On Wednesday, the library approved the selection of the Dutch architecture firm Mecanoo to lead the Midtown renovation — it has yet to produce a design. The firm’s projects include the main circulating library and the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Washington, and the Bruce C. Bolling Municipal Building in Boston.
“The building should be about the journey of learning,” Francine Houben, Mecanoo’s founding partner and creative director, said in a telephone interview. “Maybe you come in for a book but also take lessons in English.”
The architect of record will be the New York firm Beyer Blinder Belle, whose renovations include Grand Central Terminal, Ellis Island and City Hall.
“This is a project that has to address the gut renovation of the central branch library — to create a great inspiring space there, which we have never had — and to restore and enhance the historic gem of the Schwarzman building,” Anthony W. Marx, the library’s president said. “This combination seems like the perfect pair.”
Given criticisms about the lack of transparency during the last go around, Mr. Marx added: “We are totally committed to having the expertise of the librarians, the input of the trustees and the input of the public as to what program is necessary driving the design process.”
hateful, primitive gas station plopped down in the middle of a classic rowhouse neighborhood, presumably in the 1950s-1960s when neanderthals ruled the earth.
not long for this world, fencing is up, demo to start soon?
wonder if this is part of the fortis LICH redevelopment.
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Joined the bus on the 33rd seat
By the doo-doo room with the reek replete
hateful, primitive gas station plopped down in the middle of a classic rowhouse neighborhood, presumably in the 1950s-1960s when neanderthals ruled the earth.
not long for this world, fencing is up, demo to start soon?
wonder if this is part of the fortis LICH redevelopment.
The gas station site is 112 Atlantic Avenue, where a four-story residential building is planned:
NEW YORK | 1004-1006 Gates Avenue | 74 FT | 7 FLOORS
Project: 1004-1006 Gates Avenue
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The Bushwick-Bed-Stuy borderlands are the final frontier for cheap rents and inexpensive development in both neighborhoods, and today we have a rendering for a project at 1004 Gates Avenue in Ocean Hill, courtesy of prolific Brooklyn developer The Loketch Group.
Much like the firm’s Williamsburg project, this will technically be an expansion of two old tenements instead of completely new construction. The pastel-colored buildings will double in size, growing from 9,066 to 20,141 square feet of residential space. They’ll also expand from four stories to seven, raising the roof line from 42 to 74 feet.
The two prewar buildings will lose their ground floor retail, but the expansion will bring the number of apartments from five up to 27. The apartments will be rentals, averaging 745 square feet each. Each floor will have four units, except for the seventh, which will have three units. The building will also get a roof deck and bike parking in the cellar.
Moishe Loketch tells us he’s transferring air rights from an adjacent property at 829 Monroe Street to give the project a boost in residential space. And he plans to use some left over development rights to add four more apartments to a two-family row house at 825 Monroe Street.
NEW YORK | 176-178 Division Avenue | FT | 6 FLOORS
Project: 176-178 Division Avenue
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176-178 Division Avenue is a 41’x100’ vacant lot in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The site’s R6 zoning renders it developer-friendly. The total buildable square footage is 23,500, which is to be divided between residential (14,855 square feet), community facilities (4,100 square feet), and retail (4,100 square feet). The foundation
for the project has already been laid.
Residential units will range from 700 to 1000 square feet, with one-to-three bedrooms, each with nine-to-ten-foot ceilings. Each unit will feature a terrace, and the building will have a shared roof space. The property has a 421a tax abatement in place, which presents a very significant benefit to unit buyers.
For apartment hunters who think that Brooklyn has become too glassy in recent years, with some buildings that look like as if they had floated up from South Florida, a new condominium in Boerum Hill may come as a relief, particularly its lower floors.
Most of the facade of 465 Pacific Street, a low-slung 30-unit condo now under construction, will be made largely of brick, a finish that recalls the 19th-century Greek Revival townhouses on surrounding blocks, which are among the most coveted in the borough. Windows aren’t the trendy curtain-wall variety, but are sized more modestly, in keeping with the traditional spirit of the neighborhood.
There will be some unusual touches at the building, which is being developed by Avery Hall Investments and the Aria Development Group. The upper stories are to be faced in dark metal and set back from the street.
“It’s appropriate, it’s contextual, and it doesn’t offend the neighborhood,” Avi Fisher, a founding principal of Avery Hall, said of the overall design, as he led a tour of the L-shaped block-through site, which also is bordered by Atlantic Avenue and Nevins Street.
Following in the footsteps of its neighbor, the squat commercial structure at 260 Bowery is ready for upper crust life. Eight stories of luxury, in fact.
Demolition permits were filed two months ago for 260 Bowery, so it’s only a matter of time. From what we understand, property owner Esther Yip (aka Lyco Investment Corp.) is tearing down the building to erect an eight-story condo building with six units. Scope of the project (i.e. skyline status) is somewhat limited due to its zoning restrictions as part of the Special Little Italy District, which caps heights at 85 feet and requires frontage composed mainly of masonry.
The new development is in partnership with Nexus Development and Morris Adjmi Architects. Here is an early rendering of the new condo project, courtesy of Buzz Buzz Home.
NEW YORK | 650 Metropolitan Avenue | FT | 6 FLOORS
Project: 650 Metropolitan Avenue
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650 Metropolitan will host eight apartments divided across 9,488 square feet of residential space, for spacious average units of 1,186 square feet each. The apartments will break down into five two-bedrooms and three one-bedrooms. Their asking prices will be typical for new condos in the area—around $1,150 a square foot. With that in mind, our average unit (probably a two-bedroom) would ask $1,363,900.
Domo Architecture, based in Tribeca, are the architects.
Construction is expected to finish by the end of 2016.
Note: If members and guests have noticed, a lot of high rises and midrises in the last three weeks for LIC. Place is trippin' with development and permit activity.
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The new seven-story, 53,000-square-foot building at 97-45 63rd Drive would replace a row of multifamily homes on the site, located near Vornado Realty Trust’s Rego Center retail mall.
The property would feature a 12,000-square-foot health care facility on the first and second floors, as well as 41,000 square feet of residential space. The building would house two apartments on the first floor and 10 units on each of the third through sixth floors, while the seventh floor would hold six apartments and two duplexes extending to a penthouse level.
The project would also include a rooftop recreation area for residents as well as a 24-car garage. Queens-based Angelo Ng + Anthony Ng Architects Studio is the architect of record.
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NEW YORK | New York Public Library Renovation
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