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Month June 2012

Photos and renderings of buildings going up across New York

In honor of my new home (as of this February), New York City, here are some new towers going up in Midtown Manhattan! All photos from (where else?) the SkyscraperCity forums…click for source. The first is the International Gem Tower in the Diamond District (which looks to me like textured steel rather than precious metals), then there are three recent shots of One57, a bright blue residential skyscraper going up on West 57th Street, and then there’re a few renderings of Rafael Viñoly’s skinny modernist 432 Park (Ave?). The Gem Tower and One57 are by Extell, and 423 Park is CIM/Harry Macklowe. All are as-of-right, I believe. Plus, a video of Christian Portzamparc talking about about One57. And here’s a bonus: an old rendering of Rafael Viñoly’s plans for Williamsburg’s old Domino Sugar site, which may by given life again now that Two Trees, creator of Dumbo, owns it. (Most definitely not as-of-right!)  

Montgomery County’s loss is Calgary’s gain: Rollin Stanley escapes from the coven to Canada

Not sure how this escaped me, but it seems that a few weeks ago, Rollin Stanley was announced as Calgary’s new chief planner. Rollin Stanley, you’ll recall, was the very vocal pro-urban growth planner in Maryland’s Montgomery County, north of Washington, DC, who resigned after these four sentences appeared in Bethesda Magazine: He has little patience with dissenters. Stanley goes so far as to accuse them of being “rich, white women…spreading fear.” He says they stalk his appearances before community groups, sowing discord. He claims they refer to themselves as “the coven.” Most Americans still don’t think of Calgary as a very urban place, but it’s been holding its own against Vancouver and Toronto lately when it comes to urbanism in Canada (which is generally much more advanced than urbanism in the US), even without true rapid transit (the C-Train, while impressive as light rail, still has to cross streets). Calgary’s skyline’s been booming, and as the Calgary Herald writes, the city also has an urbanist mayor: Stanley’s approach somewhat resembles that of Mayor Naheed Nenshi, and beyond his unconventionally frank yet also high-reaching rhetoric. Nenshi, too, deplores suburban sprawl and the financial challenges it brings for government, and praises more walkable districts and transit. While Nenshi avidly uses social-media site Twitter, Stanley blogs prolifically with long rhapsodies on everything from master plans and neighbourhood walkabouts to census data and criticism. Here’s his old Montgomery County blog – does anyone know if he’s keeping one in Calgary? Or if maybe we could lure him to Twitter? There appears to be a general political consensus – that thing Alon Levy’s always talking about – towards urbanism in Calgary, so Calgary will likely get good urbanism: While the developer sector in Calgary is well-organized, there’s not as professionalized and unified community movement against […]

Were NYU and Chelsea Market’s hotels just stalking horses?

An item from Crain’s NY Business, behind a paywall (I think?): Sacrificial hotels Two hotel developments in Manhattan were effectively killed last week. The City Planning Commission cut a proposed 190-room property from New York University‘s expansion plan, and Community Board 4 rejected Chelsea Market‘s proposal for a 12-story boutique hotel next to its historic building. That was no surprise to one insider, who suggested the hotels merely served as smoke screens to provide cover for controversial developments. “It seems like there’s a new strategy out there,” the source said. “Add a hotel to any large-scale development. And when the community comes running and screaming, you sacrifice it.”

Market Urbanism Book Club

I’m very excited that some of you expressed interest in doing a book club this summer. I think we should start with The High Cost of Free Parking. It’s the longer of the two books, but it looks like the relative beach read. I am thinking that what makes the most sense is for me to post some brief thoughts on sections of the book here on the blog that we can discuss in the comments. Other options for the book club would be doing a Google Group which is basically an email chain, or we could do a Google Hangout or Skype discussion live. Please let me know if you have strong preferences for one of these methods. Otherwise, I’ll plan to do a first post on the first four chapters of the book late next week.

An Early Defense of Zoning

At Discovering Urbanism, Daniel Nairn offers an interesting summary of Edward Murray Bassett’s 1922 defense of zoning (available as a free e-book). Bassett faced opponents who were against a new type of land use regulation, many arguing that zoning was unconstitutional. In retrospect, some of his arguments defending zoning are comical. He asserts that zoning would never go so far as to direct aesthetics because the courts would protect us from the overreach. It would be interesting to hear what he’d have to say about a planning commission meeting today. Nairn’s entire analysis is interesting, but I was particularly intrigued by Bassett’s assertion that zoning fosters cooperation. As Nairn summarizes: Cooperation yields overall larger return on investment for all property owners. This was Bassett’s primary concern, one that he underscored with a number of prisoners’ dilemma scenarios. For example, “In some of the larger cities a landowner in the business district is almost compelled to put up a skyscraper because if he put up a low building, his next neighbor would put up a higher one that would take advantage of his light and air.” He asserted that skyscrapers were probably not a sound investment in their own right, but they were built anyway in a virtual arms race for public goods of light, air, privacy, and scenery. Zoning was the truce that made everyone better off. I’m not sure that I follow Bassett’s logic here. If light and air are only available on floors that are higher than the floors of the neighboring buildings, then only the top few floors of any building would typically have this asset. It’s almost as if he’s talking about a race to the highest roof deck here. Aside from the problems with how he makes this argument, it is worth a look to determine […]

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