YIMBY has covered the tribulations of the Collegiate Church redevelopment since the wrecking ball descended upon the Bancroft Bank Building, and several of its neighbors. The project, given the address of 8 West 30th Street, then wound its way through the Landmarks Preservation Commission. Now, the Moshe Safdie design has been ditched for an office tower by Bjarke Ingels of BIG Architects.
As construction begins to make headway on new residential towers at 15 East 30th Street and 277 Fifth Avenue, just to the south, an actual supertall is in the works at 262 Fifth Avenue. Applications for the site were filed back in September of 2016, before it got a slight height boost to 1,001 feet. Now, demolition is complete on the site’s old occupant.
Fifth Avenue continues its piecemeal evolution, and with legitimate supertalls now set to sprout as far south as the upper 20s, the blocks to the south are following suit with their own changes. 150 Fifth Avenue has been owned by L&L Holding Co. since 2000, and the firm is now renovating and expanding the building with an attractive two-story rooftop addition, for which YIMBY now has the video reveal.
The intersection of Fifth Avenue and 30th Street has substantial existing density, but the construction projects now underway on many of the surrounding blocks will soon result in one of the most dramatic height spurts any neighborhood has seen in the past few decades. The length of Fifth Avenue above Madison Square Park is increasingly prime real estate for supertalls, and while 15 East 30th Street falls slightly short of that typology’s 1,000′ minimum, it will still make a major impact on the skyline. Now, YIMBY has several new renderings of the tower, which is just getting under construction.
Construction is underway on the 33rd floor of the 41-story, 223-unit mixed-use building under development at 38-46 West 33rd Street, in Midtown South. Progress on the structure, which includes façade installation, can be seen thanks to photos posted to the YIMBY Forums. The latest building permits indicate the tower, upon completion, will encompass 220,724 square feet and rise 404 feet to its upper roof, not including bulkhead elements.