NEW YORK | Jail Tower (125 White St) | 295 FT | FLOORS

[Zerton]

I agree this is a horrible idea.

Redesign Rikers. They have the space to make it into a better, more humane jail. There is space to include parks and a lot more natural light than in a tower.

As I've stated before, this was tried already in Chicago (and in NY decades ago). Those attempts were not successful. There's also something really dystopian about a jail skyscraper.

[NYguy]

Well, if they're going to close Rikers (and we won't get into the millions of reasons why that's a good idea here) they have to put the jails somewhere. And there's good logic to the plan to put them near existing court systems (or where jails already exists). This being New York though, you don't really want to devote a large piece of real estate to a jail, especially in areas where it isn't available. The logical solution is up. Let's face it, nobody wants a jail anywhere near them. The two things people are most likely to get upset about are homeless shelters or jails anywhere in their neighborhoods. The City has been all over the place with this, but even opponents of the plan want Rikers closed. So there has to be a solution. And there will be no solution where everyone is happy.

[Busy Bee]

Originally Posted by Zerton

There's also something really dystopian about a jail skyscraper.

As opposed to a penal island?

[NYer34]

Originally Posted by Busy Bee

As opposed to a penal island?

Yes, any day. "Prison skyscraper" is much more creepy than a jail on an island.

+1 on this being a terrible idea. WTF.

[NYguy]

If you're going to jail, it's probably not going to be ideal either way.



http://www.tribecatrib.com/content/e...ght-reductions

On Eve of Vote on Jail Towers, City Council Announces Height Reductions





By CARL GLASSMAN
Posted Oct. 15, 2019

Just two days before the City Council’s vote on a controversial borough-based jail plan that included a mammoth 45-story structure in Chinatown, the Council announced on Tuesday that the city is reducing the proposed heights of the four towers. In Manhattan, that means a 295-foot-high, 29-story building, 155 feet lower than had been proposed.

Influential Council members who represent the four impacted districts said in statements that the height reductions have met their demands for smaller buildings.

Councilwoman Margaret Chin, whose district includes the Manhattan Detention Complex at 124 and 125 White Street, to be demolished and replaced by the new jail, said the height reduction was more than she had expected.

“I was really, really happy that the city heard from the community, heard from me, and they were able to do that,” Chin said in a conference call with reporters. “From the beginning I told the city that [the height envelope] they projected is unacceptable.”

The height would roughly match that of the Criminal Court Building next door at 100 Centre Street, Chin said.

The drop in height was made possible, officials said, because of a new estimate for the city’s detainee population in 2026, when the new jails are supposed to be completed. The de Blasio administration announced a few days ago that it expects that number, now over 7,000 city-wide, to be reduced to 3,300 due to cash bail reforms, an expanded supervised release program, and other measures. Until recently, the administration estimated a need for 5,000 beds in the city’s jail system.

The Manhattan Detention Complex would be demolished to make way for the new facility. The MDC includes the south tower or “Tombs,” which underwent a seven-year, $43 million renovation before re-opening in 1983, and the 19-story north tower, completed in 1990. Asked why the buildings could not undergo an interior overhaul and house the reduced population, Chin said, “The building is very, very old. We want to create a condition in there where services and activities are provided to the detainees while they’re there.”

The city estimates that the four facilities will cost $8.7 billion, but the true cost is not known because the buildings have yet to be designed.

Chin has expressed concern over the impact of demolition and construction on the tenants of Chung Pak, a low-income senior residence next door to the jail. “We’re still waiting from the city to finalize how the seniors building will be protected,” she said, noting that the jail would be set back 40 feet from Chung Pak. She also said an agreement with the city is being worked out over the renovation of heavily used Columbus Park, especially its bathrooms and pavilion.

In the meantime, with the reduction of the jail’s height, Chin was clearly happy to declare victory.

“We got what we fought for,” she said.

https://nypost.com/2019/10/15/propos...uncil-support/

Proposed new jails slash height in bid to win City Council support





By Rich Calder
October 15, 2019

The four new borough-based jails being proposed by Mayor Bill de Blasio to replace scandal-scarred Rikers Island have been significantly slashed in height, by an average of nine stories, to help secure key City Council support ahead of Thursday’s vote on the $8.7 billion project.

