Amara Kenneh, imam of Masjid Nur Al-Islam, has filed applications to build a seven-story, seven-dwelling-unit mosque at the vacant lot of 1051 Sherman Avenue, in the Concourse, three blocks in from the Grand Concourse and six blocks from the 167th Street stop on the B/D trains. The structure will measure 24,506 square feet in total, and Nazhat Aboobaker’s Invision Engineers is the applicant of record.
The five-story, 43,220 square-foot building dubbed 122 Community Center, at 150 1st Avenue, in the East Village, is currently being renovated and expanded to 52,380 square feet. EV Grieve notes interior demolition is currently underway, and the building will house The AID Service Center NYC, Mabou Mines, Painting Spaces 122 and PS122 when completed in Spring 2016. The Department of Cultural Affairs owns the building, and Deborah Berke Partners is designing the overhaul.
Deep in the Hasidic territory at the northern edge of Bedford-Stuyvesant, old industrial buildings bump up against new apartments with staggered balconies alongside kosher grocery stores and bakeries. The neighborhood is dotted with new synagogues and yeshivas, built to keep up with the fast-growing population of ultra-Orthodox Jews. And every once in a while, an organization takes over an old factory to convert it, instead of tearing it down.
Yeshiva Ahavas Israel, headquartered in a curved, 1920s brick factory at Franklin and Flushing Avenues, found one such industrial building nearby at 88 Walworth Street. Earlier this week, they filed plans to convert the low-slung structure between Park and Myrtle Avenues into a house of worship.
The Studio Museum at 144 West 125th Street in Harlem is planning to build a new 70,000 square-foot museum, including 10,000 square feet for galleries. According to The New York Times, the existing five-story, 60,000 square-foot structure would be demolished for a ground-up building designed by the UK-based David Adjaye; Cooper, Robertson & Partners is the executive architect. Plans will be submitted this Summer, and construction is expected to start in 2017 for a 2019 completion.
The Universal Church has filed applications for a six-story, 63,340 square-foot place of worship at 68-03 Roosevelt Avenue, in Woodside, right under the 69th Street stop on the 7 train. The building will include classrooms, rectory units, and multi-purpose rooms, and will occupy a large portion of the block. Mothusi Phometsi, of M3G Design, is the architect of record, and the church’s existing single-story building must first be demolished.
