Excavation is underway at 133 Greenwich Street, which will soon become a 30-story Marriott Courtyard. The project’s architect is Danny Forster Design Studio, and the developer is Hidrock Realty LLC; the site is located adjacent to the World Trade Center.
133 Greenwich Street — image from Danny Forster Design Studio
New renderings of the tower’s planned design are also online, and the overall scheme echoes the nearby 150 Greenwich Street, in a miniaturized form. The building creatively uses its air rights, and in a cue that other architects should take, 133 Greenwich Street utilizes an extruded screen to conform to the street-wall along its lower levels, which ensures its envelope meets zoning requirements.
133 Greenwich Street — image from Danny Forster Design Studio
This minimizes the floor-plates of the podium levels, allowing the tower to shift its mass upwards. DOB diagrams indicate the building’s height will be 356 feet.
133 Greenwich Street — image from Danny Forster Design Studio
Besides the innovative arrangement of interior square footage, the design’s similarity to 150 Greenwich Street will aesthetically integrate the tower into its surroundings. Across the street, work is about to begin on 22 Thames Street, which will be another glassy skyscraper; the vicinity’s oft-dilapidated pre-war stock is rapidly modernizing, and the imminent opening of the entire World Trade Center complex will likely spur additional development.
Completion of 133 Greenwich Street is expected in the fall of 2015.
The new Marriott Courtyard coming to 133 Greenwich Street is quickly rising, and the tower — designed by architect Danny Forster — is already at its fifth floor. Located directly across the street from the World Trade Center, the building will eventually stand 30 stories and 356 feet tall.
The area surrounding the World Trade Center will see rapid changes over the coming decade, as infill development sparked by the site’s re-opening should yield improvements to the neighborhood, which remains mostly deserted at night. Luckily this is starting to change, and several hotels have opened nearby in recent years, including the world’s tallest Holiday Inn at 99 Washington Street.
133 Greenwich Street and 150 Greenwich, aka 4 World Trade Center
Still, the trend in the vicinity is towards residential development, as it emerges as a place to both live and work. With access to nearly every subway line, including the PATH, the Financial District’s transit infrastructure could easily support apartment buildings with floor areas far greater than currently allowed. In fact, office to residential conversions can actually surpass the FAR limit on new construction, as the structures were pre-existing, showing there is no harm in denser and larger apartment buildings.
While residential is now the highest and best use across most of the Financial District, the zoning at 133 Greenwich Street is not all that generous, and owner Hidrock Realty opted for commercial development. Despite excellent access to nearly every subway line, the new hotel’s total FAR will only measure 13, with the structure spanning 133,000 square feet.
Danny Forster’s design for the project is nevertheless attractive, and uses several aesthetic tricks to conform to the zoning code. The end result will vastly improve a corner of the Financial District that has long been forlorn, though pedestrians will have to wait until 125 Greenwich is completed before unfettered access is possible, as that site is directly across the street.
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