The trimmings for the planned high-rise lockups — eyed for every borough but Staten Island — were announced by city officials Tuesday, two days before the Council is expected to approve building the jails as part of a larger effort to shutter Rikers Island’s prison complex by 2026.

“From the start, one of my top priorities was to achieve a serious reduction of the height of the mayor’s proposed jail… ,” said Councilwoman Margaret Chin (D-Manhattan), who successfully fought to reduce the size of a planned prison tower eyed for the smaller current site of the Manhattan Detention Complex on White Street from 45 stories to 29 stories.

“The 155-foot drop [in height] is the largest reduction of the four borough-based jails and ensures that the proposed jail will no longer be out-of-scale with the neighborhood.”

Councilman Stephen Levin (D-Brooklyn) was also able to negotiate reducing the size of a new jail planned for the site of the Brooklyn Detention Complex in Boerum Hill by 10 stories, from 39 floors to 29. Levin said the previous plan “was simply too big and out of context with the neighborhood.”

Both Levin and Chin had previously said they couldn’t back the plans for the new jails unless key reductions were made.

The city has also agreed to lower the height of a jail planned for the site for the NYPD’s Bronx tow pound in Mott Haven, from 24 floors to 19, and another eyed for the currently shuttered Queens Detention Center in Kew Gardens, from 27 floors to 19.

Councilwomen Diana Ayala (D-Bronx) and Karen Koslowitz (D-Queens), who represent the affected neighborhoods, had previously agreed to back the mayor’s jail plan.

Council Speaker Corey Johnson, a longtime supporter of closing Rikers’ jails, also came out in support of plans to build the new jails Tuesday after previously refusing to take a position on them.

Although the newly revised jail plan now appears to have overwhelming council support heading into Thursday’s vote, some pols still oppose it.

For instance, Councilman Rafael Salamanca (D-Bronx) says he can’t back the plan unless the city agrees to move fast and shut down the Vernon C. Bain Center, an 800-bed floating barge jail parked off the South Bronx in his district. It is considered an “annex” of Rikers that has been plagued with many of the same allegations of inhumane treatment of inmates. The city plans to shut the barge down in 2026, but Salamanca says that is too long.

De Blasio predicts the city’s jail population — currently about 7,000 inmates — will drop to 3,300 by 2026, when Rikers is expected to close and the new jails open. He is banking on state bail reforms that went into effect in April, the expansion of a city-funded supervised release program and other initiatives aimed at driving the prison population down. There were about 11,000 inmates in city lockups in 2014 when the mayor came into office.

[chris08876]

What a complete waste of bureaucratic and politic time reducing the size of these towers. I mean at least It will get approved now, but do these people really think this is out of scale when not even 2000 ft away, you have towers 600-800 + ft in height.

The Democratic leadership in Manhattan needs to go. Folks like Margaret Chin and Gale Brewer. Likewise with Stephen Levin via Brooklyn.

A complete waste of time that could be better used on more pressing, serious issues.

[NYguy]

A judge put this on hold, but looks like the Tombs will be closing anyway.



https://nypost.com/2020/10/09/offici...rikers-island/

NYC Department of Correction unveils plan to shutter ‘The Tombs’ and a jail on Rikers Island





By Craig McCarthy and Ben Feuerherd
October 9, 2020

The notorious Manhattan lockup known as “The Tombs” will be shuttered along with a jail on Rikers Island by the end of November, the Department of Correction said Friday.

The closures are part of the agency’s move to create four smaller jails in every city borough except for Staten Island, a plan created by the City Council when the chamber voted to shut down lockups on Rikers Island.

“We are also taking advantage of the significant reduction in our current and projected jail population to continue closing older facilities that pose the most pressing administrative and structural problems. This will allow us to consolidate our efforts in better facilities, reduce overtime, expand training and programs, and continue investing in enhancing safety,” Cynthia Brann, the commissioner of the city DOC, wrote in a letter to staff.

She added that staff members at the two jails — the Otis Bantum Correctional Center and The Tombs — would be reassigned to other facilities and commands in the department in the next month.

The Metropolitan Detention Center, aka The Tombs, currently has 748 officers and 434 inmates, while the Otis Bantum Correctional Center has 857 officers and 329 inmates.

