Residents Rail Against Current MoMA Skyscraper Plans
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A planned 75-story residential skyscraper connected to the Museum of Modern Art seems headed for a fight with area residents, who claim the Jean Nouvel-designed tower would be dramatically out of scale with the surrounding neighborhood.
The proposed condo and hotel tower at 53 West 53rd Street, which would rise next door to and contain 50,000 square feet of added space for the museum, was hailed by New York Times’ architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff as “the most exhilarating addition to the skyline in a generation.”
Given a complex set of air-rights transfers, the developers of the tower, Hines, would need a set of public approvals, starting with the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission, and ultimately the City Planning Commission and the City Council.
A Community Board 5 committee, which has an advisory role, unanimously voted against the development rights transfers last week, and the full board votes Thursday.
“The scale is just totally inappropriate in a low-rise area,” said RitaSue Siegel, vice president of a block association by the site.
42 Jane Street
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RitaSue Siegel: out of scale?! Are you on drugs? It's Midtown! If you can't build tall buildings in Midtown, where are you supposed to build them? This Nouvel design is an exhilarating proposal for the New York City skyline. The residents of East 53rd Street need to be reminded that they live in a densely populated art and design capital of the world, not in Seaside, Florida--rather than another blocky, nondescript tower, architecture in New York should be daring, provocative, and inspiring.
RitaSue Siegel.
Your viewpoint towards this innovative proposal lacks criticality and it is a design that is desperately needed to establish global cultural attention and provide a fitting landmark that will as a consequence infuse this and other parcels with progressive capacities beyond mindless facades that violate senses and undermine confidence in New York City and the iconic. To project 75 stories as 'completely out of scale' is completely without basis in midtown Manhattan. Additionally as per regulations of setback requirements within the zoning for this parcel, the shape and form of the proposal adheres to these regulations and, I reiterate, in a profoundly compelling design. The citizens of New York and the potential infusion of interested minds globally that provide stimulation for economic growth, cultural awareness and stimulation urge you to reconsider your premature accusations.
Seriously, if this was Dubai, this beauty would be halfway to the sky by now.
Please sign my petition to fast track and build the MOMA Spire. Its time we show these mindless NIMBY's that they are in the minority, true New Yorkers want to see this landmark built and add to our storied skyline.
http://www.petitiononline.com/53West53/petition.html
MoMA had two major zoning changes, the first to build the Museum Tower which they then said was all that was needed. The civic world - other than MAS - was against that rezoning, fearing for the precedent which turned out to be prescient. In addition to the next zoning change, to gain control of the mid-block, the museum had the City use its power of eminent domain to take down a popular hotel on W 54th. That is part of the proposed Jean Nouvel-designed tower's footprint, is it not? Do the taxpayers get a refund? MoMA acquired the lot west of the American Museum of Folk Art to make that institution's expansion difficult & drive them off the block. They failed with the latter but limited AFAM's exhibit space. Which institution has the more stunning building? MoMA's PS1 affiliation plugged it into the city's capital budget - including sucking $60 million from the Queens Central Library expansion in Jamaica. That is the flagship of the nation's highest circulation public library system. The silence in the cultural community has been deafening. Finally, the proposed MoMA spire would tower of the landmarked Eero Saarinen-designed CBS headquarters, a real gem. Why is that OK?
Please, no more cheap glass towers in New York City!
I live a block away from where the MOMA tower will be built. I understand that I live in midtown where skyscraper construction should not be seen as unwarranted. However, once above 50th street this area starts to become very residential. And please forgive me if my perspective is slightly skewed, but I cannot see how the construction of another glassy high rise will alter our cultural position in the world. If anything I think it defaces the credibility of the MOMA which as a museum should be promoting education and public funding rather than building overly extravagant luxury condos.
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Build it! Insanse comment that above 50Th Street this area or any part of MidTown becomes residential. Well maybe not insane but residential in a Skyscraper sort of way. The Time Warner complex, two building at 750 feet tall are on 60th and 8th.
Take a walk north on almost any Avenue of Midtown and at least till 59th street there are major skyscrapers over 600 feet tall including residential towers.
I suggest many of these detractors of any development in New York City contemplate what effect they actually have. Why not just rip up and destroy every piece of open land (farm/forest/etc) and just extend the suburbs and exurbs. New York City is for people and lots of them and it should go high.