Completion is near for the 10-story, 74-room hotel under construction at 40-47 22nd Street, in northern Long Island City. The property will most likely operate under the Howard Johnson brand, which completed another 10-story hotel four blocks northwest at 38-61 12th Street in 2014. The project’s developer is Ratan Realty Three LLC, with Michael Kang serving as the architect.
The first residential high-rises in Long Island City’s Court Square neighborhood rose along Purves Street about a decade ago. Today, the block-long street forms the borough’s densest high-rise canyon. The cul-de-sac is built out from end to end, except for the roughly-triangular plot at its southern terminus. A seven-story, 33-unit residential building was proposed for the lot early last year. Though the site was cleared for construction, 44-46 Purves Street has not seen any activity in a year, in contrast to bustling construction activity along the rest of the block. As we await news of further progress and building renderings, the site’s pivotal location as a neighborhood gateway gives the developer an opportunity to present an architecturally notable design.
Foundations have been completed for a four-story, eight-unit residential building at 47-09 5th Street, in the Hunters Point neighborhood of Long Island City, close to the East River waterfront. Building permits list Shahram Nassi as the owner, with Jieming Wang of LMW Engineering Group LLC attached as the applicant of record. Brooklyn-based MC Superstructure Inc. is listed as the general contractor.
Exterior work is in progress on a five-story building at 47-09 5th Street in the Hunters Point section of Long Island City, a block and a half away from the East River waterfront. In a typical development for Long Island City, an aging commercial property is being replaced with residences anchored by retail. In an unusual move, the developer, Studio Square per the DOB, opted to add three floors on top of the existing building rather than demolishing and starting anew. The eight residences would occupy 11,075 square feet, giving an average of 1,384 square feet per unit.
One of the city’s most unusual new buildings is under construction on the Upper East Side, where the Rockefeller University is expanding its York Avenue campus by decking over the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Drive. When a visitor would stand atop the high-perched, river-facing promenade, the lawn beneath their feet would conceal two stories of state-of-the-art research labs, spanning three-and-a-half city blocks, with six lanes of traffic running directly beneath. The $500 million Niarchos Foundation–Rockefeller River Campus is on its way to housing one of the city’s largest, and most unusual, green roofs, designed with the high-concept urban spirit of layering buildings, infrastructure, and public space.
