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CB1 Hears Details On Gehry's New Tower
Members of Community Board 1 had received an advance look at long-awaited plans for the 76-story tower at a meeting the week before, however. Now under construction near the South Street Seaport, between William and Nassau Streets, the building’s foundation work was completed in April, said Susi Yu, a vice president of Forest City Ratner, the developer of the project. When the rest of the tower is finished, it will house more than 1.1 million square feet, devoted mostly to 903 rental residential units, but also including parking for New York Downtown Hospital next door, a small amount of retail space, and a new 100,000-square-foot K-8 school on the ground floor. Yu said that if all goes well, Ratner plans to turn the school space over to the city’s School Construction Authority in the summer of 2010, meaning that classes could possibly begin at the new school in the fall of that year, offering some relief for Downtown school crowding.
“I am not as optimistic as Forest City Ratner, and I think it might not be safe to open until later,” he said. At question is whether, in the wake of a rash of construction accidents across the city, including the recent incident in which construction debris fell from a hoist onto a Little League game in progress, it would be wise to open a school in the base of the tower while work at the top was still in progress. Ratner vice president Joe Rechichi assured the gathering that by the time the school space is turned over to the city, the only hoist still in operation will be on the opposite side of the building. Yu said the school will include all of the standard facilities of a New York City K-8 school, including an auditorium, an indoor gymnasium, and a 5,000-square-foot outdoor play area on the roof of the lower floors. The school entrance will be on William Street, on the opposite side of the building from the residential entrance. Rechichi told the meeting the final construction will not be complete until 2011, and provided a number of target dates along the way. The concrete superstructure is expected to continue for two years, beginning this spring. The exterior walls of the tower, which lend it its distinctive crumpled appearance, will begin in early 2009 and carry on through the summer of 2010. Work on the interior of the school space, will begin in the summer of 2009 and take about a year to complete.
“What’s happening right now is that the large crane continues working until 8 or 8:30 on some nights,” said Mak Mitchell, a neighbor of the site. “That does not seem appropriate to me. I think it should stop at 6.” Rechichi said all after-hours work is clean-up and preparatory work, rather than actually construction. But that didn’t satisfy everyone. “It’s a matter of semantics to us whether you are working or cleaning up,” said Yvette Benedek, another neighbor. “To us that live next door, it’s noise.” Paul Goldstein, Silver’s district office director, said the neighborhood must weigh the competing interests of speedy school construction and limited work- time hours. “This is a balancing act,” he said. [Home][Back][Search][Contact] The Tribeca Trib · 401 Broadway, 5th Floor · New York, NY · 10013 · 212.219.9709 |
