Future Long Island City skyline with 29-37 51st Avenue towards the left (CityRealty)
If you believed rumors predicting a glut of Long Island City apartments would slow down developers, you thought wrong. The Durst Organization, builder of VIA 57 West and the BofA Tower, is pressing ahead with their nearly 1-million-square-foot rental skyscraper buffering the Queens Plaza transit hub.
Renderings of the monumental tower have yet to surface, but city filings tell us the building will stand 63 floors, 721 feet high to the top of its highest occupiable level. A recent pass by the site via the elevated N train shows that crews are beginning to shore up the foundation, and earth movers, boring equipment, and excavators are scattered across the site.
Renderings of the monumental tower have yet to surface, but city filings tell us the building will stand 63 floors, 721 feet high to the top of its highest occupiable level. A recent pass by the site via the elevated N train shows that crews are beginning to shore up the foundation, and earth movers, boring equipment, and excavators are scattered across the site.
Construction progress as of mid-November
Previously called Queens Plaza Park, the project is addressed at 29-37 41st Avenue; the U-shaped lot wraps around Queens’ former tallest building, the 90-year-old Manhattan Bank Building affectionately known as the Clock Tower. Durst acquired the property last year from the Property Markets Group and Hakim Organization for $173.5 million, according to the New York Times. The previous developers planned a 914-foot-tall building enveloped in glass and filled with both rentals and condos. The Clock Tower, which is now landmarked, was to have been restored and converted into a local tech center.
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Durst’s scheme will have 763 rental apartments inside — making it the largest single residential building in Queens. The tower will usurp both the long-standing Citigroup building at One Court Square, and the recently opened 450-unit rental Tower 28. The incredibly busy firm of Handel Architects are listed as the architects of record. Just Friday, the WSJ reported that the firm is handel-ing (sorry) a pair of towers in Hunters Point South. Handel was also behind the design of the neighboring Aurora rental tower and The View at East Coast which holds the record for priciest condo sale in Queens history.
To the delight of some New Yorkers, LIC still has some authentic grit (CityRealty)
Rounding the arc of Queens Plaza looking west towards Manhattan
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