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NEW YORK | 74 Trinity Place | 424 FT | 27 FLOORS

http://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/2013...trinity-church

New Residential Tower May Soar Above Historic Trinity Church

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By Irene Plagianos
July 2, 2013

Quote:

Trinity Church, one of the city’s wealthiest parishes, is floating plans to redevelop its ministry offices and top them with a 25-story residential tower.

The church’s vestry, or board of directors, is expected to decide at a meeting July 24 whether to replace the pair of 90-year-old buildings or embark on a $35 million project to gut, renovate and upgrade them, a Trinity spokeswoman said.

Plans for an opulent overhaul for the buildings at 68-74 Trinity Place, which sit directly behind the historic Broadway church, have long been a point of contention for a parish divided over the direction of the church, which is also a major property owner with 6 million square feet of real estate in Hudson Square.

Recently, the church posted two videos, each a separate roundtable discussion with architecture firms — Cook Fox and Pelli Clarke Pelli — that have prepared conceptual designs for new structures to replace the buildings.

Cook Fox’s soaring structure uses stone and glass, while Pelli Clarke Pelli, designer of the Winter Garden at Brookfield Place and Midtown’s Bloomberg Tower, employs glass and metal. Both designs would include a six- or seven-story base reserved for ministry activities, topped by a 25-story residential tower.

The church's preschool, currently housed in the 68-74 Trinity Place buildings, would move elsewhere in Lower Manhattan.

The designers said they were inspired — and conscious — of how their designs would become the new backdrop for one of the most iconic views in the city, of Trinity Church standing tall at Wall Street's western end. Both design concepts imagine the ministry's portion of the building as mostly glass, highly transparent from the street and gardens of the church. The designs also include additional greenery and possibly a rooftop garden, to complement the openness of the church's outdoor space.

"We sculpted the building very subtly, to try to find that sweet spot between a building that rises and sets and looks like it's tailored to that specific spot, and yet it's still a calm backdrop to Upjohn's [Richard Upjohn, the architect of Trinity Church] masterpiece," Rick Cook said in the posted video.

The entrance for the church portion of the structure would be on Trinity Place, and the pedestrian bridge that spans Trinity Place would remain, but the residential tower would have its entrance on Greenwich Street, the Trinity spokeswoman said in a statement.

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http://ny.curbed.com/archives/2013/0...ondo_tower.php

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http://www.pbase.com/nyguy/image/151118216/original.jpg

While I like the Cook + Fox proposal - the building they'd replace is quite beautiful - its a shame to replace it. I've had the chance to go inside it once as well, its got incredible interior spaces. I'd rather seem them convert the existing structure to condos - similar to the Walker Tower or something.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sbarn (Post 6184976)

Yah you're right sbarn, I just looked up what is currently next to the American Stock Exchange building, which is where this proposal would stand it looks like, and the building that currently occupies that space looks beautiful. Would be a real shame to lose it. Plus it looks like its about 20 stories or so itself, so its not like we would even be getting something demonstrably taller with this proposal. Kinda seems like a lose-lose.

I agree that it's a beautiful building and it would be too bad to see it go but the replacement would be quite a bit taller. It's 25 stories sitting on top of a 6-7 story base. We can also see in the rendering that the proposal is much higher than its neighbor to the south, while the current building is shorter...

Quote:

Originally Posted by franktko (Post 6185000)

Ah ok fair enough, I guess the picture I looked at had a different vantage point that made it seem taller. And not to say that the two versions of these proposals are not beautiful in their own right, because both of them are in my opinion, particularly the COOKFOX version. However, it's still a shame we have to lose the beautiful old building in order to gain a new one (particularly if it ends up being value-engineered). It would be nice if the old building could serve as the base for the 25 story condo tower on top, similar to what they did with the Hearst Tower. I'm all for new development, but it's even better when they can incorporate the new building into an old one. Win-win in that case.

Yes I agree. And that old building got some pretty interesting structures on top which could be turned into awesome penthouses...

I did not like. Both designs are weak to this place, even more to replace the building that is there today. But we'll see, I'll wait to see what will be done.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jackster99 (Post 6184984)

Plus it looks like its about 20 stories or so itself, so its not like we would even be getting something demonstrably taller with this proposal.

The proposed building looks to be about 400-450 ft. I doubt the existing building is more than 200 ft.

The proposal would be for 7 floors of office and meeting space, topped by 25 floors of condos. Given the height of higher end new construction these days, that would be pretty tall.

I have been in the existing building, and thought it was in poor condition. It looks good from the outside but interior is a mess. It's currently older office space above the Trinity Church offices.

