Roosevelt Island Southtown Riverwalk Building 7 Begins Construction - 266 Unit Market Rate Rental, Here's What It Will Look Like
The Hudson Related Companies have started construction on their seventh Riverwalk Southtown Roosevelt Island building.
It will be the first of three buildings planned for the Queens side of Southtown completing the 9 building Roosevelt Island Riverwalk project.
Image of Riverwalk Building 1-6 and future site of 7-9 from Wall Street Journal
According to the Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC):
Please be advised that starting November 1, site work and foundation preparation work will commence at the Southtown Building 7 location. Excavation work has already begun on the sewer force main at the site. Expect construction vehicles in the area.When completed, Riverwalk Building 7 is expected to look like the rendering below.
Sincerely,
Roosevelt Island Operating Corp Advisories Group
According to the Hudson Companies, the Riverwalk Building 7 at 480 Main Street will be a 266 unit market rate rental with a total of 215,000 square feet. Anticipated construction completion is in 2015.
Landscape designers Future Green Studio describe Roosevelt Island's newest luxury rental as follows:
This project includes an entrance garden, ground floor rear terrace garden, walking paths to the esplanade, shaded destinations near the waterfront, open lawn areas and meadows, and shaded forest areas with large deciduous trees and structural evergreens.
An entrance garden includes a driveway with a passenger drop off and turnaround. Mid-sized specimen flowering trees will provide a showy front to the building and help to soften the transition from the street to the building edge. A distinctive paving pattern of concrete pavers and attractive bollards will address the ground plane. Large landscape beds may anchor the base and corners of the building and be planted with large swathes of low-lying perennials and grasses.
The roof garden will be designed to include dining areas, grill stations, open areas for sunbathing and shaded areas for comfortable lounging. Rooftop garden elements may include concrete pavers, wood deck areas, a pergola, an outdoor kitchen, wood planters, and plantings. The plantings may be low maintenance evergreen shrubs, perennials, grasses and a few specimen trees. A south facing green wall adjacent to mechanical areas creates an impactful moment for the roof garden while buffering the noise created by the mechanical units.
Riverwalk 7 Entrance Rendering From Future Green Studio
Riverwalk 7 Garden Rendering From Future Green Studio
Riverwalk 7 Rooftop Rendering From Future Green Studio
Hudson Related will be paying RIOC for Riverwalk building 7:
... 1. Ground Rent:More on the development agreement for Riverwalk Building 7 between Hudson/Related and RIOC from previous post and additional building renderings here.
- Prepaid Ground Rent ($50/SF@ 201,600SF) - $10,080,000
- Starting Annual Ground Rent w/ 3% escalation - $765,760.00...
... 4. Public Safety Fees: $20/unit/month w/ 4% escalation (est. 200 units)
- starting annual public safety fee - $48,000.00...
18 comments :
So we have two robust 40+ yr old trees ripped down. Awful. Is there any discussion of the mature tree destruction that Cornell has on the docket?
Nine bldgs, not one unit of affordable housing.
I know, I know, can't stop "progress".
No - you are correct to be appalled by H-R's plan. It is going to make ST into even more of an enclave than it already is. You will have the well-heeled in their genteel gardens and spas looking down at the lumpen types on Main St. The gentrification goes against the precepts of the GDP, which calls for a mixed-income community on an ongoing basis.
Let's hope the new administration in City Hall (if the election on Tues goes as anticipated) impresses upon Cuomo that the people of NY have had about enough with the rich taking all the new housing with not enough being built for the poor. That applies not just for the five boroughs, but for RI as well.
As for the trees at Cornell: There must be an department at Cornell, or one of its units, that could conduct a tree survey and put the data /photos of the trees online, so that everyone can monitor and keep track of the fate of these trees. I don't see how Cornell could prevent a Cornell department from undertaking such an effort, perhaps as a grad project.
Cornell owns these trees since they are growing on the land that NYC gave to Cornell. Cornell doesn't have to try to save the trees, but it would certainly look bad if Cornell heedlessly chopped them all down: If it doesn't barge, chopping the trees down would add to its negative image as an arrogant environmental despoiler of RI, And bad PR is what Cornell doesn't want.
Beautiful plan.
Bc I'm a glutton for punishment (& a die hard for saving what's left of our rare mature trees) I'm going to start digging to see if there's a division or, heaven forbid, an actual person@ Cornell that will hear me out on this and comprehend the importance of saving these trees.
People can't afford to live any more and uh you are worried about trees.really
Where are the usual suspects when running for rioc or rira office always saying. I wiil fright for affordable housing.yea. I see the job they are doing
You must have missed/ignored the sentence in my post that mentioned the lack of affordable housing in any of the new bldgs. It's possible to be concerned about more than one issue @ a time.
