New renderings and details for Perkins Eastman’s 730-foot tower at controversial Two Bridges site
259 Clinton Street via Perkins Eastman
Additional details and a new rendering have been unveiled this week for a 62-story Lower East Side skyscraper designed by Perkins Eastman Architects, nearly two years after 6sqft first wrote about the project. Located at 259 Clinton Street, the tower is a part of a controversial three-building project coming to the waterfront of the Two Bridges neighborhood. According to YIMBY, latest plans for 259 Clinton Street, developed by Starret Development, call for a 730-foot tower, slightly higher than an earlier 724-foot proposal.
Via The Starrett Group
The tower sits on the corner of South and Clinton Streets and will measure over 592,000 square feet. The mixed-income residential building is expected to contain 765 rental units, with roughly 191 of them permanently affordable. While the tower’s glassy design isn’t particularly special, the half-floor terrace on top of the building remains the most interesting element.
The building will also offer 2,500 square feet of new South Street-facing retail space. Developers plan to open a green space for residents on the north section of the lot, which would connect to the waterfront at Pier 35 and Pier 42.
Via SHoP Architects
Overall, the three projects would add 2,775 rental units, with 25 percent of them permanently affordable and 200 of those set aside for low-income seniors. In addition to Starrett’s tower, JDS Development Group is planning an 80-story tower at 247 Cherry Street and L+M Development and the CIM Group hope to bring 62- and 70- story buildings at 260 South Street. The developers also hope to construct at least 11,000 square feet of retail to the site.
The project has been met with backlash from the local community and public officials. City Planning had said the proposed trio of buildings would create only a “minor modification” to the Two Bridges area, based on a broad zoning plan that expired 10 years ago.
Current rules allow for soaring skyscrapers to be built without much public comment. Last year, City Council Member Margaret Chin and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer sought to force the project to go through the city’s land use review process, to encourage further public scrutiny.
The city released the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on Friday, beginning a 60-day public review of the three projects. The developers have also unveiled a list of additional improvements for the neighborhood to mitigate potential negative effects from the development.
As the Lo-Down reported, these include upgrades to the subway station at East Broadway (making it ADA-accessible for the first time), new turf and equipment for the Coleman Playground and a renovation of Captain Joseph and Little Flower playgrounds. Activists will join Chin, Brewer and other officials in a rally on Rutgers Slip on Monday afternoon to protest the timing of the draft EIS release and to demand the public get more time to review the impact statement.
“I am outraged by this attempt to cut the community out of a planning process that will determine the future of the neighborhood that thousands of immigrant and low-income New Yorkers call home,” Chin said in a statement. “By beginning the review process at the end of June, just as the Community Board prepares to go on summer break, these developers have been caught red-handed in a cynical attempt to sneak in four humongous towers with as little opposition as possible.”
Today: @CM_MargaretChin and I are calling on the Department of City Planning to give the #TwoBridges community the opportunity to provide input on future development in their neighborhood. pic.twitter.com/EyO5yM3GTE
— Gale A. Brewer (@galeabrewer) June 25, 2018
[Via YIMBY]
RELATED:
