Last week I walked through HY on the way to my $1.00 seat on the Megabus to Boston. I'm not poor, but I don't like spending money on things that aren't worth the price. I can't imagine ever buying anything at HY, whether a condo or a croissant. It's inconvenient to access, ugly and forbidding from street level, and little more than a huge, unsightly obstacle on my path out of an increasingly unhuman city.
9
One oversight here—should have been a distinction made between North Battery Park and South Battery Park. South is much more affordable with generic 1980’s appt buildings while North has high end luxury apt buildings. Also, “battery park relies on a pair of Gristedes” just isn’t true. Directly across from NBPC on the West Side Highway (at Warren st) is the massive Tribeca Whole Foods.
1
I visited Hudson Yards yesterday. I found it cold and sterile. All that money and so called design talent and this is what they produced so far? Well the high end sterility is an ideal setting for wealthy foreigners to invest in property in which they will occupy a max of 4 weeks a year.
10
A city within a city...without a public library.
11
Some counter facts. In New York City in February 2019, there were 63,615 homeless people sleeping in the City's shelter system, including 22,717 children. About 15% of American homeless are in New York City, where their number has increased by 74% over the last ten years. Everyone agrees on the cause: a lack of affordable housing . . . . No doubt, from a real estate point of view, these facts are irrelevant and off topic to a report on the latest super luxury development. From a human point of view, however, they wouldn't be.
17
That headliner image looks like something out of Angry Birds
1
I noticed that tall building when I visited NYC this december past, and was shaken by that pointy balcony emerging from the building. I can't be the only one who was reminded of the planes crashing through the Twin Towers. Why? At any rate, the project is plug ugly.
4
I grew up right outside NYC and I used to love all the things that made New York unique.
Now all of that is gone.
The artists; the music stores like Manny's and Jimmy's; the coffee shops; the grand theaters, the tiny clubs like Cafe' Wha and the Night Owl; the gritty energy of Times Square before Disney, the little bookstores and curio shops.
All lost to the worship of money and corporate and political greed.
Part of the reason I stayed in Philadelphia after college was that I wanted to live in a place that was real. Where, unlike NYC, it wasn't all about money; where an artist - or even a regular middle class person - could (and still can) live in the center of everything; where history has not been bulldozed for another Duane Reade; where a historic rowhouse in a lovely neighborhood can be had for far less than a million bucks; where good food can be had for little money and great food doesn't cost 2 people a thousand dollars; where theatre and music thrive as art, not tourist attractions.
No wonder Brooklyn is emigrating here.
I weep for the New York I knew. Who wants to live in a city full of glorified accountants and trust fund schmucks?
15
Would only a Socialist question why?--With 66,000 New Yorkers sleeping in municipal homeless centers, including 22,000 children, due to a lack of affordable housing--Should yet another luxury development for the super rich really be our city's priority?
10
@Red Allover
Yes
1
When I moved to Chelsea in 1978, it was a rat infested, $2 hookers, dangerous at night neighborhood..I love all the wonderful changes..The Whitney, the High Line, Chelsea Piers, Chelsea Market.Whole Foods, Fairway, Trader Joes, and now Hudson Yards are mine to savor..I love the architecture ..the mixing of all peoples Wonderful article..Thank you
7
A running complaint among the commentators is the fact that this is a very high end development. But given the cost of acquiring the air rights $1 Billion) -paid to the MTA - and the costs of development ($20 Billion +), only a very high development can possibly hope to make money.
4
green space is what NYC needs. Not more catalogue store filled vertical shopping malls. can you imagine if this space was an emerald-green central park suspended over the city?
oh, they already ruined the High Line....
3
@Warren Bobrow
I get your point. But the City NEEDS as much tax revenue as it can secure. Right now, the City's budget is approaching $100 billion a year. This spending includes monies for the underfunded schools, police, parks, social welfare programs, fire department and the list can go on and on. While parks are a nice amenity, they don't pay the bills. Projects like Hudson Yards - even with their tax abatement - do and may even help to lower the need to increase income and real estate taxes.
