Plan for New UN Building Progresses: New Yorkers would get redeveloped stretch of East River waterfront

By: Zachary Stieber

NEW YORK—The end is in sight for the East River Esplanade and the complex United Nations land exchange that the esplanade hinges on.

The exchange has the United Nations selling One and Two UN Plaza and consolidating those and other offices into a new billion-dollar building, which will be built on the western portion of Robert Moses playground after the city gives it to the United Nations.

One key reason the United Nations would want to build on Robert Moses is a planned underground tunnel connecting their existing riverside building to the new building.

Before construction begins, the city and state must officially turn Astor Levy Place into a park.

New Yorkers are expected to benefit from the new building since the city will get money to develop the East River waterfront from 38th Street up to the Queensboro Bridge. All funds—$193 million to $213 million— for the new one-mile esplanade will come from the United Nations.

The first $3 million in UN funds went into the EGAP (East River Gap) fund in December as reimbursement to the city for planning the esplanade and walkway. The next $70 million will come from proceeds from $1.1 billion to $1.2 billion in bonds issued if the Uniform Land Review Use Process (ULRUP) goes through for the new UN building.

The United Nations Development Corporation (UNDC) hopes to begin construction on the consolidation building by the end of 2013, before the mayor leaves office, and have it ready for occupancy around three years laer, according to minutes from a March UNDC meeting.

Then, the sale of the two office buildings, expected to garner $120 million to $150 million, will cap off the development funds.

Since all this can become quite complex, an EGAP board of politicians has been created, including state Sen. Liz Krueger, Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh, and Councilman Dan Garodnick.

However, the United Nations itself has technically not agreed to the construction and has been meeting constantly with various committees and analyzing the situation. According to the UNDC board meeting minutes, the United Nations typically makes major decisions on one day—Christmas Eve.

“We have no control over what happens at the United Nations,” explained UNDC board Chairman George Klein. The goal is to sign the lease between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, “so no vacations, please,” he said to the board.

The UNDC has agreed to $25.9 million in contracts with architects to begin designing the building. After 30 years of paying rent to the city, the building would be owned by the United Nations.

Joel Silverman, former HRC president and associate professor at Columbia Graduate School who has worked on major buildings such the Javits Center, joined the UNDC board to help oversee construction and design.

To let residents in on ongoing discussions between the intermediary UNDC and the EGAP board, an EGAP advisory board will be formed with representation from Community Boards 6 and 8, and citywide organizations involved in the process such as Transportation Alternatives and the Municipal Arts Society.

As for what the millions coming from the United Nations will be specifically used for, Assemblyman Kavanagh said there is no earmarking, and some could even potentially be used for the Blueway Plan, that would develop another section of the East River waterfront from 38th Street down to the Brooklyn Bridge.

“Maybe there will be a blue-green patch where they meet,” he said, before concluding that many more meetings would happen. “Obviously this is going to be an ongoing and long conversation for many years.”

Controversial East River Greenway on the Agenda at Public Meeting

By: Mary Johnson

MANHATTAN — Community Board 6 is hosting a question-and-answer session with several elected officials on Thursday night to discuss the development of the East River Greenway.

The forum, which is set to begin at 6 p.m. inside Alumni Hall A at NYU Langone Medical Center, is meant to clarify a variety of issues involved in the complicated and controversial project, as well as what progress has been made since the deal was solidified this past fall.

State Senator Liz Krueger, City Councilman Daniel Garodnick and Assembly Member Brian Kavanagh — all of whom were intimately involved in crafting the esplanade plan — will attend the meeting and take questions.

“I hope that you can join us and learn not just about the legal and financial aspects of the process, but about what we can expect in the coming months,” Community Board 6 chair Mark Thompson wrote in a letter sent out to community members at the end of March.

The proposed East River Greenway — which is separate from the East River Blueway that was discussed at a public forum earlier this week — is a project that aims to close a 22-block gap in the waterfront esplanade.

As the area exists now, pedestrians and cyclists have only intermittent access to the waterfront in the stretch from East 38th to East 60th streets.

But this past October, the mayor signed off on a complicated deal — championed by some, pilloried by others — that would authorize a land swap with the United Nations to help finance the esplanade, which could cost up to $400 million, by some estimates.

The deal involves selling the western portion of Robert Moses Playground, located on First Avenue near East 42nd Street, to the United Nations for the possible construction of office space. That could free up several city-owned buildings that the UN is currently leasing, which could be sold and the money from that used to start construction on the Greenway.

