Followup: Essex Crossing’s First Four Buildings

On Wednesday evening, we published the first renderings of Essex Crossing, the large residential and commercial project set to break ground along Delancey Street later this year. Developers and architects went before Community Board 3’s land use committee that night to outline plans for the first phase of construction. While Delancey Street Associates released selected renderings to news organizations, the CB3 presentation included some additional images that help illustrate their design concepts. This story serves as a supplement to Wednesday’s report, so read that post first if you haven’t checked it out already. Apologies in advance for the quality of some of these images; we snapped photos directly from the powerpoint.

Let’s start with a project overview. The first phase includes sites 1, 2, 5 and 6. In total, Essex Crossing covers nine parcels and will create 1,000 apartments and about 650,000 sq. ft. of commercial space. It’s important to note that the development team was required to follow a very specific plan — the result of a painstaking three-year process that included a lot of give and take between a Community Board 3 task force and city planners.

CB3 approved guidelines for the project in 2011 that, among other points, required multiple architects. This was meant to ensure that each building offered its own distinctive design. From the outset, city planners were intent on using the former Seward Park urban renewal site to “stitch back together” a neighborhood that, in their view, had become an urban design mess. Essex Crossing’s four architectural teams were charged with creating buildings to “bridge” the old tenement aesthetic to the north with the hulking, mid-century co-ops and public housing that had been constructed to the south.

Site 2, at the southeast intersection of Delancey and Essex streets, is considered the gateway to the entire project. It will be home to a new Essex Street Market (remember that the current market remains open for business throughout construction). It will also include a 14-screen Regal movie theater, a rooftop farm and 195 rental apartments.

In his presentation, Frank Fusaro of Handel Architects explained that the Essex Street Market would occupy the ground floor and feature a grand, glass enclosed mezzanine along Broome Street. The ceiling will follow the angled floor of the movie theaters on the next level. An urban farm (to be operated by a still-to-be-named organization) will be built above the theaters and will be accessed by the public from elevators located on Broome.

One design challenge entailed coming up with an interesting facade for the movie theater, since it can’t have windows. Handel created a series of folded, two-tone metal panels, which are intended to reflect sunlight. Materials used on and surrounding the apartment windows are designed to create a cohesive feel from one section of the building to another.  A big picture window on Delancey will offer views of people circulating through the theater, just as movie-goers watch what’s happening at street-level.  The theater and residential entrances will be side-by-side on Delancey Street.

Now across Essex Street to site 2, where the Andy Warhol Annex, a bowling alley/nightlife complex and 55 condominium apartments will be located:

The L-shaped parcel, currently a public parking lot, is tricky because it wraps around a building, 75 Essex St., not currently held by the city or the developers. Shalom Eisner, the property owner of the former Good Samaritan/Eastern District Dispensary building, would like to sell it, but Delancey Street Associates is not interested at Eisner’s price. The museum will have frontages on both Essex and Ludlow streets, while the residential section of the building will be situated to the south, bordering Ludlow. Dana Getman of SHoP Architects said the idea is to create a relationship between the museum and the Essex Market across the street. The galleries will be visible from the market space. There’s also a rooftop sculpture garden on the Ludlow Street side. Getman showed a slide illustrating SHoP’s attempt to draw inspiration from the tenement architecture in the surrounding area. Ground floor windows offer a lot of visibility, while apartment windows on the upper floors include design features reminiscent of the tenement aesthetic.

On to Site 5, located between Grand and Broome Street at Clinton Street:

The renderings released by the development team showed only the Broome Street side of the building, which is adjacent to a future 15,000 sq. ft. public park. In the rendering below you can see the Grand Street facade, which will face the Seward Park Co-op.  There will be a wall of windows on the first two levels, providing visibility for retail businesses. The tallest portion of the building, you’ll notice, is set back from Grand. The residential entrance will be on Broome. Richard Metsky of Beyer Blinder Belle explained that efforts had been made to draw connections between the building and the park, with the inclusion of landscaping along the facade and large windows looking into the building lobby.

Finally, site 6, located diagonally across from site 5:

Daniel Heuberger of Dattner Architects said the building’s design was heavily influenced by the fact that it’s a senior rental property. Keeping in mind that many residents will be spending a lot of time in their apartments, all of the units face either north or south and will feature abundant sunlight. Residents will also be provided with a landscaped roof deck. A separate roof deck will be set aside for use by Grand Street Settlement, which will be running a variety of programming from the building. Entrances for the settlement house and for a yet-to-be-named health clinic will be on Delancey Street (some residents questioned the wisdom of that decision the other night).

Still to come: A look at the developers’ decision not to build any underground parking as part of Essex Crossing.

There’s another opportunity this month to attend a project briefing. Here’s the description of the event from Delancey Street Associates:

You will have the opportunity to:

>Meet key members of the Delancey Street Associates team, the developers of Essex Crossing (SPURA).
>Get an update on the project timeline.
>See building renderings for the first phase of the project.
>Hear from the architects about design selections.

The meeting will be held at Grand Street Settlement’s Community Room/Grand Cafe.

January 28th at 6pm
Grand Street Settlement – Community Room/Cafe
80 Pitt Street, New York, NY 10002