3
The real test for Hudson Yards will come with the opening of the more residential western portion of the development. Will its initial residents make it into a community or will it be just real estate? The distinction between the two is that of two different worlds. It appears that Battery Park City has only in recent years begun to coalesce into a community. I suspect that its coming of age can largely be tied to the opening of an adequate number of public schools.
The numbers of total potential residents at Hudson Yards seems a bit too small for it to become a neighborhood, and it's neighborhoods that have public schools. On the other hand we live in a time of vast demographic shifts, so older definitions of residential agglomorations [sp?] may no longer be useful. For a nearly life-long resident of Manhattan south of 125th Street, it's exciting and encouraging to see the long-abandoned and derelict once thriving former waterfront of freighters and passenger vessels at last take on new life. It is an heroic undertaking. Next: Sunnyside Yards.
@John Lee Kapnernh hands off sunnyside yards from a sunnyside resident! how about they improve 7 train before they start bringing more people into the hood????
2
I'd rather live in a Brillo box, in Pittsburgh, in the basement of the Warhol Museum.
11
A Campbell Soup can
2
Who is this developer named Related Companies? Where do they get their money for this?
7
It's a fabricated social media corporate experience and will never be a real organic neighborhood... Why? Because as of now there is absolutely no actual small scale space devoted to anything that's not packaged or developed of manufactured, nothing with character or in a nascent stage of development. There will never be artists studios. There will never be a little zine shop. There will never be... a lot of things. I guess that's happening all over the city but this is certainly emblematic of the decline of Civilization. As one friend said "Oh look! They created a mini-Dubai on the West Side!" ... Precisely.
42
No one is ignoring Hudson Yards, Mr. Del Valle. They just don't have to go there, if they don't want to. That's capitalism and free will for you, sir.
8
This is precisely the same argument going on right now here in Chicago about the proposed huge Lincoln Yards development along the Chicago River.
Lori Lightfoot was elected mayor partly as a pushback against such projects that involve huge tax giveaways to mega-rich developers - by a financially strained city. But the lame-duck mayor Rahm Emanuel and lame-duck city council (some of whom are under indictment) seem determined to push through a $1.1 billion TIF district that will amount to a tax giveaway to the developers.
Mayor-elect Lightfoot is saying "Whoa!" In a couple of weeks when the new mayor and council take over, they may have to figure out how to undo this gift, or should I say graft.
This drama is unfolding in the next couple of weeks. It reeks of lame-duck legislators in Wisconsin and Virginia trying to hamstring newly elected leaders. Pay attention. We in Chicago are certainly paying attention to how Hudson Yards is turning out for you in New York.
10
Built by billionaires for billionaires. Yawn.
18
@Lifelong New Yorker
What! No trillionaires?
As a Non-New Yorker, I look forward only to visiting TAK Room in Hudson Yards and savoring their lobster thermidor.
1
Will this project by and for the very rich at least pay property taxes?
5
...living in BPC we have access to all the subways in a 10 minute walk. Hudson Yards has no access other than the 7...you might as well be living in NJ. I wish HY luck - it’s going to need it.
6
Of course I am biased. I live in BPC. I walk to Chinatown which has NOT changed that much. I walk to the history of downtown at my fingertips. I go to top notch concerts in churches that George Washington attended and I walk in nice weather to a choice of almost all subways. I see good schools, lots of children, Seniors, and young people without children who like to walk to work. I will go to Hudson Yards...but the scale, history, and walkability give BPC the edge. What happens when the No 7 goes down for all of these people....
12
Former BPC resident here. The neighborhood really is one of the best places to live in New York. On top of what you mentioned, it’s got well maintained parks (with water views to boot) and it’s quieter than much of the city. Still remember those summer evening breezes on the esplanade!
4
Thank you C. J. Hughes! My appreciation goes to the undertaking of this ambitious article, and how the info about this exciting project came to fruition. It should be required reading for every New Yorker!
