Rendering via Marvel Architects
Despite a recently-announced target date to begin the clean-up of the Gowanus Canal, and as potential neighborhood rezoning moves forward, progress on the sizeable development known as Gowanus Green has seemingly hit another wall after being a twinkle in the city's eyes for more than a decade. While site remediation work has finally begun, nearly 12 years after being publicly announced, the project still does not have an exact timeline or completion date.
The development team comprises of the New York City Housing and Preservation Department with the real estate firms of The Hudson Companies, Jonathan Rose Companies, Bluestone Organization, and the Fifth Avenue Companies. The six-acre site lies at the corner of Smith and 5th Streets and formerly held a gas plant. Plans for its revitalization call for a multi-building mixed-use development, a public school, and a new green space.
The development team comprises of the New York City Housing and Preservation Department with the real estate firms of The Hudson Companies, Jonathan Rose Companies, Bluestone Organization, and the Fifth Avenue Companies. The six-acre site lies at the corner of Smith and 5th Streets and formerly held a gas plant. Plans for its revitalization call for a multi-building mixed-use development, a public school, and a new green space.
The Smith-9th Street subway station is just to the south and an elevated portion of the line wraps the sizeable lot. Nearby are the Lightstone Group-developed rentals at 363 and 365 Bond Street and the adaptive-reuse of the Central Power Station ("the Batcave") into a cultural complex anchored by Powerhouse Arts.
Gowanus Green site as of January 2020 (CityRealty)
Marvel Architects and SCAPE Landscape Architecture have been selected for the design. An approved plan envisions buildings ranging from a five-story school to a 28-story tower. The total count of residential units has been upped from 774 to 950. Additionally, the project aims to seek LEED certification with the use of sustainable materials, energy-efficient systems, and an advanced stormwater management system.
Massing via NYC Housing Preservation and Development
Landscape site plan via NYC Housing Preservation and Development
Rendering via NYC Housing Preservation and Development
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Affordable housing has always been a key part of the plan, and residents have been curious as to how the units would be divided and how much they would cost. As of this writing, 74 percent of the units are planned to be below market rate and open to residents earning 30 to 120 percent of the area median income. Some hoped for a 100 percent affordable project, but representatives of the development team hinted that market-rate units would “cross-subsidize” the affordable apartments.
Residents did not think highly of that argument, or indeed much about the project, as a recent community board meeting showed. Many widely expected that the site would become a park, and the planned 1.5-acre public park is not enough to appease them. Others are concerned that the contaminated coal tar on the site goes well beyond the reach of excavation, and thus renders it unsuitable for a school. Still others pleaded, “Don’t wreck our neighborhood” at the sight of the towering new buildings planned for a traditionally low-rise area.
These concerns come on top of rezoning worries that include gentrification, sustainability, and the preservation of existing NYCHA housing. Gowanus Green is the only city-owned site within the rezoning, which will create more than 8,000 new housing units in a more resilient and sustainable area. The Environmental Protection Agency issued a formal order for the Gowanus Canal cleanup in late January, and the first phase is set to begin in September 2020.
Gowanus Green site to the right
Regardless of the pace and direction that Gowanus Green will take in the coming years, the up-and-coming neighborhood progress does not wait for laggards. In the wake of a recent rezoning at adjacent Park Slope, numerous large residential projects are already complete or well in progress, particularly on and around Fourth Avenue. ODA Architecture’s 251 First was recently finished at the corner of Fourth Avenue and First Street, two blocks away from the canal’s Fourth Street Basin. A few blocks north, the 12-story, arch-windowed Parlour nears completion at 243 Fourth Avenue. LUNA, another arch-windowed condo, also nears completion further south, close to the brand new, ten-story Bentyn condo at 488 Fourth Avenue. In the meantime, the city is planning to expand the bike lanes along Fourth Avenue. Given the influx of new residents, the park and school proposed as part of Gowanus Green can’t come a moment too soon, while the shops and apartment buildings will add vitality to the canal’s west bank.
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