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Revealed: Three-Towered Plan for East River Plaza, Harlem’s New Tallest Buildings

The three towers would rise atop two podiums placed over the existing mall and parking garage. Previously posted diagrams reveal the tallest of the group will stand 575 feet to its pinnacle, which is certainly tall for Upper Manhattan – taller than 1800 Park Avenue will be, even – but nothing extraordinary for New York City.

Still, the trio of high-rises would dwarf the surrounding tenements and even the public housing farther afield, with even the two shorter buildings clocking in at 515 and 455 feet tall. (The towers are only 47-, 41-, and 32-stories tall, but are boosted an extra 100 or so feet by the mall and transfer decks on which they would be built.)

From up-close, the designs take a more interesting turn. Variegated facades seem to emulate ODA’s work around the city or Herzog & de Meuron’s 56 Leonard. One of the towers would come all the way down to the street at “La Plaza,” which would rework the cobblestone dead-end of East 118th Street into an active public space. Glass cut-outs would be juxtaposed against future displays of public art over the black face of the current mall, integrating art and architecture into a coherent public space.

The project would also include 24,000 square feet of “low-rise” residences (perched 155 feet up, on a podium, and configured in the form of townhomes), plus another 25,000 square feet of amenities and cultural space.

Additionally, while it is difficult to tell in the renderings, the towers will be connected by two skybridges. The West Tower — the tallest of the bunch — will be the anchor, connected to the North Tower by a bridge at an elevation of 245 feet. Its link to the southern tower will be slightly higher up, at 255 feet.

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More Info: http://www.yimbynews.com/2014/11/rev...buildings.html
NOVEMBER 10TH 2014