3
I find there is a problem with the super tall glass clad towers that Related and Brookfield Properties have built. (Brookfield is the second developer in the Hudson Yards area.)They are super reflective and the SUN's GLARE IS BLINDING in multiple areas of the surrounding blocks during a typical sunny day.
10
The New York City Metro area may just be the most diverse place on our planet in regards to the origins of its citizens.
The richness of our city was built upon many ethnic communities who wanted to blend into American Life and also bring some pieces from where they came from.
It used to be possible to take a subway ride and enjoy an authentic meal from anywhere in the world, at a place where family members of several generations raised their families and brought a piece of their history to our city.
Now, as greedy mega-building developers appear to be in a global race to "who can build the biggest monstrosity" have forced wonderful richness out of town as they can no longer pay the rent for their business establishment which they occupied for many decades and even for a century.
If "everyone" could enjoy what these new developments bring to our town, there would be no issues.
However, the needs of the many have been harshly overlooked for what brings value and profit for the very few.
Sure, these buildings make for a wonderful postcard photo - but so what if the actual city where "people" live and work is crumbling.
There needs to be an intelligent look at the complete social value for all new major construction, especially if it "cuts the line" for long overlooked infrastructure projects which benefits everyone.
I would also be remiss not to include that the sand required for all of this construction is nearly exhausted on a global level.
We should "think" !
34
@Leonard Dornbush I am guilty as charged, as my comment proves. Instead of reading other people’s comments, I just looked at all that was shiny and new without a thought about its dull underside. Your comment is a must read!
1
@Leonard Dornbush
The issue is the cost of construction and purchase of the air rights. Related Company paid $1 billion dollars to the MTA just to have the right to build over the rail yards. Then there is the cost of construction and other related development costs that will total well into the $20 billion range. With these costs confronting the developer, it could not afford to build a more middle class retail and residential development. The only entity that could have done that is the City or the State but they don't have the money to do so.
So given the high price of land and development in Manhattan, unfortunately the only choices are high-end development or no development. And no development means no new new jobs or taxes.
1
Three decades ago my brother and sister lived in the then new Battery Park City. It was mediocre architecturally and remains so today, but somehow retained at least an element of being part of the fabric of the city.
I get little sense of this with Hudson Yards, just a wall of gigantic glass towers, blank and aloof, forever besmirching and blotting out the iconic view of the Empire State Building from the west.
32
@Doug65 To view BPC as being part of Manhattan all those years ago may be open to some debate. My downtown friends and I never went there and imagined "old" people and new comers to the city who were really scared to actually have to live in the city moved there. Clearly that isn't entire true but it was considered architecturally boring, and "other."
2
@Lisa Yes, I know what you’re talking about. At the time BPC actually had a fair number of younger folks in the 20s and 30s. By today’s standards the rent was fairly reasonable. It was and remains uninspiring architecturally, and not exactly exciting in and of itself as a place to live although there was walkable proximity to the rest of lower Manhattan and the Hudson waterfront. But it just didn’t seem as defined by oppressive hermetically sealed off giganticism as Hudson Yards.
8
Is this the tenth paean to Hudson Yards appearing in these pages? I also notice many of the local news shows are using the Yards as a stand-in for the city itself when they show the weather. I think the goniffs who put this deal together are worried about the steel and glass Frankenstein they assembled and the near universal revulsion it inspires, so they are pulling every possible string at favorable advertising. It can't last and unless they can find a miraculous supply of wealthy, visually impaired buyers, it won't work.
36
Early in the article:
"By punting to Related and Oxford, which paid $1 billion for the rights to the site and built the deck, the M.T.A. made sure taxpayers wouldn’t be on the hook, said Mr. Wright, whose group supports the project.
