NEW YORK | 30 Park Place (99 Church St) | 937 FT / 285 M | 82 FLOORS

[CoolCzech]

Originally Posted by NYguy

Mr. Silverstein expressed concern about the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's decision to reduce plans for the Fulton Street Transit Center, to be constructed just blocks from 99 Church St.

"There is not a question in my mind the Broadway-Fulton stop needs a complete and total rebuilding, and we all need to work assiduously as we can with MTA to make sure that that project goes forward. It is terribly important to the region," he said.

Well, maybe Silverstein should buy the Fulton station lot and be the one to build a combination MTA station/900 foot tower on it...

[CoolCzech]

I think the limestone facade will be a nice foil for glass facades of the WTC towers, while the height of the thing will make harmonize with them. Great tower for that exact spot - couldn't be done better.

[CoolCzech]

Originally Posted by NYguy

That's primarily what it does. Without 99 Church, the Woolworth Building
looks apart from the WTC on the skyline, somewhat distant in relation. But
this tower actually makes the Woolworth more relevant again.

That's why I don't understand the way Dunlap dissed this proposal - saying the Woolworth would never soar the same way again.


*****************

NY luxury tower at ground zero defies soft market
Wed Jan 30, 2008 10:24pm IST
By Joan Gralla

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The developer rebuilding New York's World Trade Center unveiled plans on Tuesday for an 80-story hotel a block away, saying he was unbowed by fears of a recession or a softening of New York's real estate market.

The new 912-foot (278-metre) tower, due to begin construction in June and be completed in 2011, will combine a luxury hotel with apartments. The project was announced as the pace of huge real estate deals has slowed, credit has tightened and Wall Street is still struggling in the swamp of subprime mortgages.

Developer Larry Silverstein referred to "negative trends" in financial markets while announcing the project and answered his own rhetorical questions on whether the Financial District was vulnerable to downturns in the financial markets that have caused vacancies to spike in the past.

"The answer, in a word, is 'no.' In two words, 'Hell no'," said the man who took out a 99-year lease on the World Trade Center six weeks before it was destroyed on September 11, 2001.

Silverstein said his confidence reflected the commitment of elected officials to the World Trade Center's rebuilding, the decision of 184 non-financial companies to relocate downtown, and easy access to the area through public transportation.

Moreover, downtown Manhattan needs more hotel rooms, he said, in part to accommodate visitors to the four very tall buildings he is constructing at the former World Trade Center site, including the Freedom Tower, which at 1,776 feet (541 meters) will be the tallest building in the United States.

Downtown Manhattan "will be ... a model for cities all over the world. Unprecedented, unimaginable, unbeatable," he said.

The new skyscraper will eclipse one of its nearest and most admired neighbors, the historic Woolworth Building, a neo-Gothic classic that stands at 792 feet.

Robert A.M. Stern Architects will design the hotel at 99 Church Street. Silverstein partnered with Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts to run the hotel on the first 22 floors. There will be 143 condominium apartments on the rest of the floors.

The new tower will have 175 hotel rooms, including a 3,700 square foot (344 square meter) suite. The biggest apartments will be 6,500 square feet -- enormous by New York City standards.

Silverstein did not say how much it would cost.

[Lecom]

Originally Posted by CoolCzech

I think the limestone facade will be a nice foil for glass facades of the WTC towers, while the height of the thing will make harmonize with them. Great tower for that exact spot - couldn't be done better.

Agreed.

[Swede]

Originally Posted by CoolCzech

Developer Larry Silverstein referred to "negative trends" in financial markets while announcing the project and answered his own rhetorical questions on whether the Financial District was vulnerable to downturns in the financial markets that have caused vacancies to spike in the past.
"The answer, in a word, is 'no.' In two words, 'Hell no'," said the man who took out a 99-year lease on the World Trade Center six weeks before it was destroyed on September 11, 2001.

The man has a 92-year lease on the WTC and owns the site of the new tower. 92 years is a long time. Seems to me he's taking the long-term view of the risks, and building like this in Downtown Manhattan is not that much of a risk when thinking 90 years ahead.

One thing I'd like to see though is other angles of the model/renderings. How will it look from the ESB or from over in Brooklyn?

[NYguy]

^ Your best shot of a side view...

[Swede]

Hehe, yeah, those are the best side-views so far. Nut how much of a side view are any of them? They're all pretty much the same angle as the renderings.

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by Swede

Hehe, yeah, those are the best side-views so far. Nut how much of a side view are any of them? They're all pretty much the same angle as the renderings.

From what I can make of it, its different, but not a whole lot different. You can get an idea from the site plan:




Closer looks at the model:

[CoolCzech]

The way things are going, one day lower Manhattan will be known as the City that Silverstein Built. He's definitely redefining the look of the place practically single handed.

