Honoring the Gansevoort Market

By Brian J Pape, AIA, LEED-AP

The “Gansevoort Square” proposal by the City of New York has been a hot topic in the news lately. A 60-story, 600’ supertall residential tower has been offered up as a way to maximize the site for new development, along with expansion potential for the Whitney Museum of American Art on the same block as the current Whitney. The current zoning for the site doesn’t allow the development contemplated for the city-owned Gansevoort Meat Market Center, which is south of Little West 12th Street between Washington and West Streets, north of the Whitney Museum, and it is on the State and National Registers of Historic Places.  The tallest existing buildings in Greenwich Village are 31 stories tall, at 505 LaGuardia Place and 60 East 8th Street, aka Georgetown Plaza, both quite far from this location.

By looking at the history of this block, perhaps we can see a way to honor that history while still utilizing the site for new functions.

A history of the Greenwich Village usually emphasizes the Native American lands and hunting grounds that were gradually superseded by colonialist farmers in the 1600s, after the Dutch had established an outpost at the southern tip of the island, as described in brief Wikipedia entries. A smallpox outbreak in the 1700s led many New York City residents to flee the bustling city for the healthier environs further north in the small country Village. By the time the city commissioners set about to map a grid of streets for the expanding city in 1811, streets, wharfs and piers extended up to Fort Gansevoort, and almost to a not-yet existent 14th Street. Washington Street ended at the shoreline just below Bank Street (there was no West Street yet).

A yellow fever epidemic in 1822 caused a rapid increase in population for Greenwich Village as it was still a healthier place than the crowded city below, and by 1850 the Village was encompassed by the expanding, unifying New York City development. Also by mid-century, with Fort Gansevoort replaced by freight yards of the Hudson River Railroad, a neighborhood developed which was part heavy industry and part residential – a pattern which was more typical of an earlier period in the city’s history- and the continued internal industrialization, land fill and pier extensions into the Hudson River increased. An elevated railroad line had been constructed through the neighborhood along Ninth Avenue and Greenwich Street, completed in 1869. On the old freight yards, the Gansevoort Market (originally the “Farmer’s Market”), an open-air space for the buying and selling of regional produce started in 1879, and the West Washington Market, 10 brick buildings used for meat, poultry and dairy transactions, relocated to the river side of West Street in 1884.

After decades of increased freight traffic and debate, the High Line elevated freight line was authorized in 1929 as part of the “West Side Improvement Plan,” and the New York Central Railroad completed construction, passing through the neighborhood in 1934. The area’s decline began around the 1960s as part of the general decline of the waterfront area. But with the decline and beginning in the late 1990s, the Meatpacking District went through a transformation. In 2004, New York magazine called the Meatpacking District “New York’s most fashionable neighborhood.” A catalyst for even greater transformation of the area was the opening in June 2009 of the first segment of the High Line linear park. Tourists and locals flocked to the new park.

The Whitney Museum built a new home, designed by Renzo Piano at 99 Gansevoort Street just west of Washington Street adjacent to the southernmost entrance to the High Line which opened May 1, 2015.

Shortly after the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) was established in 1965, the LPC designated the Greenwich Village Historic District in 1969. Decades later the Gansevoort Market Historic District was designated with its cobblestone streets, warehouses and row houses. About 70 percent of the 140 buildings on 11 blocks area proposed was designated a historic district by the LPC in 2003, while the entire area, which included the neighborhood’s waterfront, was listed on the State and National Registers of Historic Places in 2007. Far West Village Rezoning, approved in 2005, was the first downzoning in Manhattan in many years, putting in place new height caps, thus ending construction of high-rise waterfront towers in much of the Village and encouraging the reuse of existing buildings.

The city’s distinctive Meatpacking District is already a 24/7 live, work, play, and learn community and cultural hub (just ask anyone who lives there), and the Gansevoort Square is approximately 66,000 square feet of land area with under-developed two-story buildings. When city officials talk about “transforming our central business districts,” you know that they don’t understand what this neighborhood is already (a 24/7 live, work, play, and learn community and cultural hub) and what it is not (not a central business district).

To truly integrate new development into the neighborhood, the various uses must also be integrated with one another, such as providing residential above cultural and commercial spaces, surrounding an open air courtyard for shared activities. To separate these uses is counterintuitive and forces such out-of-scale towers as the one proposed. An example of an integrated development can be seen at MOMA, although the scale here must match our neighborhood, not midtown’s towers. The city claims to want more affordable housing in all parts of the city, but when given the opportunity on city-owned land, they choose luxury towers.

It will take a concerted effort in the upcoming community engagement process with Councilmember Bottcher, Community Board 2, and local partners, to keep this development from ruining a cherished part of our city. Let common sense prevail over greed and hubris. 

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City Defies Public Outcry, Pushes 600-Foot Luxury Tower in Meatpacking District

By Village Preservation

Last month the City issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) to developers to build a 60 story, 600- ft.-tall, 600-unit apartment tower on public land at Little West 12th and West Streets in the Meatpacking District. The tower would contain up to 75% or more super-luxury housing. The move completely ignores the overwhelming majority of public input during the city’s rushed “public engagement” process, which resulted in zero changes to their plan.

Any developer and plan selected by the City will have to go through a full rezoning and public review process that includes approval by the City Council, for which the local Councilmember (currently Eric Bottcher) will be key. Councilmember Bottcher issued a statement on X saying that the proposed tower is too tall for the neighborhood, while Assemblymember Deborah Glick sent this letter to city officials. Borough President Mark Levine, who will eventually have to vote on the plan, issued a statement that doesn’t address the height of the building or the inclusion of super-luxury units on public land. State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal and Congressmember Dan Goldman have thus far not made any public statements on the proposal or their positions on it.

Here’s a few quick fact checks about the planned tower:

Height: It would be far and away the tallest building ever constructed in Greenwich Village or the Meatpacking District, about double the height of its nearest rival, and two-and-a-half times the height of the nearby Standard Hotel. It would be nearly 15 times the height of the average Meatpacking District building and nearly 10 times the height of the average Manhattan building.

Density: It would be one of the densest buildings ever constructed in New York. The floor area ratio (a measure of density for buildings) would be almost 20 times the average Meatpacking District building, 15 times that of nearby Westbeth, seven-and-a-half times that of 2 Fifth Avenue, and twice the density of the Empire State Building.

Affordability: Only 25% of the units are required to be “affordable,” though the City hopes a developer will come back with a proposal to make more of them affordable. So 75% of the units can be extremely expensive ultra-luxury apartments that may serve as pieds-a-terre. But because the luxury units can be larger than the “affordable” ones, they may occupy more than 75% of the tower. And while the so-called affordable units will be cheaper, they are only required to be affordable to households whose income levels are actually higher than the majority of NYC renters, making the “affordability” quite modest at best.

Village Preservation has called for removing all luxury units from the project, guaranteeing permanent affordability for what remains, and reducing the size of the tower by 50-75%, and we will continue to fight for this outcome. The ultimate arbiter here will end up being the NYC Council when a rezoning proposal is filed.