" 'Battery Park City required the public to take on a lot more risk,' he said. But with the Hudson Yards model, 'whether Related goes belly up, or not, is not our problem.' "
And yet, later in the article:
"Less public money has flowed to Hudson Yards, the development, than to Battery Park City, but the amount spent in the neighborhood has not been insignificant. The city has had to pay $359 million in interest on bonds for infrastructure projects, although property taxes are supposed to start covering that debt now that buildings are open."
359 million was just the *interest*? Over how many years, so far? How many years until the bonds mature? What's the principal?
Yes, this will hopefully all be more than paid for by future tax revenue that the project will bring in for decades to come, but it'd be nice to have the figures.
6
@Jacob However you slice it the billionaires end up making the rest of us pay, and pay, and pay. NYT's enough with the Hudson Yards articles!
8
C'mon, New Yorkers, let's be honest - the money for our myriad of social programs, too numerous elected officials, and huge civil service workforce (and their pensions), etc..., has to come from somewhere, and a super-expensive city within a city will, eventually, provide a heckuva lot of tax revenue. There was nothing there before, and now, while it's not my favorite place (other than the vermouth at Mercado Little Spain, which is pretty awesome), it will produce a revenue stream for our grandchildren and, if their is still a planet left, their grandchildren.
11
I don’t believe this for a minute.
9
@Zejee
Why do you not believe that this development will create additional tax revenues? I just don't get the cynicism.
2
There's artificial style development that is supply side and there's natural evolving development borne out of demand.
The latter is reminiscent of people building their homes over the years, stores for them too, paths in between, perhaps a city hall, a church, some more amenities like a school and fire department. Sometimes these structures are tightly packed together over time, some replace others, and the roads and pathways exist to connect it all, some are straight but many are curved and run at angles. Over time, generations, these areas come to develop a true, sincere and genuine character that tells the story of the people and their lives. This is how Manhattan and other cities developed until recently -- they were phylogenetic.
The former is a master-planned scenic environment created by a few developers who are seeking to make a lucrative financial investment. They are driven by this goal, and it shapes the entire process. Instead of a community of individuals each growing on their own into a sum greater than their parts, these massive land use development projects are imposed upon the community by singular powerful individuals. Connections are fabricated, ideas themselves are manufactured, the constructions are thinly veiled monuments to these few developers, and there is a lack of sincerity, genuineness, honesty -- who cares about the truth when you can fabricate such ostentation out of sheer will and wealth? Nothing about this is alive, there is no phylogeny.
8
Agreed in theory but don’t forget the possibility of a master planned development that is capable of evolving organically over time (ie, Rockefeller Center)
1
Neither Battery Park City nor Hudson Yards are architecturally wonderful, but as examples of urban design I think BPC is far superior. Like or loathe the "new urbanism" or post-modernism of most of BPC's buildings, you have to admit that, as the years go by, it is a pretty nice walkable neighborhood that seems to be a part of the city the natives would recognize and that most of us who moved here wanted to be a part of.
Going up onto the elevated other world of Hudson Yards, strolling through the it's-not-a-mall and looking for a bit of open space in the plaza on which the overscaled "vessel" has been plunked, being bombarded with expensive surfaces and generic high-end stores, one might easily question whether he or she is in New York, Houston, or Kuala Lumpur, since most development in our new century seems to be making them all more or less the same.
Jane Jacobs had a point.
29
Wow a story by a Real Estate proponent. "Stylish modern towers" is a quote he uses. That is pushing it. As congestion pricing is introduced, Hudson Yards will create greater density in an area already bursting at the seams. Nothing is ever mentioned about this problem. Sort of glossing over aesthetic and city planning issues, he presents a deal that seems predestined. At least he didn't say Jane Jacobs would approve. I think this development is a travesty, emblematic of what is wrong with our capitalism, city planning, architecture, the list goes on....
25
This Paean to Hudson Yards tells us how much government spent on Battery Park City, and how much more wonderful and efficient Hudson yards is because a giant multi-national real estate conglomerate created it. New Yorkers purportedly paid next to nothing, a mere $359 million. It's untrue.