In exchange for the loss of Robert Moses Playground, a new park is scheduled to be built at Asser Levy place, a two-block stretch between East 23rd and East 25th streets near the East River.

In a series of public forums last year, residents and community members debated the pros and cons of the project with elected officials, but questions have continued to come up at local meetings ever since.

Thursday’s forum is meant to address those uncertainties and concerns, Thompson said. It will be followed by additional question-and-answer sessions in the coming months.

The meeting is open to the public. It will be held inside Alumni Hall A at NYU Langone Medical Center at 550 First Ave. beginning at 6 p.m.

Reinventing the East Side Waterfront

By:  Lisa W. Foderaro

One by one, the announcements have come. Of a deal to convert Pier 42, located between the Williamsburg and Manhattan Bridges, from a storage facility into open space. Of design guidelines for Waterside Pier, a former Consolidated Edison site along the East River in Midtown, released in December by the Municipal Art Society. Of the opening of Pier 15, a block below South Street Seaport, which offers double-decker views of the East River.

These are but a sampling of the steady drumbeat of news items — real estate deals, park restorations, reclaimed piers and new esplanades — that herald the remaking of Manhattan’s East Side waterfront. When all the pieces fall into place, planners and city officials say, there will be a nearly continuous ribbon of parkland and recreational space along the East Side. New Yorkers will no longer have to go west to enjoy the waterfront.

“There isn’t any doubt that the East Side has lagged behind the extraordinary development of Hudson River Park,” said Vin Cipolla, president of the Municipal Art Society, a nonprofit organization devoted to planning and preservation. “But the vision for the East River Greenway is coming into more tangible view. It’s time.”

Though the East River may lack the grandeur of the Hudson, there is much to savor: tugs cruise the choppy waters, a sandy beach fans out beneath the Brooklyn Bridge, the lights of the historic Pepsi-Cola sign streak the river red at night, the scent of salt hangs on the breeze.

For decades, however, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive, as well as the river’s industrial legacy and the sprawling United Nations campus, has kept those pleasures mostly at a remove.

Now, said Seth W. Pinsky, the president of the city’s Economic Development Corporation, “a golden age for the East River” is at hand, and even skeptical community leaders are feeling celebratory.

“It’s sort of like, ‘Wow, things are actually happening,’ ” said Mark P. Thompson, chairman of Community Board 6, which represents the area from 59th Street to 14th Street, east of Lexington Avenue. “Piece by piece, our waterfront is finally being recognized and turned into something people can use.”

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s 20-year plan for the waterfront, unveiled in March, made the East River a priority, and new East River ferry service to Brooklyn and Queens has proved to be wildly popular, attracting twice as many riders as were projected. But the most significant milestone came in October, when city and state officials agreed to a land deal involving the United Nations that could pay for a new 22-block East River esplanade.

The deal lays out a complex set of transactions that would allow the United Nations to build a tower on part of a playground in east Midtown in exchange for $73 million and a replacement park. It would also unlock other financing for the esplanade, which would stretch from East 38th to East 60th Street, filling in what is now the biggest gap in the 32-mile Greenway around Manhattan.

The United Nations has yet to agree to the terms, but it has long been thought to want the deal, and is in negotiations with the city.

“The table has been set, and now the U.N. will have to come onboard,” said Adrian Benepe, the commissioner of the city’s Parks and Recreation Department. “I learned long ago in government never to promise anything unless you know the park is opening the next day, but things are moving in the right direction.”

A stroll along the East River from Wall Street to Midtown reveals spots where access to the river remains obstructed by sanitation and utility structures, as well as parking and private development.

Some city officials and community leaders acknowledge that the East Side is unlikely to match the West Side in terms of amenities. There are not as many piers left along the East River to serve as sites for skate parks, playgrounds and restaurants. Nor is there as much land between the highway and the water, crimping the potential for parkland. Another issue is the proximity of the F.D.R. Drive, which can be deafening.

Still, impediments are being removed with speed. State Senator Daniel L. Squadron and Senator Charles E. Schumer, both Democrats, announced in mid-November that they had obtained $14 million from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation to convert Pier 42, which now supports an empty warehouse, into open space. The money should cover the costs of shoring up the pier and demolishing the 600-foot-long shed on the site. Turning the four-acre pier into a park would cost tens of millions of dollars more, but Mr. Squadron called the initial investment “a foot in the door.”

