Articles by Vitali Ogorodnikov

Completion Near for Aloft Long Island City at 27-45 Jackson Avenue, Future Tallest Hotel in Queens

3:00 pm on August 19, 2016 By Vitali Ogorodnikov

Construction is wrapping up on the Aloft Hotel at 27-45 Jackson Avenue, in Long Island City’s Court Square district. According to Starwood Hotels, the 176-room property, officially called the “Aloft Long Island City – Manhattan View,” is set to open on October 27. At that point, the 18-story, 186-foot-tall high-rise should become the tallest all-hotel building in Queens. Though the 31-story slab of the nearby 29-11 Queens Plaza North, which opened its doors just recently, stands a good deal taller, the Marriott Courtyard within occupies only the tower’s lower half, with the residences at Aurora LIC sitting above. By YIMBY’s count, Aloft Hotel’s lofty pinnacle rises higher than that of any other hotel in the borough.

25-Story Residential Building Climbs to Fourth Floor at 27-17 42nd Road in Long Island City

3:00 pm on August 17, 2016 By Vitali Ogorodnikov

When YIMBY last checked in five months ago, foundation work for the apartment building at 27-17 42nd Road in Long Island City was only starting. Now, concrete is being poured for the tower’s fourth level as it climbs on the way to its eventual 258-foot height. Though it would have dominated the surroundings when it was first proposed in late 2000s, today the building would barely make a dent on the local skyline. However, its vertical, slightly curved bulk, squeezed tightly between its high-rise neighbors, is a positive example of proper density creation within the transit-rich neighborhood. Sitting just one block south of the Queensboro Plaza station, serviced by the N, Q, and 7 trains, the future tenants living within its 184 apartments would be situated just one stop away from Midtown Manhattan.

Goethals Bridge Replacement: Twin Spans on Track to Become City’s First New Crossing in Half a Century

4:00 pm on August 12, 2016 By Vitali Ogorodnikov

As far as skyline watchers like ourselves are concerned, we live in a glorious time. But with our gaze normally aimed upon the ever-rising skyscraper pinnacles, we sometimes forget that we live in the greatest bridge-building era in more than half a century. At least three major bridges in New York City and its vicinity are being replaced with new spans, with major reconstruction underway on several more. Of these, one of the easiest projects to miss might be the twin replacement spans of the Goethals Bridge, which will connect Staten Island’s Howland Hook and Elizabeth, New Jersey. Upon their 2018 completion, the cable-stayed spans will stretch across the Arthur Kill, replacing the cantilever span that has served the borough since 1928.

11-Story 70-32 Queens Boulevard, at Border of Maspeth and Elmhurst, Now Stands as Area’s Tallest

3:00 pm on August 11, 2016 By Vitali Ogorodnikov

Some of the most densely populated neighborhoods in Queens are nestled along its eponymous central arterial roadway, 7.2-mile-long Queens Boulevard. However, around its midsection, between Grand Avenue/Broadway to the east and Greenpoint Avenue/Roosevelt Avenue to the west, the subway temporarily veers north of the 200-foot-wide the thoroughfare. This portion is much less developed than neighborhoods on either side. Apart from a dense residential cluster in central Woodside, almost all of this stretch is decidedly anti-pedestrian and thinly developed, replete with low-slung commercial properties, such as auto shops and parking lots. The 11-story, residential Elmhurst Building, on which construction is wrapping up at 70-32 Queens Boulevard, now stands as the tallest on a two-mile stretch of the boulevard between Rego Park and Woodside. Although modestly-sized by the standards of the city skyline, the solitary stack towers like a Saguaro cactus over a desert. However, change is in the air as a wave of development is sweeping the area. Enabled by a 2006 neighborhood upzoning and fueled by an acute housing shortage, the new projects will transform the barren district into the urban neighborhood that it ought to be.

Excavation Underway for Seven-Story Apartment Building at 70-09 45th Avenue, Elmhurst

3:00 pm on August 10, 2016 By Vitali Ogorodnikov

A string of mid-rise developments is transforming a long-neglected stretch of Queens Boulevard at the border of Elmhurst, Woodside, and Maspeth. One of the dozen-odd projects rising there is the apartment building at 70-09 45th Avenue, where excavation is currently underway. The seven-story structure will stand on a roughly 7,850-square-foot, mid-block lot, facing the irregular intersection where 45th Avenue meets Queens Boulevard at an acute angle. Permits place the height of the future building at 73 feet. Its 30 residences will be spread across 24,299 square feet, giving an average of 810 square feet per unit. The ground floor will feature 5,12 square feet of retail. The project is being developed by Choi Yui Chan, designed by Angelo Ng & Anthony Ng of Architects Studio PC, and built by First Class Management Contracting Corp.

