Trick or Treat?
Mayor Adams Announces “Gansevoort Square”
By Brian J. Pape, AIA, LEED-AP
The Standard Hotel, looking west from Washington Street and Little West 12th Street, shows the railroad tracks of the High Line Park above and below building stories.
During the Halloween festivities, trick or treating, and parade, Mayor Adams issued a press release about the city’s plans to redevelop “Gansevoort Square.” The surprise was announced on Oct. 28, 2024, and as with any new real estate plan, a catchy new name was needed for the tag line. Gansevoort Square is the last vestige of what was once the country’s largest and longest-operating meat market.
“The Gansevoort Market is fortunate to have made our home in the Meatpacking District for nearly a century,” said John Jobbagy, president, Gansevoort Market, Inc. It is now a two-story wholesale facility with trucking docks on three street fronts. “For the last decade, we have been exploring options for new facilities and better ways of serving our customers. This opportunity has come along at the right time.”
This photo of the Standard Hotel on the left, and the Whitney Museum on the right, looking east along Tenth Avenue, bookending the current two story meat packing facilities that will be replaced by a massive new development. All photos: Brian J. Pape, AIA.
The city had made a deal years ago to keep the meatpackers at this historic location, but the commercial pressures have now increased dramatically.
For local residents, when the city says it has “a new vision to transform approximately 66,000 square feet in the heart of the Meatpacking District into a 24/7 live, work, play, and learn community and cultural hub for New Yorkers,” they know that this Meatpacking District is already just that.
This VIEW from Washington Street and Little West 12th Street, shows the railroad tracks of the High Line Park built above building stories of the current meat packing facilities and the tiny Hector’s Café and Diner on the corner, that will be replaced by a massive new development.
Residents also know that this site, located on the block bounded by Gansevoort, Washington, Little West 12th and West streets, is located within the Gansevoort Market State Historic District and National Register Historic District, and adjacent to the NYC Gansevoort Market Historic District, which should offer some restraints on what happens here.
There is also a restrictive declaration on the site from the 19th century, when the land was donated to the city by the Astor family, limiting uses to those for wholesale markets. What happens to all those restrictions? Thanks to the Village Preservation (VP) newsletters, we got an early peak at what is afoot.
According to the press release, the total 66,000-square-foot site at “Gansevoort Square” will be developed into 600 mixed-income housing units, a massive new open pavilion, and the city’s next cultural and artistic hub. The city anticipates that this will include as many as 300 affordable units, without the need for any public subsidy. A new, 11,200-square-foot public open space is scoped.
“The Whitney Museum is engaged in promising talks with the city and Friends of the High Line about a unique opportunity to expand onto a neighboring city-owned site, which would allow us to better serve artists and audiences from New York and around the world,” said Scott Rothkopf, Alice Pratt Brown director, Whitney Museum of American Art. The museum has a Right-of-First-Offer on the former Meat Market site, possibly for new gallery, education, and learning spaces, as well as new High Line Park facilities, for up to 45,000 square feet of space.
“This project is yet another example of the kind of innovative approach we need more of to successfully address the affordable housing crisis,” said Jolie Milstein, president and CEO, New York State Association for Affordable Housing.
“The New York Housing Conference commends the Adams administration for requiring affordable housing in the redevelopment of this mixed-use site,” said Rachel Fee, executive director, New York Housing Conference.
But why limit it to 50% of the units? Why not all affordable units?
Since the city will need to go through multiple public hearing and approval processes to achieve what has been so far described, Village Preservation has already written to the city, stressing the need for appropriate scale, design, massing, materials, and all other public-facing features, which too often we see public agencies seeking to sidestep or ignore these required historic preservation review processes. VP has offered the example of another city-owned tract at 388 Hudson Street at Clarkson Street, where the city ignored overwhelming community testimony for a moderate-sized permanently-affordable housing tower, instead pushing its own agenda for an overscaled tower by private developers without permanent affordability protections.
Originally, the Central Railroad viaduct was built through and into the upper level of the industrial buildings there. Westbeth Artists Housing in the former Bell Labs headquarters, ca. 1868, still has the pair of railroad tracks inside the east end of their building. Just to the north, the Standard Hotel set the standard for new developments under and over the High Line Park.
To accommodate 600 housing units and all the other spaces noted, this will need to be a massive structure, probably building over the High Line Park as well as under it, just as previous precedents show.
This is an opportunity for great things or for another “trick or treat” deal with private developers. What will it be?
Brian J. Pape is a citizen architect LEED-AP “Green” certified, a co-chair of the American Institute of Architects NY Design for Aging Committee, and member of Historic Buildings, Housing, and PassiveHaus Committees. He is appointed to the Waterfront Code Committee for the NYC Building Codes. He serves on the Manhattan District 2 Community Board, the Executive Committee and the Landmarks Committee.