The pier will expand the southern end of East River Park, which runs from East 12th Street to Montgomery Street. At more than 45 acres, the park is the largest parcel of parkland on the river. The parks department is finishing a $98 million restoration of the park, where an esplanade almost collapsed a decade ago after marine borers chewed through its wooden pilings.

“East River Park has always suffered from having a narrow and undistinguished entrance,” Mr. Benepe said. “Pier 42 would be a huge boon. It’s something we’ve coveted for a long time, but we never had the money to do it.”

Farther south, in addition to opening Pier 15, the Economic Development Corporation has started preliminary work on Pier 35, just north of Rutgers Slip, and plans to open that to the public in 2013. Between those two piers is an esplanade that the city eventually plans to upgrade with new lighting and sleek wooden furniture, including bar stools and chaise longues. And construction is under way on a half-mile portion of the East River Waterfront Esplanade, from the tip of Lower Manhattan to Wall Street.

On a warm November afternoon, office workers, residents and tourists flocked to the first two-block section of the esplanade, which opened in July, between Wall Street and Maiden Lane.

“I had to get out of the office,” said Robert DiBarba, an information technology executive with a nearby bank, who was enjoying a red velvet cupcake amid the cry of gulls and the thrum of ferry engines. “It’s a good view.”

Park Plan Gives Added Access to East River

By Joseph De Avila

Design proposals for a new waterfront park on Manhattan's East Side are beginning to take shape as an urban-planning organization submits its recommendations to the city.

The planned park is slated to be built on a pier previously used as a parking lot by Consolidated Edison on the East River between 38th and 41st streets. That would mark the first section for a stretch of park land that will eventually extend from 38th to 60th streets along the East River.

A pier formerly used by Con Ed as a parking lot, above right, will be converted into new riverside park land.

In July, Municipal Art Society of New York gathered with local officials and community members to brainstorm for ideas on how to shape the park. The group's recommendations published this week call for improving access to the East River, which is currently cutoff by the FDR Drive.

The recommendations also seek to integrate a neighboring development site that includes plans for park space and to expand Manhattan's ferry service to the pier.

"It's the most starved part of Manhattan with respect to park land," said Vin Cipolla, president of the Municipal Art Society of New York, a nonprofit urban planning and design organization. "The availability of the Con Ed pier gives a much needed spot to provide community amenities," he said.

The Municipal Art Society's report will "serve as a valuable tool" going forward, said a spokeswoman for the city's Economic Development Corp., which is currently conducting a feasibility study on the site and soliciting construction managers for the project. "In the near future, we will begin the substructure work necessary to ensure the stability and safety of the waterside pier," the spokeswoman said.

Under its prior lease agreement with the city, Con Ed agreed to pay for $13 million of infrastructure upgrades to the 34,000-square-foot pier. That money—along with additional $1 million secured by local City Council member Daniel Garodnick—will lay the foundation for the new park's initial development.

In October, the city reached a deal with the United Nations Development Corp., a New York state public benefit corporation, that would allow it to build new office space on nearby Robert Moses Playground. In exchange, the UNDC would pay about $70 million into a fund that would go toward building the entire waterfront esplanade that will stretch from 38th to 60th streets.

That will be one of the last major chunks of park land needed to complete the city's 32-mile-long Manhattan Greenway, which will eventually follow the outline of the island.

So far, the West Side of Manhattan tops the East Side in terms of park land and amenities by the river, Mr. Cipolla said. "It's truly a renaissance on the West Side," Mr. Cipolla said.

This new pier will help start to even things out, Mr. Cipolla added.

Part of the problem on the East Side is the geography. The FDR Drive is tougher to deal with and the area near the river is tighter, said Raju Mann, director of planning at the Municipal Art Society.

"On this stretch of the East Side there are significant real-estate constraints," according to Mr. Mann. "It's far more cramped."

The biggest obstacle moving forward could be the cost for building the mile-long esplanade between 38th and 60th streets on the East Side.

The last portion of the project won't begin construction until 2020.

"Cost is always an issue," Mr. Garodnick said. "We have the dollars to put the infrastructure in place. That's a big head start."

U.N. Architects Back to the Drawing Board; Pritzker Winner Still on Board

By Matt Chaban  

The United Nations has a long tradition of employing the world’s finest architects.

The original Secretariat complex was the work of Le Corbusier and Oscar Niemeyer, two of the most revered designers ever to pick up a T-square. DC-1 and DC-2, the 1976 expansion of the campus better known as U.N. Plaza, was designed by John Dinkerloo, builder of many New York towers and heir to the throne of Eero Saarinen.