[CoolCzech]

An 80-story tower is planned at 99 Church Street, above. (Photo: David W. Dunlap/The New York Times)

NYtime.com

January 30, 2008, 5:03 pm
Extolling a New Building’s Virtues, Then and Now
By David W. Dunlap


An 80-story tower is planned at 99 Church Street, above. Enlarge this image. (Photo: David W. Dunlap/The New York Times)The 80-story hotel and apartment tower that Larry A. Silverstein plans at 99 Church Street was described on Tuesday by the Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group, which will handle condominium sales, as a project that would “unquestionably advance the revitalization efforts of downtown.” The architect of the project near ground zero, Robert A. M. Stern, said the tower would “help Lower Manhattan realize its potential.”
Left unsaid at Tuesday’s unveiling was that much the same thing was promised more than a half century ago about the existing 99 Church Street building, which is now being demolished to make way for the Silverstein Properties project.
“The downtown financial district appears to be taking on new life after lagging behind the Midtown sector for several years in new construction and leasing activity,” The New York Times declared on Oct. 23, 1949, in announcing that the Dun & Bradstreet credit reporting agency had completed plans for a new headquarters at 99 Church Street, between Barclay Street and Park Place, directly behind the Woolworth Building.
No less an authority than Mr. Stern himself, who is also a prominent architectural historian, called 99 Church Street “downtown’s first postwar office building of consequence” in “New York 1960” (Monacelli Press, 1995). In fact, he said, it was the largest office building built in Lower Manhattan since the Great Depression.
However, he went on to disparage the “stolid massing” of the 11-story building and its “conservative, stripped-down, limestone-clad facades.” Mr. Stern did not go so far as to liken it to a waffle iron, but he could have. (The architects, Reinhard, Hofmeister & Walquist, took a similar approach at the Chrysler Building East annex of 1952.)
One of the original tenants at 99 Church Street, the Republic Aviation Corporation, boasted to prospective employees in 1951 that the building was “completely air-conditioned” — something of a novelty at the time. Presumably, the new 99 Church new 99 Church Street will be able to make the same claim.

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by CoolCzech

The way things are going, one day lower Manhattan will be known as the City that Silverstein Built. He's definitely redefining the look of the place practically single handed.

That section of Church Street may one day be renamed "Silverstein Way" or "Place" or something...

[STERNyc]

I remember when everybody wanted Silverstein's head. Meanwhile the shortest building he's building will be taller than anything Trump's ever built in NYC.

[Islander]

Originally Posted by STERNyc

I remember when everybody wanted Silverstein's head. Meanwhile the shortest building he's building will be taller than anything Trump's ever built in NYC.

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by STERNyc

I remember when everybody wanted Silverstein's head. Meanwhile the shortest building he's building will be taller than anything Trump's ever built in NYC.

Yeah, that "greedy" Silverstein, who only wants 50-story buildings...

As of now, he's Downtown's biggest booster. And yet, he still has a busy hand in Midtown. Meanwhile, Trump's been relatively quiet while all of the other big players (Related, Vornado, Durst, even Extell) are very busy. Something tells me the scheming Trump is up to something.

[Dac150]

Originally Posted by NYguy

Meanwhile, Trump's been relatively quiet while all of the other big players (Related, Vornado, Durst, even Extell) are very busy. Something tells me the scheming Trump is up to something.

Honestly since TWT, he has in a sense lost his luster for developing in Manhattan. He seems to be focused now on his celebrity and the expansion of his empire on a global basis (putting up buildings in other cities).

I never liked nor still do the Soho development. Trump plainly isn't the same in Manhattan as he was in the mid to late 80's.

[CoolCzech]

Originally Posted by NYguy

Meanwhile, Trump's been relatively quiet while all of the other big players (Related, Vornado, Durst, even Extell) are very busy. Something tells me the scheming Trump is up to something.

He's simply GOTTA be steamed that an 80-something year old frumpy nobody, relatively-speaking, is stealing the limelight away from him with a residentail building TALLER than his tallest one in the City. I will bet ANYTHING that we are only weeks away from an announcement that he will build one as tall as the one in Chicago he's working on now... he just wouldn't be The Donald if he wasn't thinking of announcing something that would instantly overshadow Silverstein.

[Dac150]

^^^^^^^^ Trump has a lot of pride for his 'Trump World Tower', and really loves to say it's the city's tallest residential highrise. I could only hope he kicks it into high gear and plans something even taller for revenge.

[NYguy]

Originally Posted by Dac150

Honestly since TWT, he has in a sense lost his luster for developing in Manhattan. He seems to be focused now on his celebrity and the expansion of his empire on a global basis (putting up buildings in other cities). I never liked nor still do the Soho development. Trump plainly isn't the same in Manhattan as he was in the mid to late 80's.

Well, Ivanka Trump specifically said that the organization was trying to focus more on worldwide developments, even though its still based in New York. But you can't expect a company so involved in real estate development to sit out New York's biggest boom forever. There will be oppurtunities. Just don't be surprised.

[Dac150]

Originally Posted by NYguy

Well, Ivanka Trump specifically said that the organization was trying to focus more on worldwide developments, even though its still based in New York. But you can't expect a company so involved in real estate development to sit out New York's biggest boom forever. There will be oppurtunities. Just don't be surprised.

Very understanding, because if all goes well I'll be doing the same thing. However, whenever the situation comes that Manhattan is in a building boom, it'll be my priority to do what I can to provide the city with as many developments as I can do.

I wouldn't be surprised to see anything come out of them, but what surprises me is that it has yet to come. Perhaps TWT's passing of the torch to 99 Church is just that oppurtunity for something tall on the horizon.

[CoolCzech]

At the moment, New York City is probably the hottest urban real estate market on the planet with respect to skyscrapers. Trump's uncharacteristic silence is becoming deafening.