Ariel East's Bad Glass Problem

1.

This is a real problem in NYC. Great strides have been made in glass technology and when used properly it can be truly beautiful, see the Meier buildings or the entire city of Vancouver. The problem is that with the desire to have both glass and privacy, overly refletive shiny glass is used which is rather cheap and ugly looking, a prime example is the train wreck of reflective glass put together by Gwathmey on Astor Place.

2.

These turkeys are doomed to be white elephants: by the time they open, people will have finally woken up and realized that the real estate market is tanking, and no one will plunk down millions for these cheaper-than-the-projects Extell crap buildings.

The only positive: They are bound to be the Penn Station/Penn Plaza of the UWS -- after these, no oversized buildings will ever be built again.

Fight for rezoning. Contextual zoning allows for sensible growth!!!!!

3.

The corcoran site only shows 18 or so listings in both buildings. If they haven't sold any, where are the other 40+ listings listed?

4.

Frank, "Contextual Zoning" by definition allows for no growth. The point is to freeze a neighborhood in time.

Crazies like you are the biggest impediment to affordable housing in this City. You and your NIMBY allies are also contributing to sprawl and pollution by pushing people to auto-oriented suburbs.

If you don't like tall buildings, I have no clue why you choose to live in the Upper West Side. 90% of the neighborhoods in this city have few or no tall buildings. Don't move to the Upper West Side (one of the densest and tallest neighborhoods in the City and probably among the densest and tallest in the Western World) and then complain about big buildings.

5.

#3. It's typical in new condos to "hold back" units until the first phase sells, so that an amendment can be filed to increase the prices of the original offering. So the website unit listing doesn't really offer anything in the way of what has or has not been sold.

As far as the development goes, both Ariels are totally out of context and will be an architectural blight upon the avenue. Kind of like giving Broadway the finger, if you know what I mean.

6.

Beautiful buildings. About time the boom made it to the UWS, and the elderly paying $250 a month rent are put in their place.

If you've seen any glass building rise, you know that the "crinkles" and "wavyness' disappears in time.

7.

Anonymous -- I guess becasue you can't give your name you therefore cannot give a well thought-out response.

I live in the area, and have for 30 years. Contextual zoning doesn't hamper growth -- an in fact, the suburbs and their sprawl are all about contextual zoning, otherwise Trump would throw up a 50 story tower next to your parents Colonial.

And for the record, the UWS is no longer the densest neighborhood in the city since they tore down the crowded tenements and replaced them with high-rise projects. And this part of Broadway is typically 15 story buildings -- not 38! Paris is beautiful because you can;t pull this kind of crap over there!!!

8.

say what, #4? If you compare the UWS to the UES there are way FEWER tall buildings, particularly in the area north of 96th (which is what's discussed in the article). There are mostly tall buildings lining RSD and CPW with shorter brownstones and tenements in the middle, as compared to the gazillions of taller buildings throughout the UES. It's more an issue of desirability/development than anything else; in the 80's when lots of the taller condos/rental complexes sprang up it wasn't even that safe north of 96th so the area was pretty much left alone.

9.

Frank,

Of course you have lived in the area forever. You are one of the screeching, rent controlled fossils that is always whining about new buildings.

You even admit that the UWS population has declined, yet you fight new development, knowing that such an act will lead to further population loss and sprawl in NJ.

10.

Careful, #9, some of us are screeching coop owning fossils.

As for suburban sprawl, I say "GO FOR IT!" Let's enocurage people to live in the suburbs, stay in the suburbs, move to the suburbs. Just keep those B&T idiots out of NYC.

11.

I have no idea about the east building (the one pictured) but a broker friend of mine thinks (knows) that the West one is close to 50% already and I'm not sure it's much more than a hole in the ground. She thinks it will be top-shelf but who knows. I can't afford it.

12.

Not rent controlled -- and I support well planned development.

You just like to sprout crap -- one of the things I hate about this blog.

Come up with something constructive to say instead of your bitter rants.

13.

I welcome these buildings. We bought into a coop in the area in the past year. The West high 90's could use some revitalization, particularly when it comes to restaurants. These buildings may be a little higher than optimal, but the trend is a good thing for homeowners and residents in the area.

14.

I agree with Boggo. The new buildings will give the nabe a much needed shot in the arm and could anchor some better retail amenities. Why would anyone want to cling to and fight to preserve the current blighted mix of SROs, 99 cent stores, liquor shops, and panhandlers along this stretch of Broadway?

15.

#4
Are the Ariel Towers "affordable housing". Please explain?

16.

The Extell buildings are not only ugly, obscenely out of context and so overwhelming large that they destroy the cohesive feeling of the nighborhood but the developer also gives NOTHING to the community other than addtional demands for services from the city. Planning for growth is necessary. Planning that allows a developer to come into a community, destroy buildings, displace long time residents and close beloved small businesses is development run amok. While no one disputes the needs of a growing city, we must plan so that young people, artists, middle income people and the elderly all can live here. A city without the vitality that newcomers bring is a dying city. The Real Estate Board says 22,000 new units are coming on the market in the next 12 months. The great majority of them are luxury housing. The Extells of the world see this city as a place to make huge profits. They have no interest in their impact. They exist to make their investors happy. The neighborhoods and the people in them who have worked to make their neighborhoods the vibrant places they are, are fodder for their destructive plans. We can have reasonable growth without these real estate predators.

17.

I'm new to the neighborhood, moved here about a year ago, and renting a block away. I initially aggreed with 13/14 above--rising tide floats boats, etc. But now that I see just how tall they are, and how fugly the facades are, it does seem that they bring the neighborhood down.

It doesn't have to be Santa Fe, with the Disney-like stucco facades on the McDonalds, but there is something to be said for trying to preserve the look of the neighborhood.