[Roadcruiser1]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c9/City_Tech_Tower.jpg
Do any of you remember this building. This building was proposed by Renzo Piano for Downtown Brooklyn, and would have had been the tallest building in Brooklyn, and Long Island if built. It would have had been a residential skyscraper, and connected to a college campus nearby. This building was supposed to be 100 stories at first, then it became 65 stories, and now a stump.

Here is a news article
More Details Revealed About Planned Joint Venture With Forest City Ratner
By Mary Frost
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — Details are emerging about what is now known as a “complex” of buildings being planned for the corner of Tillary and Jay streets in Downtown Brooklyn — currently the site of New York City College of Technology’s (City Tech’s) Klitgord Auditorium.

City Tech spokesperson Michele Forsten told the Brooklyn Eagle that the college, in partnership with Forest City Ratner, is building not one, not two but five connecting buildings in the one block fronting Jay Street.

Two of the buildings will be high-rise towers; speculation puts one of these as high as 65 stories. “The two towers will be residential,” Forsten told the Eagle yesterday. “The three others will contain college classrooms and offices, an underground theater and a gymnasium.”

The rough draft currently displayed on the City Tech Web site (largest rendering at left) “is not the final drawing for the buildings,” Forsten said. But she did reveal that the façade of the building would be glass.

The whole design “is very light and airy,” she said.

The City Tech Web site calls the new complex “a masterpiece conceived by the celebrated architect Renzo Piano. It will be CUNY’s first public-private partnership to develop academic facilities, creating over 250,000 square feet of new teaching space.

“It will also be the first new building for the college in over 30 years where space is designed and constructed specifically for the high-tech programs that will occupy it.”

Here is another one
One Foundation: Update on City Tech’s Tower Complex
By Mary Frost

City Tech spokesperson Michele Forsten Thursday clarified the configuration of the City Tech residential/educational complex proposed for the corner of Jay and Tillary streets, a joint project of CUNY and Forest City Ratner Companies.

A rough rendering appearing on the City Tech Web site and published in the Eagle Wednesday depicts a complex of two tall towers and three smaller structures, taking up one block fronting Jay Street, the current site of the college’s Klitgord Auditorium.

“Note that there will be one foundation for the building that will replace Klitgord,” Forsten said in an email to the Eagle. Though the rendering appears to show five separate buildings, “there will actually be just one.” The design of the proposed complex is also subject to change, she noted. Forsten confirmed that the taller section will be residential and the shorter section will contain the City Tech classrooms and offices, an underground theater and a gymnasium.

The tower section will have one entrance; the City Tech section will have its own entrance, Forsten said.

[CGII]

This would've been so cool.

[philvia]

some sort of plan is still in the works for that area. i go to school at NYU Poly (right next to this project) and we're clearing our building on the corner of Jay St and Johnson St for a future development. I was told that the building has several hundreds of thousands of sq ft for development.

[SkyscrapersOfNewYork]

Brooklyn needed this....

[Roadcruiser1]

I would be happy if they designed that stub to be able to take a skyscraper in the future. Like the Metrolife North Building.

[Roadcruiser1]

Yeah they are building a 10 story stub on what was suppose to be a 100 story tower in the first proposal.

[Crawford]

Yeah they are building a 10 story stub on what was suppose to be a 100 story tower in the first proposal.

No, these are two different sites.

The originial highrise site will still be developed at some point with a tower, but not until the economy improves.

And there was no plan for a 100 floor tower. That makes no sense.

[dchan]

AFAIK, the tower proposal is completely dead and won't even be considered for the future.

City Tech's "New Academic Building" will only be about 5-6 stories (5 if I remember correctly), and it will take up the whole site currently occupied by the Klitgord Building. Simply put, the state is so broke right now, that there isn't even any money to add just 1 or 2 more floors on top. Instead, much of the money remaining is going towards building the New Academic Building as well as renovating the existing City Tech buildings.

Basically, the proposed plan shows that there will be no room to build any supertalls or anything else on the site, and that it's unlikely that a supertall will be built on top. The only other land available is the television studio space - that's the empty-looking lot between the proposed tower and the 4-story Gothic building (Westinghouse High School). Of course, along with Westinghouse High, the television studio is also Department of Education property, so good luck wresting that land out of the city's hands.

some sort of plan is still in the works for that area. i go to school at NYU Poly (right next to this project) and we're clearing our building on the corner of Jay St and Johnson St for a future development. I was told that the building has several hundreds of thousands of sq ft for development.

They're going to knock down the Jacobs Building? Bummer - I kinda liked it. But Polytechnic has already either knocked down part of it or added a modern annex to it, since the entrance to the gym states it's also called the Jacobs Building (so I'll assume they're both connected). So I'm not surprised that they're planning what they're planning.

[Crawford]

These are two different sites we're talking about.

The City Tech bldg. isn't the same site as the original Ratner proposal, and the air rights remain. City Tech announced they would build for now since they already had funding from DASNY (the State university funding authority) and wait to sell the air rights until the economy recovers.

The Poly-NYU site is separate and also has considerable air rights.

So many years from now, you will probably see highrises on both university campuses, but who knows about the timetable.

[dchan]

These are two different sites we're talking about.

The City Tech bldg. isn't the same site as the original Ratner proposal, and the air rights remain. City Tech announced they would build for now since they already had funding from DASNY (the State university funding authority) and wait to sell the air rights until the economy recovers.


Where is the original Ratner proposal site located?

[Roadcruiser1]

Jay & Tillary Streets Brooklyn Ny.

[dchan]

Jay & Tillary Streets Brooklyn Ny.

Yes, I know that.

I think Crawford is referring to the fact that the whole Klitgord Building site was originally to be split into two sites - the Academic site (next to Johnson St.), and the Residential Tower site (next to Tillary Ave.). According to this proposal, the residential tower site is to be preserved for the future, when general economic prosperity will allow a developer to build on that site.

However, I am still under the impression that any supertall tower proposals, even future potential ones, are completely dead, and that the proposed Academic site is to now take up the whole Klitgord site. I will see which one of these proposals is the correct one tomorrow.

[Roadcruiser1]

I understand. If I was an architect, and I do want to be one, and spend extra time in college to also get a master in engineering I would be looking at that site as an area for a 1,000-1,100 ft tall residential skyscraper.

[dchan]

I have confirmation that the New Academic Building will take up the whole Klitgord site as well as the television studio behind it, which was previously owned by the Department of Education but is now in CUNY/DASNY hands. That means that the original Ratner residential tower site is also going to be taken up by the academic building.

Unless CUNY/DASNY is planning sell their air rights and allow a developer to build a skyscraper directly on top of the academic building in the future, I don't see any skyscraper being built on the site in the near or far future.

[HomrQT]

Brooklyn needed this....

Yes it did/does. Brookyln needs to step up and put up some really tall buildings!