Completion Near for Eight-Story Residential Hotel at 65-15 Queens Boulevard, Woodside

4:00 pm on August 5, 2016 By Vitali Ogorodnikov

Last November, YIMBY wrote about a dense residential enclave sprouting from a former no man’s land along Queens Boulevard, straddling the border of Woodside and Sunnyside. Today, a similar micro-hood is emerging amidst an equally neglected space on Queens Boulevard on the other end of Woodside. Here, three major pieces of infrastructure – Queens Boulevard, the Long Island Rail Road, and the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway – leave a star-shaped mark on the borough map as they cross over and under one another. The tripoint also joins Woodside with Elmhurst to the east and Maspeth to the south. When construction of the eight-story, 44-unit residential hotel at 65-15 Queens Boulevard is finished, it will be among the first of several similar projects set to redefine the busy junction.

Long Island City’s Mixed-Use 29-11 Queens Plaza North, with Courtyard Marriott Hotel and Aurora LIC Residences, Opens Its Doors

4:00 pm on July 29, 2016 By Vitali Ogorodnikov

The cores of dense cities work best when they mix a variety of functions, such as residential, commercial, or office. This mixing allows for a round-the-clock pedestrian presence, ensuring that the streets do not empty out at any point of the day. The concept is taken literally to the next level when two independent functions are stacked one on top of another within the same building, like roommates sharing a bunk bed. This effectively puts two buildings on the same plot without resorting to narrow towers with small floorplates. Although generally rare, mixed-use skyscrapers have made their mark upon Manhattan, starting with the famed Waldorf-Astoria, which combined hotel rooms at the bottom with apartments on top in 1931. Now, the city’s first major mixed-use tower has risen outside of Manhattan. The 31-story, glass-and-concrete slab at 29-11 Queens Plaza North in Long Island City, has seen construction virtually wrapped up at the time of this writing. Its lower 15 floors house the Marriott Courtyard Long Island City hotel, with the 135-unit residential complex called the Aurora sitting on the floors above.

Ten-Story Hotel Over Halfway Up at 29-12 40th Avenue in Northern Long Island City

4:00 pm on July 22, 2016 By Vitali Ogorodnikov

A hospitality haven is rapidly rising at the northern fringe of Long Island City, in an area that overlaps into Dutch Kills to the east and Ravenswood to the west. Despite its convenient location just minutes away from Midtown via subway, the neighborhood north of Queens Plaza was largely ignored by the city and developers for most of the 20th century. During that time, local street character ranged from quiet residential enclaves to fenced-off commercial and industrial facilities to seedy, crime-ridden nooks that the casual visitor best stay away from. Since Long Island City has become one of the city’s hottest neighborhoods, a dozen hotels sprung up within its northern portion, with several more currently in progress. Upon completion, the 10-story one at 29-12 40th Avenue, which will be run by a yet-to-be-announced operator, would bring 75 rooms to the booming neighborhood.

Scaffolds Come Down at 83 Bushwick Place, Junction of East Williamsburg and Bushwick

4:00 pm on July 15, 2016 By Vitali Ogorodnikov

What is Brooklyn? For many, the borough is associated with new buildings populated with young professionals fleeing Manhattan, where the cost of living rises as high as the skyscrapers. Some prefer to dismiss them as silver-spoon suburban transplants wishing to emulate some fantasy starving artist lifestyle, which they would assert is long-gone from the borough. Others would disagree, pointing at the “authentic Bohemians” living in rundown, graffiti-covered, and sometimes illegally-run lofts on the fringes of industrial districts, not yet touched by true gentrification. In contrast to another stereotype, which presumes that manufacturing has also left the borough, these pockets of industry still teem with activity, whether in dusty cement-mixing lots, in auto shops that clog the sidewalks in front of them with rides-in-progress, or in manufacturing plants where they are rightfully entitled to slap a “Made in Brooklyn” label onto their wares.

After Decades, Vacant Lot Finally Filled by Rowhome, at 55-35 Metropolitan Avenue, on Ridgewood/Maspeth Border

6:30 am on July 14, 2016 By Vitali Ogorodnikov

City blocks on the fringes between Queens and Brooklyn tend to be densely built out with low-rise, pre-war housing stock, leaving few empty lots for ground-up development. One such lot at 55-35 Metropolitan Avenue, which separates the neighborhoods of Ridgewood to the south and Maspeth to the north, has sat empty for more than half a century. The new rowhouse, developed by Shaoyun Chen, stands three stories tall, its plain cornice rising slightly above its neighbors. Permits list two residential units taking up 2,396 square feet of the 5,643-square-foot structure. A 1,623-square-foot retail space is located at the lower floor. Though the retail space would be the only one of its kind on the wholly-residential block, it is not out of place, given that most buildings on the other side of the street have ground level retail, as well. The building occupies 60 percent of its site, leaving space for a 35-foot yard in the rear.

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Articles by Vitali Ogorodnikov

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