Exterior Cladding Imminent At Recently Topped-Out, 16-Story Residential Building At 41-21 28th Street, Long Island City

The 16-story apartment building at 41-21 28th Street, rising half a block north of Queens Plaza, appears ready to receive exterior cladding, as indicated by scaffolds that wrap the structure. The building had risen three stories when we last provided an update in April. After rising at a pace of two-and-a-half floors per month, it was topped-out in September. The project is developed by All Year Management and designed by architect Karl Fischer.

Topping-out flag at the pinnacle

The 167 apartments indicated in the latest permits would take up 126,960 square feet of the 167,469-square-foot structure. The project occupies 59 percent of the 19,432-square-foot lot, leaving space for a rear yard.

Looking west, with Two Gotham Center and Tower 28 in the background

The building is located at the northern fringe of Long Island City’s emerging skyscraper district around Court Square and Queens Plaza. Its L-shaped form fuses the slab and tower typologies. The nearly 200-foot-tall, stepped-back profile serves as a transition between the new high-rises to the south and the generally low-rise neighborhood of Dutch Kills to the north. The street-facing facade rises without setbacks to the eighth floor in its northern half and the 13th floor in its southern portion, where terraces look west upon the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge and the Midtown skyline beyond.

Looking south

Although the building barely registers on the skyline, it is one of the tallest on the blocks north of Queens Plaza. Its prominent position allows for expansive vistas of the low-slung neighborhoods of Dutch Kills, Ravenswood and Astoria to the north, with the backdrop of the Robert F. Kennedy Triboro Bridge and Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

The proposed red-brick façade pays contextual homage to the small but notable cluster of office high-rises to the north, east, and south, which anchored the borough’s principal skyline between the early 1900s and the mid-century advent of apartment towers built further inland. The most notable neighboring structure is the Brewster Building across the street, which has added civic grandeur to the neighborhood with its arched façade since 1911. The nearly floor-to-ceiling, loft-style windows will reference the neighborhood’s manufacturing heritage, including the two-story commercial building that the new project replaces.

Looking north, with the Brewster Building on the left

The project sits two blocks south of the Baker House at the intersection of 41st Avenue and Crescent Street, designed by the same architect and completed within the past few months. That nine-story structure also references context with its massing and materials, though its staggered vertical windows create a more contemporary look.

41-21 28th Street sits within close proximity to a variety of transit options, sitting 800 feet away from both the elevated Queensboro Plaza station for the N, W and 7 trains, as well as the underground Queens Plaza station served by the E, M and R trains. Manhattan-bound commuters unwilling to contend with extreme rush hour congestion at the two stations may opt for taking an 1,800-foot walk to the northwest to the 21 St-Queensbridge station of the F train. A half-dozen bus lines stop one block to the south, in front of the construction site of the 1.1-million-square-foot office complex at 28-07 Jackson Avenue. A bike path runs in front of 41-21 28th Street, which connects directly to the Citi Bike station a block west that is situated at the Queensboro Bridge bikeway entrance.

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