Long Island City Rising Update: New Site, Many Drawings

1.

I hear studios start at 1650...some brokers are just saying 1615.

---kyle

2.

I love the invisable buildings on the Northside of the development. They look like they were inspired by Wonder Woman's jet. If only these buildings were invisable. The 20 Story condo looks more like a hospital than a residential. Its scary when even the renderings look crappy.

Two issues with the new LIC, the parking garages really deaden the area and the complete lack of retail shows the modern developers do not know how to build for dense environment. I think if the buildings were closer together, i.e. more development allowed, a critical mass would be created for retail and for livelier environment. The area seems deadened right now, but perhaps that is how people like it.

3.

Right behind that invisible building along 5th Street is the LIC Community Boathouse. They are creating a space with artists, recycle bicycle, and free kayaking. I went kayaking with them a few weeks ago.

You can see some photographs of the site here:

http://www.tanyatanya.smugmug.com/gallery/1510867

4.

Here is the website for the boathouse:
http://www.licboathouse.org

5.

I agree with GrandPa, the towers and parking garages will suck up any forms of street life. But perhaps thats what bankers, stock brokers and other highly paid FIRE employees desire. Looks like Jersey City on the East River.

6.

It looks like welfare housing projects for rich people. Who knew they needed them?

7.

Bleh, looks like the urban equivelant of Chicago. NOT COOL TO HAVE VISIBLE PARKING STRUCTURES. NOT COOL AT ALL!

8.

It's too bad they are ruining what had potential to be a really cool area; seems they are trying to create a mini-suburbia in LIC. Don't people who want suburbia move way out of a city instead of just across a river?

9.

I agree witht he majority of the comments so far. Zombieville.

10.

Unfortunately these large structures need parking and making them underground is unfeasible because of cost and its proximity to the water. However, many of the garages will have retail on the first floor and the area zoned for high-rises is only two block deep at its worst. Plus not all building will be required to have garages.

P.S. Last time I checked suburbia does not have high-rises.

11.

Agree place looks very bland. And may replace what I've always called 'most suburban neighborhood of NYC'- the UES. Homogenous, sterile, boring buildings and people.

12.

I agree with GranPa too. This looks like bad suburban architecture. It's surprising though because Rockrose has built plenty of buildings in Manhattan that are sensitive to the urban context and deal wit the density quite well. Alot of their lower manhattan projects are actually conversions of old vacant class B office space. I expect better from Rockrose. They know how to do this right.

13.

L.I.C. has so much potential! What with the vast spaces between buildings? Wheres the space for a community to develop? Stores etc. This looks like a housing project, or worse yet, Pavonia.

14.

JRO - you should check again then. There are ugly bland boring residential high-rises that are either surrounded by fields of parking or parking garages all over suburbia. You should get out a little more and check them out. Or you can just wait a couple of years and check out Queens West.

Also, there are more attractive and beeter ways to build up parking capacity than what is shown in these drawings. I usually defend developers when I post on Curbed, but what's pictured here is totally unacceptable. Don't be so willing to accept medicrity.

15.

Hoboken solved the ugly parking garage problem by making the midtown parking garage exterior look like prewar building.

16.

First off if they dress the parking decks up it can look nicer. Second anything else is not feasible, one of the big selling points is the ability to have a car meaning they need to build parking. Third, beats the hell out of what is there now. Fourth it would be lucky to look like Jersey City on the East river.

Listen not incredible but not bad either, it will not probably get built out. Real estate is about to crash, interest rate hikes are going to cause capital to slow up. In the next 5 years development will move at a snails pace. Hoboken has parking???? That seems like a foreign idea.

17.

There were a total of 10 $1615 studios, and they were all rented in the first few days. But these apartments are still reasonably priced -- even Roosevelt Island is more expensive, and I would so much rather live here than there!

18.

True #17...and they are just doing 1 year leases.

Once the construction wraps up, they'll raise the prices....especially on the apartments that were facing the frieght/construction elevator.

19.

#16 Of course it is better then whats there now, but they could plan this neighborhood alot better. This development is built around the car rather then the person. Brokers say that every neighborhood is the new TriBeCa, but L.I.C. is one of the only neighborhoods that could acutally have the potential to become the "new" DUMBO, or TriBeCa. Im not trying to get all Jane Jacobs on your ass, but I dont see an appealing neighborhood growing out of the spaced out high rise condos. I know you cant develop a neighborhood from scratch, but desings like this prevent it from ever happening in the future. Has Battery Park City grown any character in the past 25 years? And yes, its hard to believe but hoboken has 1 parking garage, although i dont think there are spots there either.