The piece derisively speaks of how Battery Park City was financed by $200 million in state bonds, and then pretends it means over a billion in today's dollars. It is bad math, especially as the purported wonder that is Hudson Yards, having destroyed New York City's distinct and beautiful West Side and transforming it into a generic shard of glass meant to cater to 20th century, not 21st century, corporate vanity, cost New York taxpayers 6 billion dollars. Jump forward nearly 50 years and that cost is over 30 billion.
The Times's architecture critic, Michael Kimmelman, called the development a "relic of dated 2000s thinking, nearly devoid of urban design," and akin to "glass shards on top of a wall."
"Hudson Yards glorifies a kind of surface spectacle — as if the peak ambitions of city life were consuming luxury goods and enjoying a smooth, seductive, mindless materialism."
The open space, he continued, "looks like it may end up being mostly a fancy drive-through drop-off for the shopping mall, a landscaped plaza overshadowed by office towers."
Hudson Yards is how corporate vanity, greed, and excess destroys everything which makes New York City special. It doesn't even merit mention.
37
What would Jane Jacobs say about this?
8
I grew up in New York, but have been living in Boston for most of my adult life. I visited the Hudson Yards area last time I visited NYC and found the area very depressing. Hudson Yards looks like a suburban office park on steroids. Where is the active street life? Where is the character that makes New York unique? Like Battery Park City, the area seems very sterile and removed from the city, but unlike Battery Park City, I cannot see Hudson Yards establishing itself as a neighborhood where New Yorkers have made a home. Hudson Yards is just another example of the sterilization of New York. I'll take Boston, which still reeks of character, any day.
39
Boston reeks, you say? Noted.
1
New York genius (and presumably dramatically under-recognized): "A bit of forethought also worked in the project’s favor. In the 1980s, when the Transportation Authority was undertaking a $196 million project to turn a defunct freight depot into the 30-track Hudson Yards rail yard, Richard Ravitch, who was then the chairman, realized the air above the new yard had great potential.
So he added enough space between the tracks to allow columns to stand between them, while also fortifying the ground to support huge weights. The groundwork for Hudson Yards was laid."
To have this foresight and then to execute the plan at a time (perhaps as always) of fiscal constraints for the city, is remarkable. I hope he is recognized for his remarkable impact. Doesn't matter whether you like the project. He made it (or another you might prefer) possible.
14
If it’s not been said before —
New York, New York it’s a helluva town.
Hudson Yards is East, but Battery Park City is down!
New York, New York, it's a helluva town!!
3
@J L S: And here I thought Hudson Yards was to the west. Live and learn...
4
Lack of urban fabric all but ensures that Hudson Yards will be a soul-less wasteland for years to come.
19
The article mentions Related Properties 10 times, but never tells us who the key players are in it, what backgrounds in design, construction, or finance they bring to this.
All we can assume is that Donald J. Trump is not involved or it would be named Trump Miles!
6
What happens to all of this when sea levels rise 15-20' in the next 20 years?
13
@Jenny Battery Park City has a seawall, though I don't know if it will be high enough - but there is no reason why it can't be raised. The article says that Hudson Yards is on a platform 3 stories high. And while sea levels are definitely rising and will cause massive destruction, I have never heard anyone say 15-20 feet in the next 20 years. On the other hand, more people in Manhattan using subways will probably mean a lower climate impact than if those people lived and worked in the burbs. And hopefully some of the taxes reaped from Hudson Yards will go to the best mitigator of climate change - mass transit.
2
@NYC299 No, the seawall is not high enough. I believe most of the original seawall at least downtown and on the west side was built in the later 1800s early 1900s. During Irene the water from the Hudson covered part of the West Side Highway and some of the lobbies in Battery Park City were inundated.
3
When the new buyers from Brazil or Berlin intend to have a leisurely dinner on their patios, watching the sun set on the Hudson, they will be surprised by the fierce Atlantic winds blowing night and day, shutting them up in their towers.
1
More people get taxed out of their neighborhood by the governments. An expensive new housing area does not deprive the poor.