Mookie: It turns out the entire effort is lost: Cornell is going to chop down 93 of about 120 trees, and is going have huge trucks going through RI, etc. Cornell won on everything. Some of those trees are within the footprint of the new buildings so they can not be saved. Cornell says they will plant 4 new trees for every tree chopped down. Everything is in the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS). There is nothing anyone can do. Email me (you can get my email from Rick) if you wish to discuss.
So evidently the tree inventory at the site has already been taken. Apparently, the information on the trees is in the DEIS.
Anyway, here's a link http://www.hort.cornell.edu/commfor/inventory/SWAT.html.
If this Street Tree SWAT Team can't help with advice on the trees that are planned to be spared, at least the faculty member in charge of the Team might refer you to department/team that could help. Maybe we could have an Adopt-A-Tree program - to make sure the remaining 27 mature trees aren't chopped down.
I think RIRA might endorse this effort, since it would also benefit the greater island community - not just the future Cornell-Technion campus - to the extent that the public is going to be allowed to walk around the (hopefully) leafy campus etc.
RIOC even reduced the rent for building 7 - as an added inducement to get H-R to build. What a bunch of saps. They could have insisted affordable housing go into any new building on that site, but didn't. This is your State gov at work for you. Not! Oh - maybe those with the dough get apts, but forget it when it comes to the low- and middle-income folks; they're just shown the door.
Why not put in for an apt there Rossie - looks like it'll beat MP hands down. If money is no object for you, then it seems like a no-brainer to make the move to ST.
If they were available for purchase, I might do just that!
I love how you say money is no object to me... As if you're the crusader. Allow me to quote CheshireKitty (link to this quote follows): “Material possessions - got 'em! More, much more than I need. I got so many pairs of ahem "elite" athletic shoes of all types, my walk-in closets (oh yes - my nice subsidized apt comes with wonderful walk-in closets) are overflowing with sneakers… I have so many "things"… I have money (obviously) yet unlike you I don't have to work.”
http://rooseveltislander.blogspot.com/2013/09/roosevelt-island-amish-farmers-market.html#comment-1048433474
Sorry
The Caped Crusader? Look, there was no indication if the material goods are for me, or the folks of my "model city"... and the money, for me, or them.. the folks in the "shire"... If I don't work, it doesn't mean the "shire folks" don't...
All these possessions, all this money.. could be for them.. the "shire folks"...
Then do it, and spare us your complaining!
Wow, more terrible news. Yeah, I'd like to discuss a bit further thanks, Rick who? Might be possible to get other non-RI orgs in on it, Of course the lame planting new trees ridiculousness. 40+ yr old London Plane & maple trees replaced by five foot overgrown bushes.
Mookie: Rick is the blog owner/moderator. There's a link within the blog (scroll all the way to the top of the blog, then scroll slowly down - the link to email him is in the middle column) to email Rick.
Cornell is going to chop down about 93 mature trees - some are within the footprints of the new buildings so the loss of these trees can't be helped. Not sure if all 93 trees are within the footprints. About 30 mature leaves are planned to not be chopped down. What I think we could do is find out which are the 30 trees, and then do all we can to ensure they survive. A survey can be done of these trees. I know this is Cornell's project, but there is a benefit to having these trees that extends to all residents. Also, Cornell says we will be able to walk around on campus so it's in everyone's interest to retain as many trees as possible for their beauty/shade/supporting wildlife/helps produce oxygen etc.
Yeah - I agree on replacing wonderful mature trees with overgrown bushes, or the identical fast-growing conifers. Look at what happened by the water tunnel site, where Shane had 40 wonderful trees chopped down - for no reason. Look at the desolation there - still - years later. Nondescript pine trees were planted afterwards, since they grow fast.
We have also lost trees to storms. RIOC/Cornell needs to replace lost trees with a variety of trees - to match as closely as possible the diversity of the original lost trees.
At the risk of sounding like I'm going on, but look at Lighthouse Park for an example of a variety of trees, including weeping willows. We have some wonderful trees on RI - not least the magnificent cherry trees. We should not let developers/Cornell/RIOC replace lost trees with the cheapest/fastest-growing "generic" trees.
Yes - I agree, we should partner with other organizations to present alternatives/ideas to Cornell/RIOC about trees - those that can be saved and those that will need to be replaced once the campus is built.
Some good ideas, will do some research on non-RI orgs & @ the very least maybe they can share some ideas on successful campaigns that have saved trees in the past. Will contact you "offline".
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