seaport Museum, an extended esplanade, a food market, and some affordable housing, and that it would save Pier 17, currently crumbling into the sea, before covering it with the tower.

But all this, he says, will still not be worth it in exchange for Howard Hughes opening the door to "wrap the curtain of high-rises around the neighborhood's fourth wall, erecting a new barrier between the seaport and the world beyond" and being allowed to "treat the neighborhood like a gated community." The model that Hughes has used on similarly large-scale community developments in Nevada and Texas, he writes, will not work "for the fragile, antique seaport. A certain judicious neglect is woven into the neighborhood's fabric, a ­benign shabbiness that the company and the architects need to respect."
http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2014/1...a_bad_idea.php

And here is the link to the full opinion piece if you want to read all of it.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer...t-seaport.html

Last edited by sparkling; Dec 24, 2014 at 8:11 PM.
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