NEW YORK | River Ring | 710 FT & 560 FT | 64 + 49 FLOORS

[NYguy]

https://www.6sqft.com/massive-bjarke...orth-brooklyn/

Massive Bjarke Ingels-designed apartment towers and public beach planned for Williamsburg


DECEMBER 12, 2019
BY DEVIN GANNON

Two new mixed-use towers with 1,000 units of housing and six acres of public space have been proposed for the North Brooklyn waterfront. Two Trees Management on Thursday unveiled plans to bring two Bjarke Ingels Group-designed buildings, one at 650 feet and the other at 600 feet, on River Street between North 1st and North 3rd Street in Williamsburg.

The buildings, with Metropolitan Avenue running between them, will serve as an entrance to the new waterfront space, part of a master plan designed in collaboration with BIG and James Corner Field Operations. The park and public beach would close the gap between Grand Ferry Park and North Fifth Park, eventually providing continuous access to the East River between South Williamsburg and Greenpoint.

Two Trees, which created the neighboring Domino Park as part of its redevelopment of the former Domino Sugar Factory, recently bought the three vacant sites for a total of $150 million. The site had been home to Con Edison since 1984, with its steel fuel tanks removed in 2011.

The River Street Waterfront Master Plan must go through the city’s uniform land use review procedure (ULURP), as well as secure a permit from the Department of Environment Conservation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Jed Walentas, the principal of Two Trees, told reporters Thursday that the land use review process could take at an estimated two years to complete, with the construction of the entire project taking at least five years. The park would be completed alongside the first building, according to Walentas.

The housing part of the plan includes 1,000 units across two buildings. According to Two Trees, 250 units will be designated affordable under the city’s Mandatory Inclusionary Housing program. During a media presentation on Thursday, Bjarke Ingels described the towers, which renderings show having a triangular podium, as framing Metropolitan Avenue and funneling into the waterfront.

“Once you arrive, the footprint opens up,” Ingels said. “So as soon as you get to Metropolitan, you have this uninterrupted view of the River and Manhattan.”

The project also includes a 47,000-square-foot YMCA with a waterfront aquatic center, 30,000 square feet of “community-oriented” retail space, and 57,000 square feet of office space.

The park will include a cove and public beach (with swimming potentially possible), tidal pools, a salt marsh, a fishing pier, boating cove, and nature education programs offered on the outposts of the park. A section of community kiosks will face the waterfront, most likely offering things like kayak rentals, art installations, and other water-related activities. Ingels said the new park “is much more immersed into the water” than anything currently in New York.

[NYguy]

https://www.6sqft.com/massive-bjarke...orth-brooklyn/

[JMKeynes]

Very, very nice!!!

[Busy Bee]

Mmmmmmhhhhhhmmmmmmmm

[Crawford]

Looks pretty good. There's some bold architecture going up on the Brooklyn/Queens side of the East River.

The existing park is fantastic, so I trust that the park extension will be extremely high quality.

[JMKeynes]

Don’t forget this stunning, recently-announced project in Greenpoint.

https://ny.curbed.com/2019/11/20/209...ooklyn-nyc-oma

[dc_denizen]

Neato

[canucklehead2]

BIG.DK strikes again! Love it! Every skyline they design a tower for always gets an quirky and angular project... Just wish they'd show Edmonton some love after Telus Sky was built!

[Gantz]

Looks good.
What are the chances this gets build with the height advertised?

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by Gantz

What are the chances this gets build with the height advertised?

Probably good, because the previous project to the south got built with the height advertised.

Usually the NIMBYs stop screaming if you give them enough free stuff, and often "new reveals" already follow deep negotiations with local politicos.

[Zapatan]

Awesome development, really dig the mini beach! What's the other large block building next to the Domino one?

[Design-mind]

The bases of these towers tie in nicely to the park. When this and the Domino Sugar development are completed this will be such a great place to walk.

[chris08876]

The river front from Williamsburg to LIC, and extending to Astoria is developing a nice wall of towers, a river skyline. Should be a nice wall of high rises eventually from DoBro to Astoria/LIC down the line at the rate things are going. Parcels being swooped up, and developed. The magnitude could be quite prominant, on the level of Jersey City for example from a riverfront skyline POV.

On a side note, the past few years has seen a big, and I mean big distribution of developments in the outer boroughs. Its good to see the overall construction shift (tower wise) greatly shift to the outer boroughs. Like if you go to the Bronx for example, you will see cranes dotting the borough. Its a nice sight to have, and much more to come!

[tdawg]

Gorgeous towers and park! The park reminds me of what they've done with Hunters Point Park South, minus the beach.

[NYguy]

It's not a real proposal until the NIMBYs sign in.


https://nypost.com/2020/01/14/yet-an...ting-the-rich/

Yet another zoning fight that’s all about protecting the rich

By Steve Cuozzo
January 14, 2020

Opponents of a rezoning that is needed to allow a big new residential development called River Street, on the Williamsburg waterfront, are making some of the exact same arguments used by foes of a 2005 rezoning in the same Brooklyn neighborhood.

The 2005 rezoning didn’t lead to the mass displacement and congestion that opponents feared and warned about. Instead, it led to the creation of more than 12,000 new homes, including 3,000 for lower-income families, in an area where housing supply is painfully tight.

And ironically, many current Williamsburg riverfront residents who fiercely oppose the proposed new River Street project are the area’s original gentrifiers, having themselves benefited from the earlier rezoning.