20.

The plan emphasizes parks along the water, rather than more grid. The car parking is all consolidated into one building to free up more park space and sits on top of a supermarket and other retail.

21.

I take it that most of you complaining about how "suburban" this development looks have never been to Vancouver. Believe it or not, it's possible to have a healthy urban environment that doesn't look like the UWS or the Village. The buildings themselves are aesthetically disappointing--squat and boxy instead of slender and graceful like Vancouver's--but for a riverfront setting, a Corbusierian approach actually works. The buildings actually interface with the street on the landward side, too, so we're not exactly talking about another Jersey City here. Think of building fronts as a coherent edge in an area that sorely needed some sort of definition. I wouldn't put this development anywhere that isn't on the waterfront--the world doesn't need another Co-op City, or anything that looks remotely like it--but it's fine for its setting.

BTW, visible parking structures can be completely unobtrusive from a pedestrian's perspective if the ground floor retail is done properly. Santa Barbara, CA has some excellent examples of this.

22.

They are required to build parks on the waterfront as part of the waterfront rehabilitation, nothing you can really do about that. The buildings may not be the best, but i think it's better than most of the residential buildings going up in Manhattan. Also, these buildings have ground floor retail planned into them. I don't see how its suburbia, seeing that the buildings that have lawns have the lawns facing the park.

23.

I disagree with GrandPa. In my opinion, the new buildings on the waterfront are too close together, too tall, and they are ruining the neighborhood's view of Manhattan. Why build so tall on the waterfront? The tall buildings should be put in the business district (23rd St. to Queens Plaza) not on the waterfront. Citylights, Avalon and Rockrose have no correlation to the neighborhood of Hunters Point. These buildings are exclusionary. And where is the housing for the middle class? How are these developers allowed to build so tall and not include housing for New Yorkers with lesser means? I'm with City Councilman Eric Gioa, put in some affordable housing. This is not the same plan that was first put to the community. All of the buildings are 15 - 20 stories taller than originally planned and presented to the community, and for what - a few more feet of waterfront parkland? Now I read that Avalon is not including a library in their new building, which is why they were given permission to build 10 stories higher. Can you spell neighborhood rip-off? Enough already. If I wanted to live in a place packed together like Manhattan I would have stayed in Manhattan. The draw to the area is that it is (or was) low-scale: 2-4 stories, which allows plenty of sunlight and air. Citylights now casts a shadow the whole way to Vernon Boulevard and blocks our view of the Empire State building. QueensWest buildings are uninspiring and for the wealthy only. They SHOULD get their own zip code, they want nothing to do with the existing neighborhood. Borough President Marshall, please stop the sell-out of Long Island City!

24.

I've just moved into 4720 Center Blvd., and ... I love it here. I've come from out of town, and saw lots of apartments, but none of them had this spectacular view. I did chuckle at the poster who said the place will look like Jersey City; yes, the LIC skyline is short on looks (save for the Pepsi sign, which I adore).

Right now the neighborhood has an off-season resort feel to it, and I love the quiet of it. Gives me a sense I live in two worlds. I suspect things will be less tranquil when spring & summer arrive, but I expect that.

My only complaint so far is the lack of any good shopping in the neighborhood, and the #*@! subway construction that has closed all weekend service of the 7 line since i moved in.

Still, small prices to pay for living somewhere clean, new, and pest-free. I love strolling home to the promenade, having coffee on a bench on the pier, the roof deck, the fact that the water that comes out of the tap is FILTERED, and the fitness club, the friendly concierges ... architectural eyesore or no ... this is a great way to live, with an amazing view right at my feet ... I think I'm renewing my lease ... I am happy and content.

Susan

25.

Yeah who really needs that neighborhood feel that Long Island City has. The neighborhood has so much history and so much potential to be an enriching community full of local business' and restaurants and now it's turning into a high rise water front resort. It's killing the culture of Long Island City in my opinion.

People can just chill in their high rise apartments and be content living in the "new up and coming neighborhood" It will be interesting to see what happens to the neighborhood. Hopefully the people that move in actually embrace the neighborhood and don't just pretend to be Manhattan-ites living in Queens.

26.

Hello Everyone! I will be moving into this building soon, and I would love to talk to someone who is already residing there... let me know if I can ask you some questions!
Thanks!