In 2002, when it came time to plan for a new tower to house this globetrotting workforce, the United Nations Development Corporation, the city agency that handles all U.N. property, held a competition. It was open only to Pritzker Prize winners, and Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki was selected in 2004. Not long after, the project ran into political hurdles and was put on hold, but earlier this month Albany, the city and the U.N. reached a deal so the project can move forward. Almost as soon as the ink had dried on the land swap, Mr. Maki and his local partners, FXFowle, unrolled their blueprints and got back to work.

“We have a saying around the office,” Dan Kaplan, a principal at FXFowle in charge of the project, told The Observer. “It takes a long time for things to happen suddenly.”

Mr. Kaplan explained that much of the design work had been completed for a 35-story tower on the site, and while it will not change significantly, it does require some updating. Before, there were plans to build a temporary General Assembly on the playground before the new office tower was built, but that was instead constructed two years ago on the U.N.’s north lawn. The Secretariat is undergoing a $2 billion renovation, and after the earlier deal fell apart, the world body felt it could not wait to begin rebuilding its campus.

Instead, the designers will reassess the U.N.’s space needs and tweak the designs accordingly. “We’re not back to square-one, maybe square 1.5,” Mr. Kaplan said. “It’s a tight site and a tight building envelope, so I don’t think the designs will change that much, but we are going back over everything.” When Mr. Maki created his winning design, it drew upon the original Secretariat for inspiration, creating a long, narrow slab with those expansive east-west exposures.

”The thin slab is something quite unique because in America office buildings tend to be large and squarish,” Mr. Maki told The Times in 2004, after it was revealed he would be designing the project. His most notable project in the city, if not the world, is Tower 4 at the World Trade Center, which is currently rising downtown. Among FXFowle’s many New York projects are 11 Times Square, Northside Piers in Williamsburg and The New York Times Building, where the firm partnered with another Pritzker winner, Italy’s Renzo Piano.

Jeffrey Feldman, president and CEO of the U.N. Development Corporation, said he hopes to have designs ready by early next year, so the project will be ready to go through the city’ land-use review process. Integral as the U.N. is seen by many New Yorkers to our standing as capital of the world—unpaid parking tickets aside—its plans will likely face a good deal of scrutiny not only from U.N. opponents like the Heritage Foundation but also neighbors in Tudor City, who oppose the project because it will block their views of the East River and Queens.

“The plans could certainly change, but right now our focus is on reconstituting our team,” Mr. Feldman said. If all goes as planned, the project will break ground in 2013.

Mayor, pols sign agreement for East River Greenway

By Heather Holland

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and local elected officials have signed an agreement that will potentially begin the process of a land swap deal with the United Nations and begin the completion of the planned 32-block greenway along the East River.

The Memorandum of Understanding, signed last Wednesday, detailed certain conditions that must be fulfilled in order for any action to occur. The $73 million plan potentially involves city land that is currently home to two United Nations buildings, UN1 and UN2. In the plan, both buildings would be sold, earning the city funds that could be put toward the planned esplanade between 38th and 60th streets.

“This is a project that many people in our community have worked on and have wished for, for many years, and it’s gratifying that we were able to put all the pieces together,” said Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh. “Now we can move toward really transforming the East Side waterfront.”

In the plan, the UN, or the United Nations Development Corporation (UNDC), would buy a piece of Robert Moses Playground, located on First Avenue between 41st and 42nd Streets, to construct a new UN building and consolidate its campus. In exchange, the UN would pay the city $73 million, which could then be used toward the greenway.

There are, however, some conditions. Before any sales or swaps can take place, the lost space at Robert Moses must be replaced with an alternative park space. That space will be Asser Levy Place, the short length of street between 23rd and 25th Streets. Additionally, the new UN tower cannot exceed the height of the Secretariat Building at 505 feet.

The lost land at Robert Moses is currently a blacktop located at the western end of the park. During one of the community forums in September, when members of the community were given a chance to voice their opinions on the issue, roller hockey players, or more specifically the East End Hockey Association, opposed the deal, arguing that their players shouldn’t lose play space because of an office building that has nothing to do with the park. However, at the press conference on Wednesday, before the MOU was inked, elected officials said that support for the land swap was “overwhelming.”

