Revealed: City’s Big Rezoning Plan for Midtown East

As of 2012, the max FAR (floor to area ratio) around Grand Central Station is 21.6, which means that if a plot covers 10,000 square feet, the developer could build a 216,000 square foot building. This has stymied new development for the past several decades, as zoning changes during the twentieth century revised allowable FAR downwards. Thus, in some parts of the neighborhood, developers cannot even replace old buildings with new ones of the same square footage. 

The zoning plan would change that, with special consideration given to iconic buildings in the new neighborhood as well. The peak FAR offered in the zoning overhaul would be raised to 30 in the blocks immediately surrounding Grand Central, if developers fulfill all criteria and design iconic ‘stand-out’ buildings. Increased density is also explicit on plots being larger than 40,000 square feet (and 25,000 along Park Avenue), as well as full-block frontage. 

Specifying such stringent criteria with such high additional FAR benefits for beautiful architecture is one of the zoning update’s most important (and best) aspects. City Planning is seeking to encourage buildings similar to London’s Shard, Hong Kong’s IFC, and Shanghai’s WFC. The zoning diagrams depict a tower roughly 1,300 feet in height as an example, but the new buildings could rise much taller. 

One prominent site, at 41 East 42nd Street, is already slated for redevelopment with the owners intending to put up a landmark. 

While protecting the pre-war skyscrapers is important, the zoning update appears to be targeting the larger towers from the 1950s-80s. Many of these buildings take up entire blocks (or at the very least have full block frontage), and are entirely unbecoming of what should be the world’s most prime Central Business District. By specifying that developers are only able to take advantage of the exceptional FAR rights if new buildings are basically entire blocks, most small (aka pre-war) developments will be harder to demolish, given how difficult acquiring large sites is in New York. 

The DOB’s presentation on the rezoning states that Hudson Yards will remain the Department’s primary concern for the near-future, but the Midtown East rezoning is equally if not more important. The area surrounding Grand Central is the most transit-accessible in New York, and monumental architecture should complement the monumental train station. Perhaps in the not-so-distant future even the MetLife Tower could be converted into something newer, grander, and befitting of the station on which it sits, which is what Tony Stark did in The Avengers.