Leading the resistance are wealthy residents of Northside Piers, a luxury condo complex just north of the proposed development site that was only made possible by Bloomberg-era rezoning.

Development firm Two Trees Management wants to build two rental apartment towers of 600 and 650 feet tall each as well as a new YMCA, a 2.9-acre public park, a sandy beach and a breakwater-protected cove on the East River, all between Grand and North Third streets. One-quarter of the planned 1,000 apartments would be priced at “affordable” levels.

World-renowned architect Bjarke Ingels designed the buildings, while the park is the work of James Corner Field Operations, which landscaped the High Line Park.

Two Trees needs a zoning change because the site — a former Con Ed oil-storage facility the developer bought last year for $150 million — is currently earmarked for industrial use. Brooklyn Community Board 1 will hold a public session Wednesday night, where Two Trees executives will make their case to skeptics.

.....far from such a grassroot movement, the Williamsburg uproar is led by some very rich New Yorkers.

Keith Berger, a high executive of Bank of America Merrill Lynch, is the condo board president of one of the Northside Piers towers. In a memo to other Northside residents this month, Berger warned that River Street “would have a dramatic impact [on] the waterfront” area.

Also active in the resistance are two prominent residential real estate sales brokers who, like Berger, live at Northside Piers. Ralph Modica, a team leader of brokerage Compass, denied that losing views was a factor — “I live on the north side” of his building, he emailed me, meaning his windows don’t face the River Street site.

Corcoran’s Cory Kantin, who also lives at Northside and has brokered $62 million in apartment sales there, according to her website, cited “myriad” reasons to oppose River Street, including lack of infrastructure and already-overcrowded Williamsburg sidewalks. She claimed that the project would increase, not decrease, “the value of the condos that I sell and rent.”

Fair scrutiny and community input are fair. But while rezonings are rightly drawing longer and harder looks than in the past, it is worth keeping in mind where the harshest looks are coming from. At River Street, they aren’t from the poor. As in many other contexts, too often NIMBY-ism is all about the boutique preferences of the well-heeled and comfortably entrenched.

[Busy Bee]

Morons

[mousquet]

Originally Posted by Busy Bee

Morons

You said it before I did. They are all the same anyway. Dying from envy and jealousy at the even richer, dying from fear at the poorer, 'cause those freaks full of plastic surgery and make-up think we'd steal anything from them.
Lol, we don't even care about their money. We only care about development here.

They have nothing to fear about us, 'the poor'. We no longer give a shit about them anyway.
Look at this and always remember:

If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.
When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was very wealthy. Jesus looked at him and said, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven."

That's just it. No secret, it's been said for 2000 years.

[NYguy]

[chris08876]

Community groups announce tentative support for Two Trees project in Williamsburg; The Bjarke Ingels-designed towers would feature more than 1,000 homes, offices, and a beach

With the rezoning process now underway, a trio of community groups has announced their support for Two Trees Management's proposed waterfront towers in Williamsburg - with some caveats.

“Los Sures, El Puente, and St. Nicks Alliance, the Coalition, have long been advocates for affordable housing, jobs and environmental justice,” reads a letter reported by Brooklyn Paper. “Together, along with many other organizations, we continue to advocate for the interest of low- and moderate-income residents in our community. We appreciate the efforts of Two Trees community engagement over the last nine years and now towards the development of the River Ring Project.”

The proposed development, designed by Bjarke Ingels Group, calls for the construction of a pair of high-rise buildings featuring 1,050 homes, offices, retail, and a new YMCA on the site of the former Con Edison North First Street terminal. Additionally, plans call for a three-acre beach - and roughly six acres of open space in total - designed by James Corner Field Operations.

In addition to commitments regarding community benefits and the potential environmental impacts of the towers, Los Sures, El Puente, and St. Nicks Alliance area also seeking greater affordability within the project. While Two Trees has proposed that 263 units - roughly 25 percent of the project total - will be made permanently affordable to households earning between 40 and 60 percent of the area median income, the community groups have asked the developers to go beyond that figure. Two Trees, on its website, has indicated a willingness to consider that request.

As we previously reported, the project is expected to enter and complete the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure this year. According to scoping documents filed with the city in March, the development will "be constructed over a period of approximately 50 months, with expected completion and full occupancy by 2027."

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https://urbanize.city/nyc/post/commu...t-williamsburg

[chris08876]

BIG’s Two-Towered River Ring Secures Approvals, On Williamsburg Waterfront

The proposed two-skyscraper development River Ring, designed by Bjarke Ingels Group and developed by Two Trees Management, is closer to fruition after Community Board 1 approval. The 3.5-acre project would bring 1,050 homes with 263 affordable housing units, a six-acre circular waterfront park designed by James Corner Field Operations, a YMCA community facility, 2,000 construction jobs, and more than 500 permanent jobs to the Brooklyn waterfront in Williamsburg.

As reported by Bisnow, the board voted 20-15 Tuesday to support River Ring, with the condition of increasing the affordable housing component from 25 to 50 percent.

River Ring is proposed for a pair of vacant rectangular parcels bound by North First Street, North Third Street, and River Street. The waterfront park consists of three acres of public open space and three acres of protected in-river access, as well as the creation of two new beaches. The design of the waterfront park would protect the complex and other inland properties from future storm surges, reducing the possibility of flooding.

Next in the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure process, the proposal will go to Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president and then the city’s Planning Commission. The borough president will hold a public meeting later in September to allow for community feedback. River Ring is estimated to be completed by 2030.

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NYY