1
With real estate sales slowing down and prices coming down over the last 18 months, are we (city dwellers and tax payers) on the hook if this gilded city-in-a-city multi-million dollar development tanks, and if yes, by how much? I would really appreciate it if you (NYTimes) could look into this! Thanks!
11
The Port Authority, as this article duly shows, is just a money funnel from the state to the real estate industry. Our airports are among the worst in the country, and yet we’re using tax subsidies to build $6 million apartments on the far west aide.
I also went down and took a look. The buildings are out of scale (too big) and the whole place has the charm of downtown Houston. This New Yorker says meh
18
Again another huge missed architectural opportunity for the city. These structures have no connect what so ever to the city skyline or neighborhood. They are soulless vacuous pillars of glass & steel. Who was the master planner - Disney World? It's nothing but a corporate cash grab with no regard to the humanity and aesthetic of a great city that is quickly losing its identity!
15
The article closes with “But it’s a part of New York City now. And ignoring it is not going to make it go away.” Which is fair enough, but so is "It's part of New Jersey now. And ignoring it is the only hope for a New Yorker to maintain sanity."
5
The comparison table is glitching in the mobile app.
1
I went there last weekend. I was sadly disappointed. I like tall buildings (and I like not so tall buildings) and I was glad they were building somewhere where they didn't have to tear down our beautiful old brick buildings in mid-town. It had this huge internal mall that really had nothing to do with the streets of New York. Rockefeller Center is part of New York. It keeps you separate from Manhattan. This reminds me of a Penn South or Styvesant town--or Short Hills Mall or Pudong. I feel off kilter when I leave Manhattan and I felt the same way in Hudson Yards
8
Related has brought life to an area that for years was forgotten and god knows left to the MTA nothing would get done, ever. This is Stephen Ross’ crowning achievement. The hordes of people that have visited in the last couple of weeks means that people are excited to see it.
On living there, I think Hudson Yards it’s a great option for those who like self contained neighborhoods where everything is pristine. Personally it’s not for me, bc the grit and the incongruousness of the rest of the city is still appealing to me.
8
@DS Lots of people have visited it (I'm one of them), but that's out of curiosity. The key thing is how many curiosity seekers like what they see and experience and come back. Me--unless I've a visitor out of town who wants to check it out or climb the Vessel, I've no need to go back.
1
My tax dollars go to the elite's newest jungle gym while my beloved CUNY is being starved. The rich play in their new playgrounds and our paper says nothing about the state budget's negligence toward---and continuous defunding of--- the nation's largest public university, which faces dire financial troubles, criminally underpays its faculty, and raises tuition on its working-class, working-poor, and poor students.
43
@DomenickDont think faculty at CUNY, SUNY etc are underpaid...
Great.....just one more neighborhood that the average New Yorker can't afford. Thanks.
8
A little more low-med income housing would be very welcome, but overall this Manhattanite gives it a thumbs up. You gotta ask "Is it better than what was there before?" Surely. D.A., Chelsea
2
Battery Park was also hindered by the Terrorist attacks of 2001 that the author somehow forgot about.
Hopefully Hudson Yards will escape a similar fate
3
It’s another way of giving public lands away for free to private companies for nothing substantial in return. These are super profitable projects and 1 billion is the price of 5 luxury apartments. The Bloomberg administration supported private companies more than public. They could have asked for a lot more public housing in return but they didn’t. Now this complex will be another playground for the rich. Good night and good luck to the public...
12
As someone who was a lifelong New Yorker (one of the few who was actually born in Manhattan) I just get so sad looking at these pictures. I left Manhattan, the only place I thought I could ever live and be happy, last year to move to Europe. Nobody who belongs in NYC can live there anymore and when I see pictures I feel like I'm looking at some enormous bathroom. Rather than create this monstrosity, how about fix the subways, which no longer function and make going one stop from 72nd to 42nd on the 2, 3 such an ordeal you have to plan for an hour delay every time you take the train. When I moved I was incredibly homesick, but what made it even worse was I realized I had been homesick for 10 years, for a NYC that no longer existed, every neighborhood with its own distinct flavor, personality and character. Now Starbucks, Chase, Duane Reade, a department store or outlet, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, etc. and you have your McNeighborhood which is like every other neighborhood. You can live exactly the same life elsewhere for cheaper with an occasional foray into the city for the theater. The city used to feed its inhabitants with energy, now just stress and a constant reminder of what you cannot have because you don't have enough money. Sigh.
