Queens’ tallest building could potentially be joining the crop of skyscrapers around Court Square in Long Island City. With a structural height of 811 feet, the tower proposed for 27-48 Jackson Avenue has filed for obstruction evaluation from the Federal Aviation Administration given its proximity to LaGuardia Airport and the surrounding navigable airspace. The proposal was filed on February 25, though no construction permits have yet been filed with the NYC Department of Buildings.
The coordinates, latitude: 40° 44’ 52.04″ N and longitude: 73° 56’ 21.91″ W, place the structure at a parking lot at the intersection of Queens Street and Jackson Avenue with the alternative address of 43-01 Queens Street. The site currently has an elevation of 15 feet above sea level, which would bring the total height of the proposed building to 826 feet.
No details have been released regarding the future use of the skyscraper or who the developers would be. The 25,000-square-foot lot is owned by the veiled Building Orchard LLC. Within walking distance is the Court Square subway station, serviced by G and 7 trains and Queens Plaza station, serviced by E, M, and R trains.
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This is one of the last major sites along Jackson Ave, so I really hope we’ll see a building here that brings not just height, but also architectural merit to the table. Let’s face it, LIC’s glass towers are mostly pretty mediocre and forgettable compared to, say, downtown Brooklyn.
Very true!
The majot difference between both the still booming Queens and Brooklyn skyscraper hubs is that the Brooklyn hub has had more of a retail and office component to it, especially in earlier stages (i.e Metrotech\, etc). The city of course sorely needs more residential units, but not necessarily the types of over-priced units that these two areas offer, by exploiting the great views of Manhattan seen from both vantage points (Midtown Manhattan views from Western Queens, and Downtown Manhattan views from Downtown Brooklyn). . Of course the infrastrucutre in both areas is already strained, but buiders just keep building and buiding in both areas, or more accuratel, are allowded to over-build, This, without at very least being forced to share in the costs of upgrading that strained infrastructure in meaningful ways- something which is occassionally done in congested areas of Manhattan. Builders & developers need to be held responsible for how they impact the community in negative ways, and pay back to the community, instead of just taking the money and running away. There does not seem to be a realization that too much is simply too much in terms of congestion and rampant in given areas, We need a livable City as well as a thriving City, as we revover from Covid. Those two values mutually depend on one other, and need to be balanced, while also being responsive to the dire affordable housing needs of the whole city, and not just the select few. That recognition and that responsiveness is the necessary recipe for a new New York City mix of diversity and growth, because ulimately we will all sink or swim together as a City. Depending on what we do in that regard in terms of more enlightened city planning, those gleaming new skyscapers can become the dismal tombstone edifaces of a dying city, or the bright & shining harbingers of a more inclusive and liveable New York for all New Yorkers. Hope springs eternal, including the hopes of substantial funding from long-overdue Biden initiatives, but we need much more than hope to heal & revive our ailing city.
The local infrastructure is funded by local property taxes. More residential units mean more taxes income
A few years ago, the Center for Architecture had an event for the release of the Municipal Art Society’s report “A Tale of Two Rezonings,” which looked at the shortcomings and unintended consequences in Downtown Brooklyn and LIC. Far more residential units were created than expected versus office space, where the the residents of those residences instead of working in the area now joins the hoards on the trains heading into Manhattan. This is all pre-pandemic. Instead of encouraging reverse or through commutes to LIC or Downtown Brooklyn, the construction just adds to at-capacity subways heading to Midtown, a Midtown that is adding office space with Hudson Yards and the Midtown East rezoning. In the very least, the LIC and Downtown Brooklyn rezonings needed to have significant transit infrastructure investment mandates, the kind that YIMBY suggested for the block on whose construction could have been the connection between the Queens Plaza and Queensboro Plaza stations. Instead, the developers are happy, as are the contractors and, in most projects, the construction unions, but the city as a whole loses more than it gains.
Biden? Really? Vote out your city-destroying mayor, first. And governor. The ones who truly cared – and did tangible good things – for NYC are no longer in public office.
Well, let’s hope for the best!
Go for it