With the church-like whitewashed brick theater now gone, an excavator has made an appearance at 424 West 55th Street, as has an on-site rendering. As YIMBY previously reported, a seven-story, 17-unit apartment building will rise on the site (we’re betting it’ll be rentals, based on the PTACs pictured below the windows).
The structure will be unfortunately stout for its location, just a few blocks from the booming 57th Street corridor and Columbus Circle, thanks to the Special Clinton District. The site’s zoning only allows an apartment building with a floor-area ratio of 4.2, making it uncontextually small compared to some of the pre-war buildings around it.
An example of the zoning disconnect is a 12-story commercial building directly across the street erected a full century ago that’s nearly three times as dense as 424 West 55th is allowed to be. (And people wonder why housing costs in New York City are spiraling out of control.)
The designer listed on the building permit is Aufgang Architects, while the developer is the Arker Companies, which, according to the portfolio of residential projects posted on its website, mainly busies itself with affordable housing. Completion of 424 West 55th Street is slated for the winter of 2015.
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