The Gansevoort Meat Market Skyscraper
By Roger Paradiso
GANSEVOORT SQUARE without the Tower. Photo by Roger Paradiso.
The city of New York, especially the borough of Manhattan, has to put a moratorium on the building of “skyscrapers.”
They look interesting from miles away, but life in the vortex is another story. The talk of building a large “scraper” in the Meatpacking District of Greenwich Village is the subject of great concern to many. They feel that the real estate lobby will continue to mow down our low-density areas with these monsters who block the sun. People love the Village, Soho, Tribeca and the Lower East Side the way it is. There is light. There are no swarms of people rushing into and out of these buildings all day. This is the other real congestion we see on the sidewalks of New York.
“Today the only space left in Manhattan is vertical. And it still isn’t the depth to bedrock that prevents high-rises in the belt between Downtown and Midtown. Now it’s zoning and protected historical districts.”
– JSTOR Daily
Skyscrapers should be the ones paying for their own congestion pricing with their massive issues. They create their own congestion with masses of pedestrians on our streets. Skyscrapers also put other demands on our infrastructure. Why not congestion price them?
Before they build anymore of these skyscrapers, they need to really think about the blocking of light, the wind tunnels, the infrastructure demands and the pedestrians congesting our sidewalks and cross walks. Is it attractive? Is it the way many of our residents would like to live? Do they prefer the low-level townhouses and brownstones? And the tallest apartment buildings are reasonably spread out and the height kept in scale to the neighborhoods.
Why are the real estate lobby and developers trying to move in on the Meatpacking District? Do they see another vein of gold downtown? And they want to build another “scraper” to make money?
I support the plan offered below by Village Preservation. I would add my own thoughts on this building being part of an arts district and employing a structure like Manhattan Plaza in the theater district.
Artists would be the main occupants of this subsidized living apartment building. And the entire Meatpacking District would be an arts center.
“Village Preservation is demanding that all luxury, market-rate units be removed from this project on public land, which would reduce the size of the tower by at least 50-75%, and that the “affordable” housing be guaranteed to remain permanently affordable. This project must go through a full rezoning process and requires approval by the City Council, where its final contours will be decided.”
According to Wikipedia, the Meatpacking District of Gansevoort is a New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) site which was established as the Gansevoort Market Historic District. In 2007 New York State Parks Commissioner Carol Ash approved adding the entire Meatpacking District, the New York State and National Registers of Historic Places.
Contact Village Preservation at villagepreservation.org/campaign/gansevoort-square to keep development in the Village area in check.
