Text size:

Possible plans for Hudson Yards unveiled

By David Freedlander, amNewYork Staff Writer
More stories
| dfreedlander@am-ny.com

November 19, 2007

Below please find attached artistic renderings of Tishman Speyer & Morgan Stanley's proposal for the West Side Yards.

Five of the biggest real estate players in the nation unveiled their plans in plastic and poster board Sunday for the Hudson Yards, Manhattan's largest remaining developable tract.

Sunday marked the beginning of the public comment period on a 26-acre parcel of land that has tantalized and beguiled the Bloomberg administration

A plan floated in 2004, tied to the city's 2012 Olympic bid, to build a stadium for the Jets was shot down by Assemb. Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan). But at a crowded storefront in the shadow of Grand Central Terminal yesterday, billionaire developers and internationally famous architects jostled for reporters' attentions, extolling the virtues of their plans while public officials lauded a new day.

"This really is the future of New York City," said deputy mayor for economic development Dan Doctoroff. "What we are seeing with these five wonderful visions is that the market is speaking. It is validating the vision we've shared for the Hudson Yards."

The project will create a city within a city by decking over the rail yards and adding 30 million square feet of office space, and 15,000 new apartments, of which 30% are designated affordable.

Each of the five developers' visions would also greatly increase the city's amount of open green space and link the area with the High Line, the abandoned rail line that cuts through Chelsea and is being converted into an elevated park.

Each developer's bid to build on the area has not been made public, but each is believed to be well above $1 billion.

The public can view the various proposals at 335 Madison Ave. though Dec. 3 and comment there or online. A committee comprised of members of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and representatives from the Hudson Yards Development Corp. are now reviewing the plans. A winner is expected to be announced early next year.

Five visions, one big parcel

Developers have tapped top-name architects to make their square footage look pretty:

Developer: Related Companies

Architect: Kohn Pederson Fox

This plan utilizes anchor tenant News Corp. to "activate" the park in the words of CEO Stephen Ross and bring people to the area for open air movie screenings and NFL pre-game shows.

Developer: Extell

Architect: Stephen Holl

The plan brings a unique "triple tower" skyscraper to the area and a series of angled towers to bring different slants of sunlight to the area at different times of day.

Developer: Vornado/Durst

Architect: FXFowle architects

"We wanted to design the area so that it wouldn't be an island unto itself," said architect Dan Kaplan. The plan calls for an elevated "skyline" to run alongside the High Line and a "people mover" to shuttle people over from Penn Station.

Developer: Brookfield Properties

Architect: Skidmore, Owings and Merrill; Field Operations

This vision wraps the area into West Chelsea by reintroducing the street grid for cars and pedestrians. A Diller Scofido + Renfro residential building features a "running track in the sky" between two towers and space for a new Children's Museum.

Developer: Tishman/Speyer

Architect: Helmut Jahn

This dense development centers around an open air amphitheater, 13 acres of open space and residential towers that preserve views. The project is anchored by the world headquarters of Morgan Stanley.