Yesterday, YIMBY featured a first glimpse at the plans for 76 8th Avenue, on the corner of 14th Street, at the crossroads of the Meatpacking District and the West Village. Today, we have the full rendering for the project, designed by Gene Kaufman, which will dramatically improve a corner that has long been under-built.
As we previously reported, plans have changed since initial filings were submitted two years ago. The structure has shrunk two floors and 7,000 square feet as the design has evolved, and the final version will stand ten stories and 120 feet to its rooftop, with 30,000 square feet of commercial space within. There will be retail on the ground floor, while the rest will be offices.
Gene Kaufman’s design for the site is quite attractive, with a brick and bronze facade cast against enormous windows. The building will front directly against the sidewalk for the first five floors, enhancing the block’s street-wall, and yielding to a substantial setback up above, complete with a large terrace.
The project’s corners facing the intersection of 14th Street and 8th Avenue will also include another interesting feature. There will be two spots where the glass diverges from the brick and bronze, creating inset terraces within the exterior. These will be fronted by wavy glass, harking to the next-door One Jackson Square, designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox.
The net result will be a handsome new office building that pays its due to the surrounding context, both historical and contemporary.
While this development is going to be a substantial improvement over the previous low-slung occupants, the building’s ten-story envelope is extremely limited relative to the lot’s actual potential. With the A, C, E, and L train’s 14th Street stop just one block away, and many more subway lines running in the blocks further to the east, the location is one of the most transit-accessible in all of Manhattan.
YIMBY has covered the problems relating the 14th Street’s overtly oppressive zoning extensively, and given the proximity to transit, the allowable FAR at 76 8th Avenue is a perfect example of why rents in New York City, both office and residential, continue to soar.
76 Eighth Avenue should be finished by the end of 2020, and the site is being developed by Sang Lee.
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Building will sit on southeast corner of 14th Street & Eighth Ave. The existing newstand and subway entrance are not shown in the rendering. It will be interesting to see how the building’s glass first floor will interact with these elements.
Horrid.. considering what’s next door. Why hasn’t Gene Kaufman been run out of town yet?!
“Gene Kaufman’s design for the site is quite attractive”
You are apparently vision impaired.
I don’t hate it! But the public consensus is that it is terrible.
Why?? At the divide between two of our most interesting areas (the Village and the Meatpacking District), where architecture, history, character and commerce mix so well, why smack this completely banal thing smash in the face of those fascinating New York neighborhoods? This building is certainly not “quite attractive.” The fact that this design uses or reflects none of the architecture of the area is probably part of the problem. The rest of the problem is a mystery to me, but this result will not make us more proud to be New Yorkers.
Gene Kaufman is horrible as both a designer and human being. Those balconies on the curved facades up against the x bracing is one of the stupidest design decisions I’ve ever seen.
If you actually knew anything, you’d know that those balconies on the curved facade is actually the building NEXT DOOR? But
a hack will always be a hack….when this guy tries simple-results are atrocious, when he tries to spruce it up and make a ‘statement” is even more so…
ughrrrr, I concur with the commenter who wanted him run out of the city
Who wrote this???? This is the village not MEPA.
I would argue it is MEPA, but you can argue it is the Village! 🙂
Are they moving the Port Authority Bust Terminal to the meatpacking district?????
The big issue in this project is density increase and the City not having a constructive policy. The proper and obvious approach is to increase as-of-right density near subway stations with even greater density allowed for additional subway lines. New York’s population is growing and zoning should provide a good place for the added activity.
Kaufman is single-handedly ruining this city. It would be amusing to see each new aberrant design was being proposed if they didn’t ultimately build it.
Not a bad structure. Let’s talk about why rents soar. Our city government continues to allow non-residents to park their cash in empty apartments.
If we could fully utilize the space that’s already been built. Development may slow to meet actual demand.