2 Sherman Avenue

ULURP Kicks Off For 23-Story, 335-Unit Mixed-Use Building At 2 Sherman Avenue, Washington Heights

11:00 am on January 21, 2016 By Reid Wilson

The Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) has officially kicked off for the proposed 23-story, 335-unit mixed-use building at 2 Sherman Avenue, in the Fort George section of Washington Heights, located four blocks from stops on either the A or 1 trains. The project, developed by Washington Square Partners and Acadia Realty Trust, will include retail space and a community facility. According to Politico New York, the project will be the first to utilize Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Mandatory Inclusionary Housing program, which requires developers to rent 30 percent of the residential units at below-market rates in exchange for a rezoning. The mayor’s program is expected to be voted on over the next few months. If the program is not established, the developers will go ahead with the city’s current system, which would require 20 percent of the units to be affordable. An existing two-story commercial building must first be demolished.

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The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Expansion Planned For The Metropolitan Museum of Art At 1000 Fifth Avenue, Upper East Side

10:00 am on January 21, 2016 By Reid Wilson

Daniel Brodsky is planning to build a 180,000 square-foot addition to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, located at 1000 Fifth Avenue, between East 80th and 84th streets on the Upper East Side. According to the New York Post, the expansion would include a Southwest Wing to showcase modern and contemporary art, and possibly additional galleries for the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas exhibits. The expansion will be designed by David Chipperfield Architects and won’t rise taller than the existing two-million-square-foot art museum. Plans will have to be approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission because the structure is an individual landmark (with additional interior landmarked spaces; it’s also listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places). Brodsky recently completed the museum’s $65 million David H. Koch Plaza, which runs along Fifth Avenue in front of the building.

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88 & 90 Lexington Avenue, January 13, 2016. All photographs by Evan Bindelglass unless noted.

Touring The Residential Conversion Underway at 88 & 90 Lexington Avenue

8:00 am on January 21, 2016 By Evan Bindelglass

Two buildings, one destination. That’s what’s going on at 88 & 90 Lexington Avenue, between East 27th and 26th streets in Manhattan’s Gramercy area. Two buildings – 88 Lexington Avenue, built in 1927, and 90 Lexington Avenue, built in 1958 – are being converted into luxury condominiums by HFZ Capital Group, with workshop/apd as designer. We stepped inside last week to see how the conversion is going.

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Landmarks Approves Conversion of Former Ridgewood Masonic Temple

7:30 am on January 21, 2016 By Evan Bindelglass

The former Ridgewood Lodge No. 710, Free and Accepted Masons, better known as the Ridgewood Masonic Temple in Bushwick, Brooklyn, is one step closer to a rebirth. On Tuesday, the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved plans to modify the building at 1052 Bushwick Avenue (a.k.a. 1054 Bushwick Avenue), designated an individual landmark on July 22, 2014, for residential use.

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