In a statement, the union that represents correction officers blasted the plan, saying it would lead to overcrowding in the midst of a pandemic.

“Today’s reckless announcement on the planned closures of MDC and OBCC would throw inmates and officers on top of those who are already in the other jails, increasing the density and compromising our ability to prepare for a second wave of COVID-19 that has already emerged in Brooklyn and Queens,” said Benny Bosico Jr., president of the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association.

Last October, the City Council approved legislation that would close all jails on Rikers and replace them with four high-rise lockups in Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and The Bronx.

[NYguy]

https://commercialobserver.com/2022/...st-new-towers/

A Chinatown Jail Could End Up One of Lower Manhattan’s Tallest New Towers
City plans to demolish the Manhattan Detention Center and replace it with a bigger jail have drawn protests from Chinatown residents who would rather see a gut renovation of the current property.




BY AARON SHORT
MARCH 7, 2022

One of the newest towers planned for Lower Manhattan will not host fancy condominium units nor amenity-rich office space.

Instead, it is expected to house more than 800 prisoners by the end of the decade, but community advocates are mounting a last-ditch effort to convince the Adams administration to take another look.

On Feb. 6, more than a hundred Chinatown leaders and activists rallied on the steps of 125 White Street, the site of the city’s current Manhattan Detention Complex (MDC), long-ago nicknamed the Tombs, demanding the city delay its demolition and therefore halt construction of a new corrections high-rise that could end up being twice its size.

Two weeks later, activists crashed the neighborhood’s Lunar New Year Parade and gave Mayor Eric Adams and other politicians marching in the event an earful about the harmful effects of a new jail construction project.

….. Meanwhile fences and scaffolding could envelop White and Centre streets in the coming weeks. Residents want the mayor to delay the site’s demolition and consider alternatives from the de Blasio master plan.

The $1.7 billion Manhattan correctional facility is expected to include enough beds for 886 inmates, roughly the same number as the existing jail complex. But its design and height have not been finalized.

The de Blasio administration’s initial proposal was to erect the 40-story detention center at 80 Centre Street. In November 2018, city officials swapped that for a 50-story, 520-foot structure on the MDC’s current White Street site that would take up 1.5 million square feet. A few months later, the city slashed its height to 495 feet, decreasing its dimensions to 45 stories and 1.3 million square feet with 1,440 beds. Even with the changes, city officials continued seeking input for how to reduce the complex’s footprint even further.

By the end of 2019, former Council member Margaret Chin reportedly got the city to drop the height of the jail structure to 295 feet although its square footage remained close to 700,000 square feet.

In the final days of the de Blasio administration, the city chose two construction firms, the Gilbane Building Company and the Alberici Corporation, to submit a joint proposal by the fall for the Manhattan site. The request for proposal hasn’t been given out yet, but both companies have the inside track. A $125 million contract for the demolition of the site has already been awarded to the Gramercy Group.

[mrnyc]

the manhattan jail getting demo’d — i saw the ‘bridge of sighs’ us civilians on the outside below used to walk under that was connected to the courts on the left was torn down.

[chris08876]

Super tall jail tower... that would be unique. I could imagine the outrage.

Maybe call the tower " The Green Mile " .

[mrnyc]

^ lol --- while it doesn't look like it, i guess demo has been paused since the end of april due to the usual whiny ny'er outrages, its tooo taaawwwllll, etc. --- sorry manhattan, but if they are to close rikers you gotta eat your share of it!

https://www.thecity.nyc/2023/4/26/23...tention-center

i'll swing by and see if there is any action on it later this week.

[cold1]

Just ridiculous that these NIMBYs are being given any consideration at all. It's ALREADY a high-rise jail, so there is no reason not to replace the same site with a modern, state-of-the-art facility. What a joke that they are advocating for adaptive reuse of this horrible building. They cannot be serious.

Past generations of government facilities of all kinds across the country, including prisons, are in dire condition and desperately need to be replaced with modern facilities. Riker's obviously needs to be closed, and another main reason the site was chosen is for its proximity to court buildings. We have a responsibility to provide sanitary, safe living conditions for all prisoners.

