Demolition preparations are underway at 1655 First Avenue, the site of a forthcoming 23-story residential building on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Designed by S. Weedier Architect for Cheskel Schwimmer of Chess Builders LLC, the 235-foot-tall structure will span 145,086 square feet and yield 99 condominium units with an average scope of 1,419 square feet, as well as 4,543 square feet of ground-floor commercial space, a cellar level, and a 30-foot-long rear yard. The property sits at the corner of First Avenue and East 86th Street.
Recent photographs show wooden sidewalk fencing assembled around the ground floor of two abutting buildings along East 86th Street and a row of four four-story residential structures along First Avenue. All six buildings have had their windows removed as interior gutting is underway. Crews are also in the process of dismantling the fire escapes and other workers were seen hauling crates of scrap away from the site. Scaffolding and netting will soon envelop the buildings as demolition begins in earnest, a process which will likely take most of winter to accomplish.
Photo by Michael Young
Photo by Michael Young
Photo by Michael Young
Photo by Michael Young
Photo by Michael Young
Photo by Michael Young
Photo by Michael Young
The nearest subway from the development is the Q train at the 86th Street station to the west along Second Avenue.
No renderings have been released for the new building, nor has any information emerged regarding the construction timeline or list of potential amenities.
Subscribe to YIMBY’s daily e-mail
Follow YIMBYgram for real-time photo updates
Like YIMBY on Facebook
Follow YIMBY’s Twitter for the latest in YIMBYnews
I guess I’ll leave the building to be constructed to my imagination. An artist/computer rendering would have been nice if available. This building can only be a positive in its future location. Why is EVERY building going up a condominium? Lots of housing is being constructed, mainly for the affluent.
“Every” building?? WRONG!!! There’s a thing called Rental units too and your statement is complete BS
Like did you not see yimby’s 8am post from today and yesterday? It literally says it’s a rental building 🤡
In one of those building a horrible murder took place so glad to see it getting torn down
Hopefully some the remaining old buildings along this stretch will survive.
If they can boot the holdout there’ll be a twin across 86th!
Condos get built because the price of land makes rental development marginally profitable at best. Add to that the fact that the onerous laws the city and state impose on landlords lower the value of the rentals. It just makes more business sense to build condos that can be sole for tippy top dollar.
That’s a new spelling of S. Wieder