Extell's Riverside Center Violates City Policies

Community Board 7 commissioned a study on Extell's plans for Riverside South. Several posts in this blog provide the context.

When you glance at the report, it seems pretty mild-mannered -- and it is! It was written by professionals who did a careful job and present their results dispassionately. But the substance of the report is a devastating analysis of Extell's plans. Their report makes the role of the celebrity architect so clear: we are supposed to be so wowed by his non-rectilinear buildings and his prizes that we somehow don't notice all the things wrong with the design.

1. The proposed design is a "tower-in-the-park," which the "City Planning Commission has worked strenuously to eliminate."

2. The Extell plan claims to have lots and lots of open park space, but it's just not true. Instead, it has "...ambiguous open space which is not clearly delineated as either public or private space, but is in fact private space"

3. "Further, by turning its back on the landmark quality Con Edison Generating Plant, it renders the adaptive reuse of this monumental structure less desirable."

4. The retail uses are contrary to both common sense and public policy. The report says that Extell's plan for retail "...is contrary to City Planning policy"

5. Instead of public streets, the design calls for private spaces. Having public streets instead of private spaces "has been City policy for some time for waterfront and upland blocks."

6. In their greed for profits, Extell has designed a space without sunlight. The design results in "extensive shadowing of the superblock’s landscaped and sitting areas for a good part of the day."

7. The buildings are designed without setbacks, in violation of policies that go all the way back to 1916. The consequences include:

• "unpleasant pedestrian-level winds"
• "making the areas adjacent to the tall tower’s shear walls unusable and sometimes dangerous"
• "these shear building walls are intimidating and are contrary to the urban design convention"

8. The length of the walls violates long-standing City Planning regulations.

So let's sum up the analysis in plain language:

Extell's plan:

Violates long-standing City Planning Commission standards on several grounds.

Turns its back on the IRT Powerhouse.

Converts public space to private use.

Is bad for retail.

Creates a space that will be dark and dangerously windy.

What more do you need to know?

Comments

[p]

It's good to use plan language, but it's better to use clear language. Extell's plan does not "convert public space to private use." What it does do is create "ambiguous open space which is not clearly delineated as either public or private space," while claiming that the space is open to the public.

[p]

I should be clear as well:

It's good to use plain language, but it's better to use clear language. Extell's plan does not "convert public space to private use." What it does do is create "ambiguous open space which is not clearly delineated as either public or private," while claiming that the space is open to the public. Since all of the open space "is in fact private space," there can be no conversion of public space to private use.

[Mara Gavios]

Mr. P., Extell's representatives initiated several meetings and invited the neighborhood to attend. Extell has said the following: "We (Extell) will enhance your neighborhood with a park and a (useless) water feature, etc. blah, blah, blah. Extell offered us a park but it turns out to be only a parvis (parvis is a courtyard in front of a building, usually in front of a cathedral). So we got the park idea from you guys. Oh I mean the parvis as Extell itself has called it. Extell's representatives conveniently forgot to mention the huge hotel/convention center and car dealership in these meetings (actually you continue to forget to mention them). Mr.P, Extell has been dishonest with our neighborhood since day one. Do you expect us to believe anything Extell/Gary Barnett says going forward? It is obvious that most of our neighborhood is against Extell's proposal, yet Gary Barnett is yet to surface and meet with the community which he continuously says he wants to enhance. Mr. P, why don't you and Gary Barnett meet with us and discuss your plans with us? Why don't we call a spade a spade. Extell has absolutely no intention to do anything to enhance our neighborhood, but will do everything to enhance their pockets.