I hope this goes forward to completion, and I look forward to seeing the design. I hope they enlist top-notch architects as public buildings can be very impressive - see the bold new Hudson County Courthouse going up in Jersey City. It would be awesome to see a modern, 29-floor NYC version of Azkaban go up!

[NYguy]

https://tribecacitizen.com/2023/05/0...-for-the-jail/

The latest on demolition work for the jail

May 2, 2023

.....when I reached out, the mayor’s office said that “the administration is continuing the ongoing dismantling of the Manhattan jail site and not pursuing this [adaptive reuse] proposal.” The city agreed to pause the work and are only proceeding with demolition tasks that do not conflict with adaptative reuse.

The mayor’s office said meetings will continue with the community “to provide more detail on our decision” but: “As we have repeatedly said, attempting to create this jail within the existing structure could put the building at risk of collapse and irresponsibly risk the safety of community members and workers in the building. Additionally, this approach would take longer, waste millions of additional taxpayer dollars, and cause greater disruption in the community.”

The City Council’s Local Law 194 of 2019, which put the creation of the new jails into law, requires that the building be brought up to code and in line with ADA regs, so major renovations would be necessary. And the city decided that given the complicated security infrastructure needed in a jail, repurposing is too challenging and inefficient.

The statement from the mayor’s office went on: “While some people may be willing to accept these impediments, we will never be willing to compromise safety or throw away taxpayer funds. We have engaged with the community every step of the way, and we are committed to continuing to work with them to limit the disruption of this project and build a more humane facility.”

-The site is to include 886 beds with a maximum building height of 295 feet

-The demolition budget for our site is $125 million

-The budget for the Manhattan site construction overall is $2.13 billion.

-Demolition will continue for the next year

-Construction on the new building should finish by 2027

-The 800+ detainees that were at the two buildings have been cleared out and moved to Rikers

[mrnyc]

ok i did go by again —

definite hardcore demo work happening —

noise, dust, workers, etc. —

[Busy Bee]

Smoke?

[NYguy]

That really was an ugly building.

[Busy Bee]

Where's Kurt Russell?

[chris08876]

Demolition Progresses For 45-Story Manhattan Detention Complex At 124-125 White Street In Chinatown, Manhattan

Demolition work is continuing for the Manhattan Detention Complex (MDC) at 124-125 White Street in Chinatown, Manhattan. Led by design-build organization Gramercy Group Inc., the $2.13 billion project will replace the aging detention center known as “The Tombs” with a 45-story, 300-foot-tall structure spanning 1.25 million square feet. When complete, the MDC will stand as the tallest jail structure in the world and its modern facilities will help accommodate the planned closure of Rikers Island. AECOM-Hill JV is the construction manager for the property, which is bound by Walker Street to the north, the Manhattan Criminal Court Building to the south, Baxter Street to the east, and Centre Street to the west.

Recent photographs show the progress of the $125 million demolition, which is unfolding in multiple phases. Most of the main L-shaped tower is covered in a network of scaffolding as crews work to gut its interiors, and the low-rise structure that formerly sat in its void along Baxter Street has already been fully razed and its footprint partially excavated. The second-story bridge that connected the main building to the tallest structure in the complex to the south has also been demolished.

The project has been the subject of intense controversy over the past several years, with local residents and activists voicing fierce opposition to its construction. Elected officials including Assemblywoman Grace Lee, State Senator Brian Kavanagh, and City Councilmember Christopher Marte have also opposed the plans, and have urged the city to instead consider an “adaptive reuse” refurbishment of the existing facilities to bring them up to contemporary standards.

In response to the outpouring of opposition, the Adams Administration briefly ordered a pause on the demolition on April 19, only to reverse course and green light the project in late May, citing that the alternative renovation proposals would be “impractical” and “not appropriate.”

125 White Street is among a slate of four new detention facilities being constructed across the city, with counterparts in The Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens, at a collective cost of around $8.7 billion. Demolition work is slated to conclude in November, as noted on site. No official timetables have been released for the new facilities, though past announcements have targeted 2027 at the earliest.

===================
NYY

[citybooster]

The 45 stories was a typo, it was reduced to 29 stories, 295 ft.

[UrbanImpact]

Will there be an Anish Kapoor sculpture at the base?