Yesterday
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200 Amsterdam continues to rise despite holdings that the permit was unlawfully issued. It’s surprising that an appeal hasn’t been taken. In any case here are a couple of images just taken. As I noted a while back the corners are nice but the rest is mediocre. I also saw today that, thankfully, the blank cement wall in the rear facing a school playground is being covered with fake glass—mediocre like most of the rest of the building but a heck of a lot better than cement. Couldn’t get a decent picture because of trees and the lock on the playground during school hours.
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Great shot! It’s the first one that I’ve seen that gives some indication of how the building will impact the skyline. Thank goodness we know – thanks to @chused – that the concrete wall will be covered in glass!
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Full speed ahead! Glorious addition to the UWS.
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BSA has reaffirmed its prior decision to uphold the building permit despite strong hints from courts to withdraw it. See the Westside Rag story linked here. Back to court we go.
See:Board of Standards and Appeals Upholds 200 Amsterdam’s Building Permit; ‘This is de Blasio’s BSA’ – West Side Rag
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When are the wealthy NIMBYs and pandering politicians going to be held legally responsible for their harassing, baseless lawsuits? That’s the takeaway. No building is allowed to go up on the UWS without first enduring endless frivolous lawsuits and embarrassing politicking from the cynical political machine. Pathetic and sad.
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Crawdad: The issues here are by no means so easy. I know your tendency to pan anyone who questions development on the UWS or elsewhere. But sometimes life is more complicated; and I think this case is one of those. While I question the propriety of this building permit there are many other projects that are perfectly legit. Painting with a broad brush almost always gets some answers wrong. Thanks.
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^ True -
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There was a long article in today’s New York Times about the city’s changing skyline that included stuff on 200 Amsterdam. They reprinted a map of the zoning lot assembled for this building. On its face you can get an inkling of why it raises zoning problems.
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No, the issues are easy. Rich folks don’t want their views blocked, and politicians pander to this crowd. The fact that every single new UWS tower gets lawsuits, and all these lawsuits are dismissed, confirms this. If it were really so “complex”, then extremely liberal (and NIMBY friendly) judges wouldn’t be tossing these suits. If it were really so “complex” then extremely liberal (and NIMBY friendly) city agencies wouldn’t be repeatedly approving these projects.
I can already tell you which upcoming towers will receive lawsuits. I can think of two sites near Lincoln Center that guaranteed will have litigation in upcoming years, not because there are “complex zoning issues” but because the towers will be tall and will piss off existing rich/influential residents (who also live in very tall towers with similar “zoning complexity”). No doubt there are already $500 an hour attorneys feverishly looking to find 50-year old scraps of papers to fruitlessly argue that a given site can only hold a 3-floor building.
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Most court protests are dismissed. But this one was not. It was remanded to take another look at the zoning lot under language suggesting the permit should be withdrawn. So it is not totally clear what will happen here when it heads back to court. The utility floor height issue is yet to be fully played out in court in disputes over a couple of other buildings. That issue also is a bit up for grabs. Though you and others argue that too many claims are filed some have potential merit. And the 200 Amsterdam claim is one of them. In addition the zoning lot rules have been modified in ways that probably make future 200 Amsterdams unlikely. And the city council recently placed utility floor height limits on new buildings. I don’t know what if anything that will do with projects under construction.
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