100
Jonny, did it never occur to you to move to Brooklyn? As Manhattan got more expensive, the more affordable living got pushed out to other boroughs, with some neighborhoods there developing into something pretty similar to old Manhattan. When a city's expensive center expands, the reasonable comparison across decades is not between a particular neighborhood with that neighborhood in a previous era, but between a neighborhood decades ago and a neighborhood that now has inherited that role. Every city changes. I can pretty much guarantees that the neighborhoods you nostalgically remember from a few decades ago were markedly different a few decades before you arrived.
6
@Jacob
Brooklyn? BK is on its way out as well. I am also a NYC native, born in Manhattan. Brooklyn was once its own special place, not a satellite or place to retreat to, but a special part of NYC with its own energy and character. Take a drive down the BQE and look at the glass towers smothering the soul out of Williamsburg and other neighborhoods. The corporate virus is spreading there faster than any other borough.
21
@Jacob. Nice try. I would no sooner move to Brooklyn than I would move to Des Moines. I was born in Manhattan and I grew up on the Upper East Side off and on in conjunction with a detour in Milan for 8 years. Manhattanites don't live in Brooklyn. But that's beside the point. Manhattan isn't really anything special any longer. There are no venues for nightlife, and Bloomberg seemed to think all New Yorkers had this secret desire to live in Scarsdale (after Giuliani's delusion that we wanted to live in Disneyland). New York is full of boring rich people or empty apartments owned by rich people who live elsewhere. This is not OK. And as I stated in my comment, I did not arrive in NYC. I was BORN there, in 1962.
14
What should be obvious is that Battery Park City was developed and "marketed" in the midst of a decline in the overall heath of the City; population was decreasing and blue collar jobs that had made up the backbone of our workforce were disappearing (mostly through automation and the obsolescence of New York's old industries). We lost 500,000 in population while the land for Battery Park City was being created, and it took decades to fill the World Trade Center to the point where the original goal of privatizing that complex could be realized.
Hudson Yards is being developed in the midst of a City that is adding jobs and population and is far more attractive to developers than it was in the period from 1965 - 1980.
And that explains the relative speed of development, and the difference in size and scope of the buildings going into the newer neighborhood.
12
The most famous site seen from NJ - the Empire State Building is lost except for a view from the North. I don't see how they got permission to build without allowing the view to remain.
I commute by bus and sad.
40
Looking from NJ Hudson Yards rises like a horrible suite of "modern" architecture desperately trying, and failing, to be both modern and beautiful. On the site itself the public is spared that partiucularly heinous view, but I still think it's largely an eyesore, built by billionaires to house the millionaires.
With the already obscene costs of living in Manhattan (and Brooklyn, and spreading fast throughout NYC) it's going to interesting to see how they find low-wage employees to work in that mall as well. Not to mention how traditional retail is being upended by the likes of Amazon, et al.
And with the advent of congestion pricing and already outrageous bridge and tunnel tolls, I foresee a time when the local economic engines that drive the Manhattan economy to wither away and leave Manhattan for the rich only. The rich have turned it into an island for them alone. Congrats on another gargantuan misstep by the city and the monied class who are fast turning it into a very lonely and once egalitarian island.
37
@Spike The city skyline is ruined from the NJ side. No longer beautiful with the Empire State and Chrysler buildings in full view. Now it looks like Singapore.
