Richard Meier, Rafael Viñoly, and KPF release designs for Upper West Side waterfront development
Towers L to R: Rafael Viñoly, Richard Meier, Kohn Pedersen Fox
Forty-two years after Donald Trump first proposed a mixed-use development on the Upper West Side waterfront, one of the final pieces of the puzzle is coming together. Curbed got their hands on sparkling new renderings of what’s now being called Waterline Square, a trio of residential towers on the five-acre site between West 59th and 61st Streets that’s part of Riverside Center. In addition to views of the glassy structures, which will offer a combination of condos and rentals, and a Mathews Nielsen-designed park, what makes the reveal so exciting is the roster of starchitects behind the towers–Richard Meier and Partners, Rafael Viñoly Architects, and Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates.
Riverside South, the site of the New York Central Railroad’s former freight yard, is a 57-acre swath of land between 59th and 72nd Streets. It includes the 16-tower Trump Place complex (where the Trump name was dropped just this week), as well as Riverside Center. The latter, the eight-acre section at the southern end, was bought by Extell Development from Trump’s successors (more on that story here) in 2005. Five years later, the City Planning Commission rezoned the area for residential use and a park, but shortly thereafter Extell sold off part of the land to the Elad Group and Silverstein Properties, who recently completed One West End Avenue, a Pelli Clarke Pelli-designed tower with commercial space at its base and 362 residential units (a combination of condos and affordable housing) above. They also sold 21 West End Avenue to the Dermot Companies, who erected a 616-unit rental tower.
Extell sold the remainder of the site for $676 million to Boston-based General Investment and Development Companies (GID), who are behind the new Waterline Square project. As Curbed notes, KPF was already on board “to design an amenity-packed Riverside Center building,” which stands true under GID’s new plan, as well. Their tower will be called Two Waterline Square and rise on 61st Street near the River.
Towers L to R: Kohn Pedersen Fox, Rafael Viñoly, Richard Meier
Kohn Pedersen Fox was already in place to design an amenity-packed Riverside Center building at Riverside Center site 1 when the parcel was sold to GID. Under the new scheme, KPF’s contribution will be known as Two Waterline Square and stand along 61st Street towards the Hudson River. Richard Meier designed One Waterline Square on 59th Street, and Raphael Viñoly is responsible for Three Waterline Square, which is situated at the intersection of West 59th Street and Freedom Place South, a pedestrian path that was part of Christian de Portzamparc’s original master plan for Extell.
All three of the buildings will have one- to five-bedroom units, with rentals in the bases and condos atop. They’ll be connected to One and 21 West End Avenues by a park from Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects. According to a teaser site for the project, there will be “100,000 square feet of athletic, leisure, and lifestyle amenities,” though no details have been released.
Construction began in 2015, with the developers taking advantage of the 421-a tax abatement before it expired this January. The first set of condos is expected to hit the market this coming year.
[Via Curbed]
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