Though I don't quite get the zoning here. One would think you could build taller than 400-450 ft. on this lot. Who knows; maybe there aren't air rights available.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crawford (Post 6185039)

I have been in the existing building, and thought it was in poor condition. It looks good from the outside but interior is a mess. It's currently older office space above the Trinity Church offices.

We must have been on different floors than. The floor I saw looked great...

The circular crown in the lower left of the photo below (partially covered by "urban impressionist" is the building that would be replaced:

http://www.urbanimpressionist.com/mi...-memorials.jpg

It'd be a shame to see that building go. I rather see it be refurbished and sell any extra air rights to the AmEx proposal.

A better view:

http://www.aviewoncities.com/img/nyc/sveus0404s.jpg

There are so many crappy buildings in this neighborhood, sad they want to tear down one of the nice ones.

Oh man, that is beautiful. I wonder if the parish is considering other options such as the air-rights transfer suggested above. My guess is, if they've solicited architects to do these proposals, they're pretty set on replacing the building.

I don't know that much about renovating really old buildings like that. Anyone know how those sorts of reno's would compare to new "class A" space, which it seems like the proposed new ministry space aspires to be?

http://archpaper.com/news/articles.asp?id=6767

Upjohn One Upped
Historic downtown church flexes its real estate muscles with new Pelli Clarke Pelli tower

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Rendering of Pelli Clarke Pelli's tower.

John Gendall
7.25.2013

Quote:

Nestled amid the towers of the world’s biggest banks and finance companies, Trinity Wall Street, a relatively diminutive neo-Gothic structure designed by Richard Upjohn in 1846, might seem quaint. But with assets estimated at more than $2 billion (thanks, in large part, to a colonial land donation in 1705), Trinity is right at home with its wealthy neighbors. Though its bank account would be the envy of many parishes, it is generating internal strife since the church must now decide how to best deal with its considerable real estate holdings.

At the moment, the source of this tension is the building code of its 90-year-old administrative office at 68-74 Trinity Place. Faced with a $33 million price tag for building-related work aimed at meeting 2018 code compliance, the church’s vestry, or overseeing board, is considering razing the existing structure and building a new, fully-compliant one for an estimated $35 million. As a way to explore this option, it engaged two design firms—COOKFOX Architects and Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects—to carry out conceptual designs.

On July 24, the Vestry of Trinity Church announced it had selected Pelli Clarke Pelli to build a new tower. “We are delighted to be able to engage the extraordinary talents of Pelli Clarke Pelli as we move forward in the design and development process to create an inspiring new mixed-use ministry building that complements Richard Upjohn’s historic Trinity Church,” Rev. Dr. James H. Cooper, rector of the church, said in a statement. “The new structure will include a six or seven-story base dedicated to mission activities and related offices, topped by a 25-story residential tower. The building will provide a source of revenue so we can begin to prepare for significant expansion of our core ministry activities, which include philanthropic grant-making, homeless outreach, and the program life of one of the city’s most diverse congregations.”

The church asked other teams to submit designs, but it was COOKFOX and Pelli Clarke Pelli that answered the call. “Our criteria for inviting these architects was that they would be committed to great design, that they had done a number of buildings in New York, and that they would be excited and challenged by the commission,” said Linda Hanick, Trinity’s vice-president of communications and marketing.

Both schemes included six or seven stories of administrative offices topped by a 25-story residential tower that will pay for the project and help keep the church coffers full. Prior to the announcement, the firms were barred from speaking about the project, but the church released renderings of each design and a video of comments by the architects. Pelli Clarke Pelli’s glass-and-steel tower is meant to minimize its impact on the historic site. COOKFOX proposed a stone-and-glass structure with heavily planted outdoor space.

http://archpaper.com/uploads/trinity_tower_02.jpg

(COOKFOX below)

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Cookfox's design is much better, integrating the greenery that you would get at street level into the tower itself. The facade isn't too flashy either, in fact, judging from the rendering it compliments the area nicely.
But, they went with Pelli's wavy glass box. :yuck:

Pelli's design is rather uninspired and boring...I hope they go with Cookfox's design it would create a modern marvel that would meld into the street wall perfectly.

If I'm reading the article correctly, it seems pretty clear they chose Pelli. I like the Cookfox design better, but neither is a bad design.

The Pelli design is simple and clean. While the other design might of been more radical, this is still a beautiful design.

Pretty dull, not surprising coming from Pelli, but this won't be all that noticeable with 22 Thames, the WTC, and the other developments in the area. So all in all, pretty decent fill.

So I guess the option of renovating the old tower is out the window... too bad.