8
From 1943 to 1948, I lived with my parents in at 440 W 24th St in London Terrace Gardens, then the largest apartment building in the world, and it was a world to itself. Doormen in London bobby outfits who looked after us children as we played hopscotch and jumprope on the sidewalk, Olympic-size indoor pool where I learned to swim, penthouse playroof, club for adults, a post office, drugstore, florist, dry cleaners, we had it all, among us an opera singer, celebrity photographer and artist, head of a model agency. And on 10th Avenue, Guardian Angel Catholic School, which I attended as a Protestant, with free lunches. Now the High Line runs past. I love this part of New York, Chelsea with its art galleries, and Hudson Yards sounds enticing.
12
It is a tad misleading to say that Battery Park has "no subway service." With its underground connection to the Oculus, Battery Park is a pleasant, element-protected, block-long stroll away from the Path trains as well as the #1, R, W, and #4 and #5 lines.
51
@Charles That's only true for northern half of BPC. Southern half of BPC is quite a hike to get to any subway stop, such as Rector St., Bowling Green or South Ferry.
2
And where is the affordable housing ? Non existent in the city and driving out the individuals who work in the city who do clear millions of dollars a year.
46
@Maureen
10% of all the new housing will be affordable apartments with lotteries. About 400 apartments.
Remember that Related paid the city $1B to buy this land... it was not given to them. They get some tax breaks on future taxes once it is complete and income starts flowing into the city in terms of property and income taxes.
Related took on all the risks of this project and expanded the tax base of the city in the process... why exactly does that mean they must subsidize affordable housing?
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@Jon because 1 bil is cheap for that property, and because there are social benefits to an integrated society - the people who built and who will serve this new little city should be within easy transit distance,
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@Maureen
New affordable housing is an oxymoron. Building any new housing increases demand. Affordable housing is the old housing that is available when high income tenants move to new buildings. We live in a wonderful market economy that works when we let it. Rent control and public housing so far has been a disaster for most people in the city except a lucky few.
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Vessel and The Shed will be NYC landmarks - not so for the entire neighborhood if you can call it that. Very disappointing that there are no street level uses for much of the ground level spaces which makes some blocks in the area feel stark and unwelcome. I understand the lack of short blocks to be able to build larger buildings from a developer’s standpoint, and btw, most of the massive new buildings are spectacular. I don’t get the cavernous feel and lack of street level uses for blocks that don’t have a major attraction. This imo is part of the reason the resi is selling slowly. The Mall should have been smaller - time will tell if the market can support this much high end retail - and the lower rents paid by neighborhood basics would be more than offset by a more attractive neighborhood that increases residential demand.
Regardless, NY needs modern office space and Hudson Yards will do well overall. I can’t help but feel that the city and the developer did not optimize its opportunity to build a better mousetrap than it did.
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@Andrew I thought The Shwarma' a more apt name.
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My favorite part of the article was the Battery Park City Beach photo. There was art park installation there for many summers, which I enjoyed with my friends. As a young photo assistant I used to use the beach for taking pictures for my portfolio.
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A gilded castle for the rich. Full of apartments which can be bought as investments and never lived in. Surround by a public space which is more luxury mall than park. All brought to you by tax dollars.
Meanwhile regular New Yorkers must access their apartments though the “poor door”, struggle to find affordable housing that is provided “off site”, or flee the city for the exurbs as I have.
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@Robert Bergdall
Perfectly Stated !
I do a lot of work at various Penthouses throughout Manhattan.
For the most part, the owners do not live their - but do "visit" their $50 million dollar homes for maybe a week to go shopping or take in a few shows.
And then there are many where a "company" owns the residence.
I talk to the doormen and concierges and have never seen anyone or have any idea who lives there.
How terribly sad for "real New Yonkers" !
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@Robert Bergdall Yes, flee. If you can't afford to live in a place, live where it's affordable. Makes sense to me.
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@Robert Bergdall — I suggest “Pawling” as a new synonym for “whining”.
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Articles like these are fascinating and instructive to non-New Yorkers. Well-written and illustrated. Keep them coming!
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