That view would coincide with the results of a survey conducted by the Friends of the East River Greenway Coalition last month that showed that 73 percent of East Side voters expressed support for the proposal. And according to those who joined the Coalition; such as Kips Bay Neighborhood Alliance, Gramercy Park Neighborhood Associates and the ST-PCV Tenants Association, local communities have given their consent.

The agreement also calls for the improvement of the dilapidated Con Edison Pier at 37th-41st Streets. Con Ed will be giving the city $13 million to cover the cost of renovating the pier, contributing an additional 34,000 square-feet of public space.

Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney estimated the greenway project to cost about $190 million to complete, and the funds seem to be trickling in. So far, there’s the $73 million if the UNDC follows through with the sale of UN1 and UN2, $13 million from Con Ed and an additional $1 million that Council Member Dan Garodnick was able to secure from the budget.

The planned “alienation” (as it’s been called) of Robert Moses Park isn’t expected to happen until 2015, and the construction of the first part of the esplanade isn’t going to happen until after that. Kavanagh said that it wouldn’t take more than a couple of decades to complete.

“Besides improving our health and quality of life, reviving New York City’s 578 miles of waterfront goes to the heart of our strategy of creating jobs and growing our economy,” said Bloomberg in a written statement.

“That’s because in today’s world, the most dynamic businesses gravitate to wherever they can find the most talented people – and the most talented people are more mobile than ever. That ramps up the pressure on us to do everything we can to make our city an even better place to live and work – and enhancing our neighborhoods and public spaces is a big part of that.”

East Side Greenway Vision Materializes

By:  Megan Finnegan

East Siders are one step closer to enjoying a continuous esplanade along the river.

Following a recent swell of public support, State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Mayor Mike Bloomberg, in the presence of almost every elected official on the Upper East Side, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) required by state legislation that kicks a series of complicated actions into motion, with the eventual result of funding

the East River greenway.

Elected officials gathered in the Governor’s Room at City Hall last Wednesday to announce the historic agreement, beating the Oct. 10 deadline. The MOU outlines the provisions for the alienation of Robert Moses Playground, a park on First Avenue between 41st and 42nd streets, in order for the city to sell the land to the United Nations Development Corporation. When and if the UN purchases the land and constructs a new building, many UN staffers will decamp from their current offices, leased from the city, at 1 and 2 UN Plaza, allowing the city to sell those buildings and use that money, an estimated $200 million, to fund the repair and construction of the esplanade.

Mayor Mike Bloomberg and City Council Member Dan Garodnick sign the memorandum of understanding which will help set in motion the funding of the East River greenway. State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and State Sen. Liz Krueger look on.

“People on the East Side have some of the lowest access to parks and public spaces in the entire city,” said Bloomberg. “They have been cut off from the waterfront and have looked to their neighbors to the west and watched with envy as the spectacular Hudson River Park takes shape. Now they are going to get a spectacular waterfront park right on their doorstep.”

Silver thanked the elected representatives present, including Rep. Carolyn Maloney, State Sen. Liz Krueger, Assembly Members Micah Kellner, Brian Kavanagh and Dan Quart and Council Members Dan Garodnick and Jessica Lappin, and said that as a resident of the Lower East Side, he was delighted to sign the MOU.

“Historically speaking, it’s a giant step forward from a community that has been dominated by the sights and sounds of slaughterhouses to an open public green space, filled with the beauty of nature,” said Silver. “I appreciate how difficult it is to part with a portion of Robert Moses Park, but I am convinced, under the terms of the memorandum, that the benefit will come from extending the East River Esplanade and it will far outweigh that which we’re giving up.”

Kavanagh pointed out that the funds from the sale of the city-owned buildings will be available not solely for a greenway but for park space in general on the East Side. One of the elements of the MOU on which the community specifically insisted is for the city to designate and create a hard-surface play area to replace what will be lost at Robert Moses before the sale goes through.

“This is a major victory over the unfortunate earlier era of urban planning that did not value the waterfront and open space,” Kavanagh said. “Because the FDR Drive and the various properties go right to the bulkhead, we’re going to have to build much of this greenway over the river. So today really represents an extraordinary accomplishment in both funding and engineering to get this done.”

The officials lauded the fact that the esplanade will be made possible with little expense to taxpayers. Several also noted that the MOU calls for opportunities for public input as construction on the esplanade gets underway, and that the UN construction will go through the standard ULURP process, which also allows for public comment. While it’s too early for anyone to give a timeline for the greenway’s completion, many have estimated that it will take 10 to 15 years to finish.